Everything about Luton Airport totally explained
London Luton Airport (previously called
Luton International Airport) is an
international airport located on the edge of the
town of
Luton,
Bedfordshire,
England approximately north of
London. The airport is 2 miles (3 km) from junction 10a of the
M1 motorway. It is the fourth largest airport serving the
London area after
Heathrow,
Gatwick and
Stansted and is one of London's five international
airports along with
London City Airport.
In 2007, total passengers at London Luton increased by 5.3% to 9,927,321 making it the fifth
busiest airport in the UK. The airport serves as a hub for
easyJet,
Monarch Airlines,
Thomsonfly,
Wizz Air,
Silverjet and
Ryanair. Most of the routes served are within Europe.
History
Early history
An airport was opened on the site on the
16 July,
1938 by the
Secretary of State for Air,
Kingsley Wood.
(External Link
).
Following the war the land was returned to the local council who continued activity at the airport as a commercial operation, providing a base for charter airlines such as Autair (which went on to become Court Line), Euravia (now TUI, following previous growth as
Britannia Airways) and
Monarch Airlines.In 1949 English Electric set up a missile development site on the northern slope of the airport which when closed in the 60's became the base for Carass Airways Catering. In 1972, Luton Airport was the most profitable airport in the country. It suffered a severe setback in August 1974 when a major
package holiday operator, Clarksons, scheduling flights via its airline
Court Line (which also operated local bus services), went bankrupt. that they supported the government plans to expand the facilities to include a full-length runway and a new terminal.. However, local campaign groups, including Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (LADACAN) and Stop Luton Airport Plan (SLAP) opposed the new expansion plans, for reasons including noise pollution and traffic concerns; LADACAN also claimed that various sites, including
Someries Castle, a
Scheduled Monument, would be threatened by the expansion. On
6 July 2007 it was announced that the owners of London Luton Airport decided to scrap plans to build a second runway and new terminal due to financial reasons.
The airport today
The airport possesses a single
runway, running roughly east to west, with a length of 7087
feet (2160
metres) at an elevation of 525 feet (160 m). The runway is equipped with an
Instrument Landing System rated to Category IIIB, allowing the airport to continue operating in conditions of poor visibility. All the airport facilities lie to the north of the runway. The terminal and aprons have a somewhat unusual layout, with ground-side access to the terminal being via a road tunnel to a bus station, drop off area, taxi rank and short term car park on the runway side of the terminal building. Most of the aircraft stands are located on the northern side of the terminal building, away from the runway and connected to it by a 'U' shaped set of
taxiways and
aprons that together encircle the terminal.
The northern side of the U shaped apron is ringed by a continuous line of
hangars and other buildings, emphasing the fact that Luton is a major maintenance base for several airlines including
Thomsonfly,
Monarch Airlines and
easyJet. By contrast to the heavily built up apron area, the airport's southern boundary is entirely rural with only a few isolated farm buildings and houses close to the airport boundary.
The airport remains in municipal ownership, owned by
Luton Borough Council but managed by the
private sector London Luton Airport Operations Limited (LLOAL). London Luton Airport has a
CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P835) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. An indicator of the importance of the airport to the
economy of Luton is that Luton is reported to have the highest number of taxicabs per head of
population in the
United Kingdom. The airport has become even more critical to the future of Luton given the recent closure of the
Vauxhall Motors factory.
Airport statistics
| |
Number of Passengers |
Number of Movements |
Freight
(tonnes) |
| 1997 | 3,238,458 |
40,287 |
21,354
|
| 1998 | 4,132,818 |
47,748 |
25,654
|
| 1999 | 5,284,810 |
55,091 |
23,224
|
| 2000 | 6,190,499 |
59,951 |
32,992
|
| 2001 | 6,555,155 |
55,987 |
23,070
|
| 2002 | 6,486,770 |
55,009 |
20,459
|
| 2003 | 6,797,175 |
58,421 |
22,850
|
| 2004 | 7,535,614 |
64,243 |
26,161
|
| 2005 | 9,147,776 |
75,424 |
23,108
|
| 2006 | 9,425,908 |
78,840 |
17,993
|
| Source: United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (External Link) |
|
Silverjet terminal
Shortly after its launch,
Silverjet announced plans to open a private terminal facility at its base in London Luton Airport. The terminal is designed to handle around 100 passengers by a meet & greet service: passengers will arrive and be met by a concierge who will take their baggage and they can proceed through to security and into the lounge that features internet access, shops and seating. A member of staff will come to the customer and check their ticket and passport before they can board. The minimum time for this to be completed is 30 minutes.
The Silverjet facility is in the old Main Terminal and utilises the space of most of the old Departure Lounge Area. It has been completely refurbished to the standards of Silverjet.
Luton Airport in the media
Luton Airport is widely known as a result of the
Airline and
Luton Airport television series.
