Milan
 

Easyjet are just announcing a new base at Milan. LTN due to increase to 3 daily in Summer 21 from the current 10 weekly.

With the new Wizz route we will see 5 daily from LTN in Summer 21 to MXP.

Milan Malpensa is already a base...

Thanks for the correction Toledoashley. The base is increasing with the amount of based units for summer 21.

Think Copenhagen and we know how that all ended.

Did easyJet operate Milan MXP at the same time Ryanair had their double-daily to BGY? Or did EZY start it after?

Yes, this has a feeling of another Copenhagen - although there is FR/W6 &EZY on Krakow, Lanzarote and Tenerife.

And a big one with a big maintenance facilities with Lufty Tech.

Looks like the January announced new Wizzair route to Gran Canaria is starting on shedule tomorrow?

I am hearing that there is little social distancing in and around the terminal, especially related to the inbound Wizz passengers.

Flying is safe when I can go to a pub, restaurant, cinema or football match and not have to social distance. Face masks, as we all know are worn for show, not effectiveness.

The staff are as bad as the passengers while the passengers from the eastern nations just don’t get it. If anyone is worried about catching Coronavirus then stay away from Luton.

There is a rumour that airport management has no intention of reducing the hourly terminal capacity to reflect social distancing. Even now passengers bunch up but it will take just a few departures leaving at a similar time in July and August to cause general issues in the departure lounge when all the retail outlets are closed.

What a few of you on this thread need to appreciate is the risk to these ‘eastern’ passengers is AFTER they’ve arrived in Luton...and if this country had got its act together even that would now be low risk.

The total death toll of around 5,500 is about 13% of the UK’s ‘official’ toll, or about 8% of our actual figure. Let that sink in. That is the death toll for all the ‘eastern’ nations combined (excluding Russia) including those Wizz don’t fly from. The population of Ukraine and Poland on their own is about 12 million higher than us. Really quite sobering when you look at it like that.

We have to remember that many Eastern European nations have such low numbers because they closed their borders keeping the virus out while we kept ours open.

The airlines and business leaders that are moaning now about UK quarantine would have moaned even more if we acted like those enlightened nations when U.K. cases were low. New Zealand led the way and is seen as a success but if we were as tough as them and and acted as early as them then the likes of O’Leary would have called it an over reaction. Also New Zealand still has closed borders to keep the virus out which was introduced mid March.

Back to Luton, today there are 3 departures within 40 minutes and in the afternoon 2 departures 10 minutes apart. I would have thought even those departures are risky due to the inability to social distance in the departure lounge but that is nothing compared to sitting on an aircraft.

Australia has had 102 deaths.
Early close of borders, compulsory quarantine in hotels paid by govt cost several billion. Seems like a price worth paying.

Although a recent Qatar flight into Athens, many of the pax being Australians of Greek origin returning for the summer, produced a lot of +ve tests.

Wizz has suggested that many of its UK passengers are holidaymakers despite essential travel only advice from the government. I would think Wizz is hoping that passengers won’t be put off by 14 day quarantines which I would think most will just ignore unless there is early news of £1000 fines.

I am hearing some good news for TUI Engineering at Luton but not so good news for colleagues in Germany!

Wizzairs first flight to Reykjavik-Keflavik for a while, one off or another schedule restarted?

From Wizz air web site June schedule Mon and Fri plus Wed 10th

Not really much of a surprise: https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/news/tr...on-bid-2876719

The council, due to its airport, is holding an emergency budget next month. LBC will be looking to cut council jobs and council services to stave off bankruptcy while at the same time pumping even more money into its airport.

The council still needs to spend an extra £20m for the Development Consent Order and find £124m for the first phase of the road to the location of the second terminal. Seems that the council residents will be paying a high price and there was I thinking the airport was meant to put money into the councils coffers.

Lets not forget the £30m already spent on the DCO and the £225m the council has borrowed to fund the Dart that does not increase the airports existing capacity and does not benefit the councils taxpayers.

As for the existing social services, Luton has already been condemned this year by OFSTED for its appalling children’s social services with its lowest rating and this is before the latest cuts.

I would think Wizz is hoping that passengers won’t be put off by 14 day quarantines

I suspect it would be a longer period than 14 days anyway....

Even if the airport is hoping for a fast recovery with ambitions of passenger flocking back to the airport, news that the likes of all three major low cost carriers are seeking a discount for airport fees, is going to come as like a hole in the head to LBC!

