Luton Airport Passenger Numbers Up

[Buster the Bear]

Leading holiday airport Luton has seen its passenger numbers rise this year, it has been revealed.

A total of 1.86 million people passed through the Bedfordshire airport between April and June - a 4.81% increase on the same period last year.

Some of the increase has been put down to the number of charter flights in and out of Luton, which is owned by operator TBI.

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[Powerjet1]

London Luton Airport's record year continues. Thomas Cook Holidays first to add extra capacity... 07/07/2004

Having already recorded the busiest day in its history on Friday 25th June, further proof of the popularity of London Luton Airport with air travellers and holidaymakers has been provided by one of its senior partners - Thomas Cook Holidays.

To meet the very heavy demand for inclusive / package holidays at London Luton, Thomas Cook today announced that it is increasing capacity at Luton for this summer by positioning an extra aircraft during the critical peak season of July and August.

[runawayedge]

I know it is relatively insignificant, but REA are offering an extra 328 seats per day to GWY and WAT

[Buster the Bear]

That is around 120,000 per year.
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[vintage ATCO]

I thought I was working hard :eek:

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

And Wizz have added an evening rotation from Katowice in the last week or so!

Buster - have you been getting tasty Polish morsels from your visitors?

[Powerjet1]

Wizz will have a weekly total of 92 flights to/from LTN wef 10 Aug when Warsaw & Gdansk commence. Currently they operate 42.

[codpiece face]

Yes have heard that tcx are basing a 757 at luton for the school holidays about time too.

[Buster the Bear]

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

I fancy an exchange visit?

http://www.zoo.wroclaw.pl/zwierzeta/ssaki/zdjecia/niedzwiedz_brunatny.html?description=Nied%BCwied%BC+brunatny

[Powerjet1]

Anyone know what the start date is of the alleged based TCX 757 at LTN, mentioned previously. Not seen anything yet. Can only assume it will be this coming weekend.

[Doug the Head]

I prefer blondes. (http://www.polarbearsalive.org/pb10.php) ;)

[Buster the Bear]

I understand that the provisional passenger figures and airport movements are well up for June 2004 against June 2003.

Polars, too cold for me!

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[Powerjet1]

Up 6.2% to 656,214 for June 04

[Powerjet1]

Three quarters of million pax for July!!!!. Can't be bad. 800,000+ expected for August. That's got to be an all time record.

[LTNman]

Three quarters of million pax for July

Almost, this from free.uk.airports-luton which is the airports newsgroup:

> ATM's
> 6088 up 13.3%.
> Year on year to July 31st 60,798 up 5.2%

> Passengers
> 749,462 up 10.6%
> Year on year to July 31st 7,026,718 up 4.4%
>

This is only the 4th time LTN has broken the 700,000 in a calendar month.
The other three occasions were in the last three Augusts. The previous best
July was last year when 679,560 passengers passed through LTN.

By the end of January another 6 aircraft will be based at Luton so one can
only wonder what LTN will have handled by the end of next year. Airports
like Edinburgh and Glasgow will be looking over their shoulders

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Changing the subject why is the run up bay shut? It seems to be closed more times than it is open

[LGS6753]

Run-up bay is being resurfaced (or re-built). One of those concrete-swallowing machines was creating dust there from big chunks of concrete last week.

An earlier post suggested that it could be used for remote holding if/when that becomes necessary with increased flights at peak times.

[Ian Farquharson]

July 04 terminal pax

1.Heathrow - 6,496,665 up 7.9%
2.Gatwick - 3,457,583 up 6.1%
3.Manchester - 2,273,867 up 4.8%
4.Stansted - 2,050,479 up 10.2%
5.Glasgow - 1,007,359 up 9.9%
6.Birmingham- 943,953 down 3.1%
7.Edinburgh - 795,795 up 10.2%
8.Luton - 749,462 up 10.6%

Year Ended 31/07/04

1. Heathrow - 66,462,781 up 6.2%
2. Gatwick - 30,663,391 up 2. 7%
3. Manchester - 20,573,479 up 8.5%
4. Stansted - 20,319,743 up 16.7%
5. Birmingham - 8,997,154 up 5.3%
6. Glasgow - 8,321,555 up 3.5%
7. Edinburgh - 7,782,442 up 7.0%
8. Luton - 7,026,718 up 4.4%


Ian

Balsall Common

[CAP670]

Wizz will have a weekly total of 92 flights to/from LTN wef 10 Aug when Warsaw & Gdansk commence.

Although Wizz has decided to make Luton it's main UK base and is pleased with the lack of ATC delays there, the rumour is that it is extremely unhappy with the poor handling service it's receiving from Servisair, so much so that the airline may switch to Aviance.

