Luton Airport Passenger Numbers Up

[coughing corner]

bags

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.