With it looking like some capacity will be becoming available at other London airports, there is likely to be some wriggle room for negotiations.

New York Times - Budget Airlines Put Squeeze on Airports in Coronavirus Cost Drive

Luton seems to have a complicated arrangement due to the airport being run as a concession by an airport operator. In the past it was the council giving rebates to the airport operator who then offered a discount to the airlines to attract new business.

I don’t know who is hurting more, the operator or the council. While the Dart link is still being funded by the council the airport operator has said it was stopping all investments at Luton. The taxiway extension at the 25 end needs the soil from the Dart but was being funded by the operator. The soil has been delivered by the council but will the taxiway now be built by the operator?

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c9076f821b.png
Am I right in thinking this is the first 787-9 to come into Luton

No the -9 has been in before and recently during lockdown too.

Blue Air re-starting ops to Bacau from next week (3pw) then increasing to 5pw from July and onwards. No sign of Bucharest flights yet.

Luton had it's busiest day for biz movements yesterday since March 21st, nothing like it used to be, time will tell if it was a blip due to new 14 day rules.

TUI -9
 

I last see the -9 at LTN about two weeks ago and a -8 a week ago. During the lockdown it was nice to see more wide-body than single aisle aircraft.

Construction update
 

The passenger footbridge over the tracks at Parkway has received its first escalator to the platforms below.
https://i.imgur.com/RHDf6M6.jpg

The photo shows the Dart trackbed. Either side of the bridge can be seen 3 V shapes. These are the approach lights to runway 07
https://i.imgur.com/LYx0bJV.jpg

Taxiway Bravo is being reinstated with the tunnel below.
https://i.imgur.com/DihGjrL.jpg

With the tunnel complete the last section of infilling is taking place by the terminal station entrance.
https://i.imgur.com/RvnZa7Z.jpg

The passenger walkway over the terminal station has now been concreted with the roof supports underneath taken away.
https://i.imgur.com/2yxB9tn.jpg

Lift shafts and stairwells are going in.
https://i.imgur.com/7wupGlX.jpg

I last see the -9 at LTN about two weeks ago and a -8 a week ago. During the lockdown it was nice to see more wide-body than single aisle aircraft.

TUI are fitting the 787-9's in H61 by putting them in at an angle.......wasn't attempted before Covid!

New routes from EasyJet

From Travel Mole:
https://www.travelmole.com/news_feat...ews_id=2043026

Are they not routes already flown, or intending to be flown by Wizz? Next someone will say that easyJet will get financial incentives from the airport to commence routes that are already on offer from Luton?

Further info on new routes from TTG:

"No start date has been set for the new routes, which will compete directly with several existing and previously announced Wizz Air links."
"It comes after Luton-based Wizz announced plans to overtake easyJet as the airport’s largest carrier last summer."
"EasyJet will resume operations at Luton on 1 July this year, flying to 90% of its existing route network, albeit at reduced frequencies."
"For summer 2021, easyJet will fly to Zakynthos seven times a week, and three times a week to Larnaca, Fuerteventura, Las Palmas, Marrakech and Varna."
"Services set to gain frequency include Palma (up from 22 to 28); Faro (up from 18 to 20); Lisbon (up from 20 to 21); Porto, Thessaloniki, Tenerife and Heraklion (up from three to seven); Corfu (up from six to seven); Milan (up from 10 to 21); and Rhodes (up from two to seven)."

Looks like EZY are defending their base against Wizz.

That's 55 additional services weekly, accounting for three or four additional aircraft, unless other routes are cut.

Nowhere to park them comes to mind.

So they have delayed the DCO until 2021 and intend to make a promise to become 'most sustainable airport' by 2040 some 18 years after hoping to get planning permission and many years after it is built. Of course if they can't meet the target they will no doubt put in a planning application to themselves to set it aside with lame excuses. This is happening now with aircraft noise, which they had breached for 2 consecutive years. No problem for the airport operator, as they have put in a planning application to set aside the planning permission, which restricted noise, that will be decided by the airport owner at a Council planning meeting.

Plus all of them fit very nicely with the 'easyJet holidays' plan.

I do suspect a reduction in other routes, if EZY based aircraft remains the same then Luton has done well, remember EZY will be 30 aircraft less in the whole fleet by next year.

That certainly looks like a sensible opinion. LTN has lost virtually all of its IT package business, with the loss of Monarch and retrenchment of TUI. This could be seen as a response to Jet2's growth at STN, or perhaps a pre-emptive move to stop them considering LTN in the future.