I assume you are talking about LADACAN then where spokesman have Harpenden & Hitchin contact details.

Nice to see a Luxair DHC-8 again diverted from LCY, STN took a few as well. SEN once again could not help and in fact couldn't, had it's own scheduled EZY go to LGW for more fuel.

No it is Friends of Wigmore Park. They have a strong anti airport expansion mandate. To join would-be members have to agree to the aims of the group to stop airport expansion. If they don’t agree then they can’t join according to my mate who is a member.

They also have a Facebook sub group with website for people who live outside the town https://stoplae.org

Don't know where you get the 3000 from, their own Web site shows only 114 subscribers to email and their twitter feed is very, very quiet! The last local news link is from February. Perhaps you are including all the nice pictures of dogs they have included?

It’s a private group. As the screen shot shows it has 3000 members. Actually it has 3042 members. As posts are private you won’t get to see or count them.

https://i.imgur.com/OiGKb2X.jpg

Looking really very unlikely that Blue Air will resume flying
https://www.flyblueair.com/en/gb/news/blue-air-is-currently-still-not-in-a-position-to-start-flying-again-on-october-10/

And then there were 7

Blue Air is currently still not in a position to start flying again on October 10th , 2022
The many severe hardships, financial and operational, created by the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt by all airlines, but even more keenly by private regional airlines struggling for survival.Notwithstanding these and other adverse elements, Blue Air a proud Romanian private company is doing its best to resume flight operations.To that end, Blue Air is currently in discussions with potential investors, lenders and the Romanian Government to restructure its capital profile so as to be able to resume air operations.Unfortunately, due to the complexity of this process, Blue Air is currently still not in a position to start flying again on October 10 th , 2022. Blue Air will make an announcement promptly upon the finalization of the ongoing discussions as to when it expects to have its fleet flying again.Blue Air sincerely regrets the inconvenience caused to the flying public, its employees, vendors and suppliers, and continues to work diligently to be able to resume air operations with as little further delay as possible.

Numbers of members is not as important as you might think on Facebook because it includes:
Members who blocked the Admin.
Accounts that are inactive on Facebook.
Accounts that are suspended on Facebook, including temporarily.
Accounts that are Locked.
It is engagement which is important. A Group can have 1M members but if say only 100 are regular contributors with posts, replies or reactions then FB will score it low and might not even notify the majority of members of new or updated posts in their feeds.
It a bit like teenagers who say I have got 3000 friends on Facebook, completely meaningless if there is not interaction.

Anyhow, thought the group was more to do with Wigmore Park and the move to building T2 - not what this current proceeding is about, that will become important next year.

A few more than the 114 first claimed then? Also most people don’t do Facebook so no doubt support is much higher than the membership figures would suggest. The whole point of joining the group is to register that they oppose what the council intends to do so it is irrelevant if they are passive supporters.

It begs the question why does the airport operator and Luton Rising Temperature put at risk the DCO application for 32m, which is meant to give a result in 2024 with an application for 19m, which they admit isn’t required until 2024 either?

I would suggest if the 19m application was turned down it would help kill the DCO and if it isn’t then opponents get a second chance to block a second terminal, which is probably why they oppose 19m.

The whole point of the 19m application by its partner, was a backdoor method by LRT to get around any DCO decision except it has backfired. The plan was to put in an application not for 21.5 or 22m, which is the now claimed limit of the existing airport footprint, but to add just a million passengers. By putting in several mini applications for small incremental increases, they intended to avoid government scrutiny except they were rumbled.

To the dismay of this “dodgy” Council, this Public Inquiry is now examining not only this application for an additional million passengers but the whole conflict of interest where the owner of the airport is also the planning authority. Also the fact that the Council ignored blatant breaches of its own planning permission over 3 years regarding breaches of noise limits, as they took a slice of the dirty money for noise violations. In fact they encouraged the practice with cash incentives.

This has resulted in the cash strapped Council, that claims it is broke, finding £600,000, that could have been spent on social services, hiring it’s own KC. This is on top of a KC hired by the airport operator. I would suggest that this KC is also being paid for by the Council as LRT has agreed to a 3 year financial package where the operator gets to keep an additional £45m that was meant to fund social services. Why?

One of the more amusing but totally correct submissions from last week at the enquiry: " LBC have been marking their own homework and giving themselves top marks" !!

The Dart is now on indefinite delay and won’t open until sometime in 2023 despite paying staff to sit around all day for months. It was due to open in 2020.

Oh it gets better. The existing shuttle bus return fare of £3.70 will be replaced with a Dart return fare of £9.80 for the 3 minute journey.

London Luton Airport: Delayed rail link due to open in 2023 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...herts-63123791

Report from 2017
New railway connection to London Luton Airport approved http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...herts-40370475

A total shamble. They are out of their depth in trying to build and operate a railway that doesn’t even serve the local population.

So will Dart become the most expensive rail journey per mile in the UK?

With fares as high as that maybe Thameslink should carry on operating its bus service at less than half price.

Or people start realising that it's just over a mile to walk from terminal to train station. Yes, it's difficult with heavy luggage or small kids... but with a small wheelie walking down the hill in daytime, most adults should be capable

Still not quite sure why travel jounalists in UK national press not writing an article on how to save money

Some people already walk the route to save money. It will also be cheaper for groups to catch a taxi.

no need just use the Arriva A or 100 - service right through the night and no more than a couple of quid each way for the public.

Nice to see a Flyr today. I know they were after slots but this one a charter to play Arsenal FC.

Possibly associated with the above, two Enter Air B738s en route from Bodo this morning.

The news about the Dart.. it beggars belief. How can they charge nearly £10 per person for a journey like that?! Surely if you buy a ticket from London to Luton Airport, it will not be £9.80 more to include the Airport to Parkway section...

Also the reason given for the delay in opening. I translate that to them arguing over who's going to make the most money from it, an entirely unacceptable reason for another years worth of delay. Unbelievable.

As to date they have borrowed £281m and counting do they have a choice? Not only have they got to pay the interest on that money, they have got to try and whittle down the debt while at the same time paying the airport operator £9m to provide staff for I think a 5 year contract. Then there is the maintenance contract for trains and tracks plus the massive electricity bill for hauling the trains up and down a hill and a new management structure as LRT intend to separate the company into a wholly owned company owned by LRT. I can guarantee this is the first stage of cutting their losses and selling off the Dart at a massive loss.

Also there is more to this delay than just ticketing issues but they won’t let on.