LUTON

[LTNman]

more Wizz

Already reported here a while back but this from the airports website

FOUR MORE new Wizz Air routes from London Luton Airport..
10 February 2006
and increased frequency on new Zagreb service!

London Luton Airport is pleased to today announce that from May 2006, Wizz Air will commence scheduled services to Split - Croatia, Ljubljana - Slovenia and to Sofia & Bourgas in Bulgaria.

Wizz Air, Central Europe's largest low fare / low cost airline, is reinforcing its already highly successful partnership with London Luton Airport by introducing services to Bourgas, Sofia and Split on the 1st May and to Ljubljana on 2nd May.

Additionally Wizz Air is increasing frequency on its previously announced route between London Luton and Zagreb, which starts on 1st May.

The announcement comes shortly after Wizz Air announced its further expansion plans from Poland in line with their strategy to reinforce the airline's position as a leading low cost operator in Central and Eastern Europe.

The new flights are as follows:

London Luton to Bourgas - starting on 1st May 2006

London Luton to Sofia - starting on 1st May 2006

London Luton to Zagreb - starting on 1st May 2006

London Luton to Split - starting on 1st May 2006

London Luton to Ljubljana - starting on 2nd May 2006

[Powerjet1]

'Additionally Wizz Air is increasing frequency on its previously announced route between London Luton and Zagreb'.

Was only going to be 4 x weekly but increasing to daily from late april.

By mid May, Wizz will have increased flights by over 300% compared to May 2005. With Varna likely to be 3 x weekly for the summer when announced, the peak summer months will see close to 200 weekly flights to/from LTN by Wizz. And there are still 2 more destinations in the pipeline which could come into play by end of June/early July.

[Buster the Bear]

I understand that the orange mob are looking at a number of rather interesting new destinations from Luton for the latter part of 2006!

The Wizz operation from Luton this year is going to be stunning! I calculate they will fly upwards of 1.5 million passengers through Luton per year once all the new routes are operational.

I can see that it is going to be a fun year, especially for ATC!

[LGS6753]

Wizz must be taking delivery of several additional aircraft. They currently have 7 A320s, and the routes they have announced imply a requirement for at least 3 more, assuming they are not reducing frequencies or cutting routes elsewhere in their network.

[nickmanl]

Does anyone know how Wizz are doing financially? I'm not suggesting anything just dont recall any figures being published.

Are they operating at a profit yet? They seem to be a well managed airline who have closely analysed and studied their intended market and certainly unearthed a niche.

How are they doing head on head with Easy on Warsaw and Budapest?

[Buster the Bear]

Wizz Air, Central and Eastern Europe’s largest low-fare, low-cost airline has signed a contract for 12 firm A320 Family aircraft, including A319s and A320s, plus 12 options, becoming a new Airbus customer. All the aircraft will be powered by International Aero Engines V2500-As and be configured in a comfortable single-class layout, seating up to 156 passengers in the A319s and up to 180 passengers in the A320s. Deliveries will begin in the summer of 2007

They must be in the interim be getting some additional airframes. I am sure some folk on here will know the answer? I am also sure Wizz took delivery of a brand new factory fresh A320 last year, so might be getting additional aircraft on lease? Mr 1 BRAVO will know?

[CAP493]

I can see that it is going to be a fun year, especially for ATC!

Indeed so. And a reasonably well-placed contact in Britannia - sorry ThomsonFly - has indicated that TOM is taking a serious look at Luton to assess whether there are any routes that it could take up because the company belatedly realises that it's rather let Luton develop around it and hasn't developed there itself. Personally, I'd say that apart from Jersey, Finland and Denmark, TOM has rather missed the LTN boat...

[Buster the Bear]

I think Monarch are just as guilty!

[nickmanl]

I dunno, there's always the possibility of Norway, Finland, Austria, perhaps southern Italy and German links could be developed more. Surely they could get some from somewhere...

[LGS6753]

If Britannia Deutscheland (or whatever they are called this week) started thinking 'out of the box' they would see huge opportunities at Luton.
For a start there are numerous destinations that they service on charters that have no loco London link (Corfu, Heraklion, Salonika, Naples, Malta, etc).
Although much of the traffic would be seasonal, flights could be alternated with the likes of Salzburg, Munich, Lyon, in winter.
Then there are non-EU countries which are queueing to get into the EU or get access to it that may or will offer traffic rights for new scheduled London services (Morocco, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Romania, etc).
There are also some glaring gaps in Luton destinations - thinking of Prague, Ibiza, Jersey, Bordeaux, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Southern Germany, Vienna, Seville, etc.

