Ryanair/Easyjet expansion Ltn - Merged.

[Wadadli]

From EZY web page:

easyJet announces major expansion at Luton.

easyJet, Europe's leading low-cost airline, today announced significant growth from its base at London Luton Airport. The airline will be adding three more aircraft to the existing 13, representing a growth of 25% by the end of the winter.

In addition to Dortmund, Krakow and Warsaw announced last week, easyJet will be launching at least three more new routes to its ever growing network. Details of the new destinations will be released within the next few weeks, and will reflect the airline's ongoing strategy to link the most attractive and popular destination airports.

easyJet currently offers a choice of 22 routes from London Luton to a variety of attractive destinations throughout Europe. Over five million passengers have flown from the Luton base in the last 12 months, and the airline intends to increase this figure to over six million within the next year.

Ray Webster easyJet Chief Executive commented:

"Luton was easyJet's first base and has always proved to be a successful and profitable market. Today's announcement reflects our commitment to London, and the Herts, Beds and Bucks regions. We intend to continue with our planned growth and envisage further successful development from Luton" ;)

[Powerjet1]

If it's a 'joining of the dots' for the other three routes, Prague & Rome must be leading contenders plus one other. Blimey, LTN could be looking at 9m+ pax in 2005, especially if Wizz keep going, plus two other airlines in the frame.

[Doug the Head]

So when will LTN go Airbus? Please don´t tell me they´re gonna fly these routes with those old ex-Go -300´s!:hmm:

[Buster the Bear]

Not 1, not even 2, but 3 additional aircraft to be based!

6 million easy passengers next year!
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[LTNman]

Think this is good news, just wait for tomorrows news:ok: Just hope that TBI have enough stands.

[Powerjet1]

LTNMan

Are we talking " exotic routes " here or something else?

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

Excellent news ... maybe TBI will now spend some of the £20M they have allegedly got earmarked to expand facilities at Luton.

LTNman - you are right, new stands are urgently required .. even if the two FBO's then fill them with even more Biz jets!!!!!

[Buster the Bear]

LTNman, I hope the news is as we expect it to be? More new stands may well be needed!

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - French construction and management firm Vinci SGEF.PA sold its remaining 10.1 percent stake in British airports company TBI TBI.L for more than 36 million pounds ($66.3 million), dealers said on Wednesday.

Brokerage Evolution Beeson Gregory sold 56.5 million TBI shares at 64 1/2 pence to institutions and others, dealers said, adding that some had been bought by investment firms Laxey Partners and J.O. Hambro.

Vinci no longer has a stake in TBI, dealers said. The French firm was not immediately available to comment. TBI was also unavailable for comment.

Shares in TBI -- the owner of Luton airport, north of London -- were up 4.7 percent at 66-1/4 pence by 1344 GMT on heavy trading volume of 122 million shares. Dealers said the shares were lifted after Vinci\'s remaining stake was sold, as the expectation of a sale had been hanging over the shares for some time.

"There\'s been a lot of speculation in recent weeks that Vinci would sell the rest, so now there\'s going to be quite a lot of interest in the stock," said one trader.

Vinci pulled out of a takeover bid for TBI in September 2001 after the attacks that month in the United States plunged the aviation industry worldwide into a recession.

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

[The_Bean_Counter]

LTNMan

Easy obviously got word of tomorrow's announcement and decided to upstage it by announcing something new themselves. Whats the betting that their 3 new routes include some of the 3 new routes FR will announce tomorrow

[Buster the Bear]

So pax per annum:

easy jet 6,000,000
Wizz 1,000,000
New airline 1,750,000 (Rumoured here to be RYR ?)

Then add, Britannia, Monarch, Helios, Fisrt Choice etc...!
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[In trim]

Doug The Head,

I think you'll find most of the old -300's will be disappearing quite quickly, leaving the 'new' -300s (ordered direct from Boeing) and the -700s.

Suspect LTN unlikely as a 319 base as there are a lot of other more obvious candidate bases out there which will come first, bearing in mind LTN crews are all -700 and -300 rated, and LTN maintenance is set up for 737's.

[Doug the Head]

Yeah, let´s hope they get rid of those older -300´s as they really are a poor show for both crew and pax.

I´m affraid you´re right about the Bus coming to LTN, although there are some persistent rumours floating around in LTN and STN.

Buster, where did you get that new airline 1,75 million pax number from?

[Buster the Bear]

If the press release rumour is correct, based upon 85% loads it is roughly 1.75m, but what I am not too sure of is if the base will be an additional 4 aircraft, or 4 in total? 1.75m could be a little bit less then.

Anyway, we have been down this road before, Olney, Buster, LTNman, powerjet and others here will believe it when it is official, hopefully this time it will be?
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[LTNman]

If the rumour is true it might have something to do with this.

BAA will take court action against discount airline Ryanair over £1m the airport operator says it is owed.
BAA announced it would issue a High Court writ against the company, after a 1600BST Wednesday deadline was not met.

BAA says it is owed the money for landing fees at Stansted Airport. Ryanair said it would issue its own proceedings against BAA.

Ryanair, as with other airlines, receives a discount on BAA fees during the expansion of Stansted.

A spokesman for BAA told BBC News Online the carrier will still be able to operate out of the airport, but it will no longer receive those discounts.

The Irish airline's charges stand to nearly double as a result.

