Counted 48 bizjets on the ground last week, not inc stuff in the hangars.

379 movements yesterday, another record.

Wizz to Sofia
 

The Wizz flights to Sofia are 3 times a week night flights from Budapest, departing BUD 2345 with return BUD arrival 0600, and a 3hr 45m 'turn-round' at Sofia.

Connections from other points on the network are allowed on the booking system (an unusual feature for locos, who usually only sell point-to-point fares.).

This just seems like a very tentative toe in the water of a new market, with Wizz using otherwise unutilised time.

Hope they are successful, and that direct LTN flights follow, but this is a long way from that. However, for £2 plus tax, it might just work!

I understood that some of the current infrastucture work was being part paid for by LBC, as an investment in thier asset?

I also understand that another movement record has been broken again this week?

400 is not too far away. AMAZING!

Did the Transwede/FlySwe Lahore happen today?

A close relative who happens to be a (SAD) spotter regularly has logged 50+ Biz Jets at Luton and has done so for a couple of years on and off, so nothing new.

Has a certain Asian airline taken over easyJet maintenance yet?

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Like to know what LBC are paying for then apart from repainting the white lines on the local roads. They send out a nice little pie chart with their yearly rate demands and it shows no airport expenditure.

Yep a BAE 146 turned up and left on time

Are Swefly going to use a MD80 on this route, or have they settled on the BAe?

Does anyone know the registration? Also, can anyone explain the fokker 100 (?) I'm sure I saw departing whilst I was walking down Park Street yesterday on my lunchbreak?

Nickmanl - Luton has for some time been handling more corporate aircraft movements than any other UK airport, and is by far the busiest for corporate flights of any of the 'London' airports, including Biggin Hill, Fanborough and RAF Northolt, not to mention Lydd, Manston, Southend and Hinton-in-the-Hedges.

The main attractions of Luton which IN COMBINATION, none of the other London airports can match are:

- H24 availibility
- Cat. 3b ILS capable (and most US suitably equipped US operators are now FAR compliant for Cat. 3 at Luton)
- H24 Customs
- No runway slot scheduling (yet...)
- Ostensibly, minimal arrival and departure delays
- The protection of Class D controlled airspace
- Two dedicated (and discrete...) executive terminals
- Short taxi times to/from said terminals
- Sufficient runway length to permit unrestricted corporate long-haul ops to the US West Coast, South Amercia, South Africa and the Far East.

The number of corporate flights was always expected to increase significantly when both Harrods and Signature invested heavily in more concrete and hangars - commercial companies don't spend cash unless more business is assured! It's rumoured that Harrods already want to extend their new apron southwards to effectively double its size and Signature would like to take over all the South Apron stands currently utilised by Harrods if ever the latter moved.

The benefit to the Airport Company (LLAO) is that it doesn't have to pay a penny to the scroungers in Luton Council, for corporate aircraft movements or corporate passengers, and so the profit goes directly to LLAO.

As to what Luton Council does with the £11,827,000 it received, who can tell? Certainly, the cr**p state of the town - aptly nicknamed "toilet town" - suggests that it doesn't go in that direction, nor from the hopelessly inadequate roads around the airport would it appear to be spent there.

Perhaps a good question at a Council meeting from some poor sucker who lives in toilet town and so has to pay council tax to Luton Council...??

:hmm:

I was quite confident LTN has the biggest private jet ops, but I recall reading a few posts arguing Farnborough was in the lead, and I wasn't too sure on facts and figures to argue my point!

Tried to book another flight to Zurich with Helvetic this morning, only to find that Luton was no longer showing in the booking engine. Might be a fault or some sort of glitch or have they decided to 'pull' the flights already(see my post d/d 12/6)

The local Sunday rag is running a competition this week for the Helvetic Zurich service.

London is still not showing for Helvetic via thier on line booking system.

Farnborough is limited to 28,000 movements per year and only 2,500 of these can take place at the weekend or bank holidays. Hours of opening are:
Weekdays 0700-2200
Weekends 0800-2000
Therefore the airport is shut for around 69 hours per week, that is almost 3 days!

An added priviso to the yearly movement rate is that there must be no more than 20,000 movements of the average type of noise distubance generated during 1997. Basically encouraging quiter aircraft to use Farnborough.

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Email from Helvetic confirming glitch on booking system. LTN now restored and flights continue as planned. Apparently, even an increase in freq is a possibility in the not too distant future.

Have been away recently - thanks for the opening info ... look forward to seeing it on my next passage thru LTN (much better than the hassle at STN - but thats for another place).

Jordan

According to the local newspaper, Luton Town FC are taking part in a pre season soccer tour of Bulgaria. This tour has come about due to a Bulgarian airline working closely with London Luton airport to launch services in the near future!

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Would that be Hemus Air who are looking to expand into Western Europe ?.

I'd die a happy man if it was Hemus! Regular Tu154 aircraft at Luton would be amazing!

If it is Hemus, please can we have the TU-154M on the route!

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Bulgarian Air Carrier to Compete with Low-Cost Wizz Air
 

Nothing about LTN yet but:

The Bulgarian carrier Hemus Air will launch low fare flights from the capital Sofia to Vienna, Leipzig, Stuttgart and Köln, it emerged days after the entry of the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air on the Bulgarian market.

The aviation company is developing the software for the on-line booking, Bulgarian daily 24 Hours reported Monday. The tickets will be sold via Internet and the price of part of the seats will be set up to EUR 20.

Wizz Air is a new European low-cost airline focusing on the markets of Central and Eastern Europe. The Hungarian company will execute three Sofia-Budapest flights weekly as of September 2005 and will work separately from the Hungarian Maleev that is already on Bulgaria's market.

Tickets are already being sold online varying from EUR 19.99 to EUR 29.99. As part of a promotion the company will issue 10,000 tickets to Budapest at the price of EUR 1. Together with airport dues, the cost of the flight to Hungary's capital adds up to EUR 25.

Wizz has also declared its interest in launching flights to Bulgaria and Romania after the two countries sign an "Open Sky" agreement.

Bulgarian aviation companies, who are small and mobile, can easily become low-cost carriers, said Mihail Zahariev, Secretary General of DG Civil Aviation Administration. In his words, in two years they will have to prepare for a serious battle with international companies.

Bexx Air, the first low fare air charter company in Bulgaria, was closed in September last year on charges that the firm was operating without license and has never even tried to legitimize its business in Bulgaria.

I see http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...ts-luton?hl=en are reporting massive growth for May

802,000 pax for May is certainly rocking. 29% increase on May 04 & 20% annual growth. At this rate LTN might just bust 1m pax for the month of Aug 05.

Easy winter routes ex LTN now available apart from BFS/ GLA & EDI. Everything much as last year with virtually no changes.
Note : At the moment only visable if you enter 'London Airports'