Airline follows the staff of
easyJet at Luton and the airline's other hubs across the country whilst the 2005 series, named after the airport followed the life of employees at the airport in a similar format to the show
Airport which follows staff at
London Heathrow Airport.
The airport was also mentioned in a famous
Campari advert featuring
Lorraine Chase, with the punch line "Were you truly wafted here from paradise?". " Na Lut'n Airport". This advert was the inspiration for a 1979 UK hit by
Cats U.K. entitled "Luton Airport". The airport was also mentioned in the
Piranha Brothers sketch from
Monty Python's Flying Circus, as being the place where one of the brothers, Dinsdale, thinks that a giant
hedgehog named Spiny Norman sleeps.
Ground transport
Road
The airport lies a few miles away from the M1 motorway, which runs southwards to
London, northwards to
Leeds and connects to the
M25 motorway. There is a short stay car park adjacent to the terminal, together with medium and long term on airport car parks to the west and east of the terminal respectively and linked to the terminal by shuttle buses. Pre-booked off airport parking is also available from several independent operators.
Rail
Luton Airport Parkway railway station was built in 1999 to serve the airport. It is positioned on the
Midland Main Line.
First Capital Connect (FCC) is the principal operator, with services to
Bedford,
St Albans, London,
Wimbledon,
Sutton,
Gatwick Airport and
Brighton.
East Midlands Trains semi-fast services call hourly going south to London
St Pancras and north to
Leicester,
Nottingham and
Leeds.
A shuttle bus service connects the station to the airport, a distance of just over a mile. In order to provide additional capacity, LLAOL have contracted the shuttle service to FCC (since 20 January 2008), whose parent company
FirstGroup have invested £1.3 million in a four-strong fleet of new articulated buses labelled
'StreetCars'. The new buses are 18 metres long and can accommodate up to 97 passengers plus baggage, which equates to double the capacity of the previous fleet of buses.
Another change that has taken place (as part of the aforementioned contract) is the implementation of fares for the use of the shuttle service. Passengers with valid rail tickets are now charged £1 while other passengers are charged £1.50.
Buses
Local buses connect Luton Airport with Luton town centre and other local places. Direct bus services to London are operated by both
Green Line Coaches and
easyBus (with service to
London Victoria).
National Express coaches link the airport to other towns in the midlands and north of England.
Also
First Capital Connect are currently utilising four
ftr buses, providing a frequent link between the airport and Luton Airport Parkway railway station. This service runs every 10 minutes during the day and is branded as Train2PLane.
Getting there from London
Typically the fastest way to get there's via Luton Airport Parkway from London (30 minutes from St Pancras). (Train2Plane bus between Parkway & Airport) Going via National Express takes approximately 1hr 10 minutes.
Airlines and destinations
Luton is now also a major hub for several
low-cost carriers, with scheduled services to many European destinations. Charter flights account for the remaining eight percent of the airport's passenger traffic.
Scheduled airlines
Scheduled airlines operating out of Luton include:
- Aer Arann (Galway, Waterford)
- easyJet (Aberdeen, Alicante, Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Basel/Mulhouse, Belfast-International, Berlin-Schönefeld, Bordeaux, Budapest, Cagliari, Dortmund, Edinburgh, Faro, Geneva, Glasgow-International, Grenoble [seasonal], Hamburg, Ibiza [seasonal], Inverness, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen, Jersey, Kraków, Lisbon, Madrid, Málaga, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Pisa, Turin [seasonal], Vienna, Warsaw, Zurich)
- Flybe (Isle of Man)
- Monarch Airlines (Alicante, Almería, Arrecife, Faro, Gibraltar, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Mahon, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife-South)
- Ryanair (Brest, Dublin, Girona, Kerry, Knock, Malta, Marrakech, Milan-Bergamo, Murcia, Nîmes, Reus, Rome-Ciampino, Shannon)
- Silverjet (Dubai, Newark)
- SkyEurope (Bratislava, Kosice, Poprad/Tatry, Prague)
- Thomsonfly (Antalya, Arrecife, Bodrum, Bourgas, Corfu, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Gerona, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kefalonia, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Mahon, Malaga, Monastir, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Pula, Reus, Rhodes, Sharm el-Sheikh, Tel Aviv, Tenerife-South, Thessaloniki, Zakynthos)
- Wizz Air (Bucharest-Băneasa, Bourgas [seasonal], Budapest, Cluj-Napoca, Gdańsk, Katowice, Kiev-Boryspil [BeginsSeptember 15], Poznan, Sofia, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Zagreb)
- XL Airways (Larnaca, Paphos)
Charter operators
Around 8% of flights out of Luton are operated by charter airlines. Charter airlines who fly to Luton include:
DHL Air
MNG Airlines
Varig LogísticaFurther Information
Get more info on 'Luton Airport'.
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