TBI is believed to be so concerned that its new business could be lost to Stansted that senior management is reportedly becoming involved in trying to resolve what is essentially, an issue for the airline and its handling agent.

Trouble is that Servisair LTN is understaffed, the staff that are employed are underpaid, the operation is run by under-performing managers, and the so the LTN base is just falling apart.

Maybe TBI should put the boot in, and invite LGW Handling (who are also at Stansted) or Marriot to start a ground handling operation at LTN before BAA steals its business again!


:uhoh:

[LTNman]

I have witnessed Wizz passengers still standing in line waiting to check-in with just minutes to go before the last Wizz departure. Another problem is that passengers can stand in any line and check-in for any Wizz flight. No problem if the queue is short but if a passenger turns up with just minutes to go before their flight closes they can be confronted by a long queue of passengers checking-in for later Wizz flights. This is what happens in the Evening when one flight leaves at 19.20 while the other two leave at 20.15.

Baggage reclaim is high on the list of complaints from passengers in airport-conducted surveys. Baggage reclaim was most efficient when the airport ran the operation but a change in the rules ended that years ago. The problem now is that Aviance, Servisair and Menzies who run easyjet’s operation can have a slack period while at the same time another agent can’t cope. This was demonstrated to me first hand in June when three servisair flights came in at the same time at 3 in the morning. The luggage took over an hour to arrive due to there being only one servisair crew on duty to unload aircraft while the crews from Aviance and Menzies had no work.

[CAP670]

So why doesn't the airport management at Luton get these problem(s) sorted before it loses more business to BAA et al?

Surely, it's in TBI's interests to iron out these difficulties - or are they either disinterested or incapable?

Pax demand is there to use the Airport but it just seems that yet again, the interest is being squandered through mismanagement.

:confused:

[coughing corner]

As Ltnman says some years back legislation came into force so that there had to be competition for ground handling, i.e there could be no monopoly by the airport company. Hence LTN's baggage handlers were basically taken over by private sector companies. They crew up for their expected schedules and if your late running, or they have staff shortages tough ****!. The companies will not ask the other GH companies to assist as it costs em money!. Also in the olden days the baggage handlers etc, used to help with the snow clearing as that was part of their duties in the winter, hence when it snows, it now takes an awfully long time to clear pax pathways because the baggage handlers no longer do it.
Not exactly the fault of TBI, and I doubt whether any 'new' company in todays cost concious times would overstaff themselves!

[LTNman]

So why doesn't the airport management at Luton get these problem(s) sorted before it loses more business to BAA et al?

I can remember attending a meeting with airport management one October a few years back when I was representing passenger interests. I warned the management that there was a serious lack of serviceable aircraft de-icing rigs at the airport after a very light frost caused problems and that the airport would grind to a halt in a heavy frost.

The airport management told the meeting that this was an issue between the airlines and Reed Aviation who carried out the de-icing for all the handling agents and the FBO’s.

Well the heavy frost came after the snow between Christmas and New Year with sub zero temperatures for most of the next 48 hours. There was only one serviceable de-icer rig that was de-icing around 3 or 4 aircraft an hour. This de-icer also broke down and also needed frequent top ups which didn’t help. Chaos ensured for another couple of days after the chaos of the snow.

Easyjet were being interviewed on TV as the media had picked up on what was going on at LTN, blaming everyone except themselves. The problem for the airport was that many passengers saw this as a failing of airport management, the airlines and the handling agents.

I don’t know if lessons were learnt as sometimes TBI still seem to have their head stuck in the sand although customer feedback forms are analysed and shared with interested parties at the airport.

I see that LTN has been voted the UK’s worst airport with only 36% of voters describing LTN as good or excellent. Working our way up the list is Heathrow at 43%, Nottingham 43%, Stansted 45%, Edinburgh 47%, Gatwick 50%, Glasgow 53%, Birmingham 53%, Manchester 55% with the top airport being Newcastle at 57%

PS Just been listening to Servisair on their frequency. They have just requested that a Wizzair flight return to stand as they have discovered a baggage discrepancy and two passengers at the gate. So much for the head count which was meant to be 166.

[Powerjet1]

Prov CAA stats show a 17.5% increase in pax at LTN in Oct, to 711,974. Pretty good really, since most of easy's recently announced expansion at the airport does not kick in until Nov/Dec, and ryanair, in Jan 05.

Year on Year saw an 8.6% increase to 7.32m.

[LTNman]

Over 100,000 up on October 2003. Great news indeed. Walking through the terminal these last few days the terminal seems as busy as August last year.