As for Monarch, they will hopefully start building frequencies on their existing destinations, and adding the likes of Fuerteventura, Heraklion, Rhodes, etc.

[LTNman]

If you type in britishpathe into a search engine and then Luton airport into the companies website there are some interesting films that can be downloaded free. I had problems with the 1973 film so I would start with the others first.

If you think Luton seems busy now have a look at the 1974 film with Luton’s infamous tent terminal. The 1960 film wasn't filmed at Luton through

[saggst]

[QUOTE=LTNman]What’s this I hear about an incident involving servisair provided ground power at Luton? Apparently they will not provide ground power now until further notice.

From what i have heard this was because one of the GPU's were spiking electrics on some a/c! The rumour is that Aer arann were the ones who brought the problem to light

[King Pong]

Now thinking caps on, when and what was the last aircraft to over run the runway at Luton?

This was one that went over the top http://doug3658.fotopic.net/p12346424.html

http://doug3658.fotopic.net/p12346425.html

[ebenezer]

If Britannia...started thinking 'out of the box' they would see huge opportunities at Luton.

I think that you'll find that Thomsonfly aka TUI originally decided not to operate out of Luton because the TUI bigwigs considered that (a) Luton's facilitites at the time were of an inadequate standard for their passengers and (b) becuase they believed the London lo-co market to be saturated. Quite how they managed to square their view of Luton's former terminal with a decision to operate from Bournemouth and Coventry (arguably, two of the UK's airport terminals where it's best to wipe your feet AFTER you've left the building...) is a mystery. And as for the London lo-co market being saturated, just how wrong can you be?? As you say LGS6753, there are several unfilled gaps in Luton's lo-co scheduled portfolio and which for its specific catchment area, are just waiting to be tapped into. However, TUI has undoubtedly caught a cold over its ill-judged Coventry venture because even though the loads there are reasonable on some routes, the whole episode as an integrated business venture has been far less successful than TUI/Thomsonfly would have you believe, and having now sold that airport, TUI's management is probably more keen on consolidating out of its existing locations than starting up what would be yet another new venture.

[toledoashley]

Luton could really do some flights to Prague. I would also like to see:

Ponta Delgada (Summer Only x1 weekly)
Jersey (Summer Daily)
Funchal
Naples
Palermo/Catania
Malta

[Powerjet1]

Would have thought a daily ATR42 to Jersey could be supported in the summer. Certainly Prague would do well and maybe 2/3 more italian destinations. Scandinavia wholly untapped apart from the twice daily to VST. Southwest France & southern Germany crying out for more routes. Monarch could well do more, and it would be good to see a couple more schedules from Thomsonfly. Aer Arran, Easy & ryan have all got considerable potential to add routes so hope they do. Wizz doing great; by the summer they will be operating almost as many flights to/from LTN as ryan.

[Buster the Bear]

The last aircraft that I remember leaving the runway was a Britannia 767 which turned on the runway and grass, and not the turning circle. Mrs Buster's best mate was a cabin attendent on this flight. mid 1990's I recall? I think following this incident, 767's now have to go to the 'end' to turn if a back track is required?

I am also sure that another flight left tyre tracks on the grass, and this 'off runway' excursion was not noticed until a daylight inspection of the runway?

There have been so many incarnations of BritanniaTuiThomsonflyflights.com that the genral public must be totally bemused? What are Lunn Poly now called, it has been ages since I ventured into a travel agency?

How long before the low costs penetrate Greece, Romania and Turkey?

[vintage ATCO]

Buster, you really must get those grey cells re-engerised.

The B767 was turning on a temporary turning circle when the one at the end was out of service (something to do with bricks but let's not go there.) A problem with the steering was discovered.

[nickmanl]

I miss seeing 767's at Luton now, used to be quite regular in the 90's. Are any to be based this year, or will we only see the odd maintenance flight in?

How about the Monarch A300's as well, and a reincarnation of Court Line's Tristars would be nice as well........haha

[CAP493]

How long before the low costs penetrate Greece...

Mmm - I thought that easyJet serves Athens from Luton, Buster?

I miss seeing B767's at Luton now, used to be quite regular in the 90s. Are any to be based this year, or will we only see the odd maintenance flight in?

nickmanl - Britannia's B767s regularly use LTN during the summer months, usually on a 'W' pattern out of one of the airline's major bases such as Gatwick or Manchester. Don't know though, if there's any likelihood of one being based at LTN this year.

Wizz doing great; by the summer they will be operating almost as many flights to/from LTN as Ryanair.

Powerjet1 -
And every route from/to the east, creating the potential for some seriously overloaded airspace to the northeast of London and consequently, some regularly delayed outbound flights from Luton...