Luton: Long Haul??

[ebenezer]

Currently, P&O is advertising Fly/Cruise holidays for Winter 2005/06 out of Luton to the Caribbean, Mexico and the USA (Dixieland) and also to South America including a transit of the Panama Canal and several Caribbean islands ports. The P&0 ship is the Arcadia and amazingly, the flights are reportedly to Barbados or Accapulco with the return flights being from New Orleans or Barbados.

Anybody got a handle on which airline and what equipment will be used?

Presumably, the outbound legs will require a refuelling stop somehwere (Shannon/Santa Maria/Bangor??).

Apparently, the Luton to South America & Caribbean Fly/Cruise holidays over Christmas and the New Year 2005/06 are already 90% fully booked.

Looks likely that Luton will now well exceed 9 million annual passengers by the New Year!

Amazing what a new and dynamic management can achieve...

:ok:

[CAP670]

Probably Monarch and an Airbus A300 (P and O has I believe, used Monarch out of SOU in the past to ferry its pax to/from Cherbourg when a cruise liner has been running late).

Especially if the return flights are non-stop.

:cool:

[LTNman]

Just a guess but I would say Monarch must be topping the list of possible airlines. They ran a summer season of non stop flights to Florida a few years back using one of their A300 or A330's. ( can’t remember which one can fly non stop from Luton 2160m runway)

[MARKEYD]

I think it might actually be Britannia ( Thomsonfly ) using 767
as they have the contract with P&O and have been operating these flights for years now .
Pax check in at Luton and then in BGI they are taken by coach from the aircraft side straight to the ship . The return is checkin on the ship and then to the airport , by passing check in

Its not unusual to see upto 5 Britannia 767 on the ramp at BGI or any other place in the Caribbean during the winter period connecting up with these cruise s

Flights from Gatwick , Manchester , East Midlands , Bournemouth , Glasgow operate regulary

The Bournemouth flight operates non stop to BGI these days unless its to Acapulco or Montego Bay then the flight stops off in Bangor .

I would imagine the Luton flights will do the same as the runway length is pretty much the same as BOH ( think BOH is slightly longer 2271m )

[MSVR]

Could indeed be BAL - about 10 years ago they used to operate a weekly flight to Oz from Luton using a Boeing 767-200 which staged through Bahrein for a tech stop out of Luton.

The 767-300 could probably get even further.

Amazing what a new and dynamic management can achieve... - not sure which management you're talking about, but the previous Luton Airport management weren't all useless.

You have only to see the impressive success that a certain R Gooding has managed to achieve at City since leaving LTN - no doubt he'd have managed the same at Luton if he'd not had to work with the handicap of Luton Council as the airport's owner AND operator.

The political climate has also changed since Blair et al got into power in 1997, because the previous incumbent Tories were in the pockets of the BAA with the result that any significant expansion at LTN was strangely, blocked.

So the new management at LTN (and agreed that they're all pretty dynamic) combined with their new (and affluent) Spanish owners have the odds far better stacked in their favour, and the results are now beginning to show.

And has anybody heard anything about the proposed long-haul services Luton to Mumbai by Tara Airlines?

;)

[LTNman]

I would imagine the Luton flights will do the same as the runway length is pretty much the same as BOH ( think BOH is slightly longer 2271m )

TORA for 26 at BOH is 2026 but 2271 from 08


Has anybody heard anything about the proposed long-haul services Luton to Mumbai by Tara Airlines?

Public documents http://www.taraairlines.net/docs/TaraAirlines_prospectus.pdf

Further Routes and Schedules
Tara has already identified additional routes with Air France Consulting including New York to Luton/
London connecting to India, enabling the airline to move forward in attracting the Asian-American
travellers. The other routes are Singapore, Pakistan, Malaysia, South Africa, which are all congested
routes and have significant presence of persons of Indian origin.
Tara Airlines plc will be a scheduled carrier and is to become a member of IATA.
Air France Consulting Paris is actively assisting with executive decisions.
The company is a UK registered carrier.

Dear Dipak
We, Air France Consulting, have conducted an in-depth study of the TARA airlines project, regarding
flights from Luton to Bombay and other destinations.
Our findings are as follows:
1. The TARA project looks viable, under the assumption of a steady environment. Its further expansion
program including increased number of flights with additional aircrafts is targeted to show profit on a five
year period.
2. The five year financials, forecasted by us are estimates based on the current market conditions.
3. From documents we were shown, TARA airlines, as a new UK based carried is entitled to slots at
Heathrow Airport. We assume these slots are of high commercial value.
TARA airlines could, consequently, besides Luton flights, enter into code sharing with other carriers for
these slots. This possibility which is not taken into account in the forecasted accounts, would enhance the
company's financial prevaluation estimates
Yours sincerely

[GW76]

"The 767-300 could probably get even further"
Doesnt the 763 have less range than the 762 ?