Ryanair immediately hit back at BAA "We are issuing our own proceedings against BAA for over-charging on fuel levies at Stansted over a 12-year period," a Ryanair spokesman said.

"As BAA is already aware, our agreement on charges is very specific and expires in 2007."

[LTNman]

Looks like MOL has got the a**e hole with BAA and will be expanding out of LTN from now on. Standby for a big announcement.

This from the BBC

BAA will take court action against discount airline Ryanair over £1m the airport operator says it is owed.
BAA announced it would issue a High Court writ against the company, after a 1600BST Wednesday deadline was not met.

BAA says it is owed the money for landing fees at Stansted Airport. Ryanair said it would issue its own proceedings against BAA.

Ryanair, as with other airlines, receives a discount on BAA fees during the expansion of Stansted.

A spokesman for BAA told BBC News Online the carrier will still be able to operate out of the airport, but it will no longer receive those discounts.

The Irish airline's charges stand to nearly double as a result.

Ryanair immediately hit back at BAA. "We are issuing our own proceedings against BAA for over-charging on fuel levies at Stansted over a 12-year period," a Ryanair spokesman said.

"As BAA is already aware, our agreement on charges is very specific and expires in 2007."

[Buster the Bear]

BLIMEY! MOL starting a war against the BAA who have supported him and his airline!............................

BAA set to fight Ryanair with writ and fee rise
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent


BAA, the airport operator, will today intensify its long battle with Ryanair by doubling the low-cost airline’s landing charges and starting legal action over allegedly unpaid airport fees.
BAA will issue a High Court writ against Ryanair, accusing the airline of failing to pay £1 million of airport charges incurred at Stansted.

BAA has also cancelled the discount Ryanair receives on airport charges and from today will charge the airline almost double the previous rate per passenger. The increase would cost Ryanair more than £25 million a year.

Ryanair will retaliate with counter-proceedings against BAA and by announcing a big expansion at Luton, owned by BAA’s closest rival, TBI.

The relationship between Ryanair and BAA had already been soured by calls from Michael O’Leary, the airline’s chief executive, for BAA to be broken up. He has accused BAA of exploiting its stranglehold on London through its ownership of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

Mr O’Leary has also claimed that BAA is “pissing away” billions of pounds of customers’ money on its expansion plans for Stansted. Ryanair says a new runway and terminal could be built there for as little as £200 million, a tenth of the £2 billion that BAA is planning to spend.

The latest dispute involves a bill for airport fees that BAA issued several months ago.

BAA said it would issue a writ today because Ryanair failed to meet a final deadline of 4pm yesterday for the bill to be settled. BAA says Ryanair has withheld the money because it claims BAA has been overcharging for use of fuel facilities provided at Stansted.

A BAA spokesman said that it had appealed to Mr O’Leary to step in and resolve the dispute, but its efforts had been rejected. The spokesman said: “It is unprecedented for us to take a customer to court in this way. We have a contract with Ryanair which says they have to pay these charges. They are not allowed to offset them against fuel charges. Our lawyers have also written to Ryanair saying the discount will no longer apply because they have broken the contract by not paying their bills.

“We have the power to impound their planes, but we have chosen not to do that because they are a valued customer.”

Ryanair had 12.5 million passengers at Stansted last year, 60 per cent of total traffic at the airport. The importance of Stansted to Ryanair was shown last year when it bought Buzz largely to secure the airline’s slots at the airport.

Ryanair is today expected to announce that it will nearly triple the aircraft it bases at Luton and establish nine new routes from there. At present it operates the equivalent of only 1.5 planes at Luton, but this will rise to four.

A Ryanair spokesman said: “We are issuing our own proceedings against BAA for over-charging on fuel levies at Stansted over a 12-year period.” The spokesman also claimed BAA could not legally cancel the discount Ryanair receives on airport charges.

EasyJet yesterday said that it is to add three aircraft to its 13 at Luton by next spring.

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

[smallpilot]

Surely if BAA is serious about wanting this money it should just impound a RYR aircraft? I bet the money would be paid by lunchtime if this happenned!
If this non-payment of landing fees is specific to RYR and no other airlines are late payers then it tells me a lot about RYR's business tactics....

One of my previous employers (A major bank) had a (unofficial) policy of not paying any invoices until the nasty letters started to arrive. It was done on the basis that the suppliers were normally small guys and couldnt afford to cause trouble with the bank as they needed the cashflow more than the bank needed the service supplied.
Finance Director got a shock one day when all the PC's crashed as a software provider came in and removed all his programmes. We needed the programmes and said software guy left the office only when payment was made. Drastic action but it worked. Taught the FD a lesson though!
Does anyone know is RYR known in the business as a late payer?

[PPRuNe Radar]

A few Mareva Injunctions will do the trick .... Vintage ATCO has done a few in his time I suspect :)

[CargoOne]

From what I know RYR is also well known for non-payment of landing fees to Hahn airport since it started to fly there. Ofcourse they pay SOMETIMES, but not too often.

I think if I can manage to refuse our payments to:
- airports
- fuel suppliers
- Eurocontrol
- leasing companies
- insurance companies
- maintenance and overhaul companies
- local offices electricity and gas suppliers
- staff salaries
- etc

then just give me 56 days and I will retire on day 57 being listed in Forbes top of the richest people :cool:

[Powerjet1]

Ryanair -Couple of the broadsheets are talking about 4 based aircraft & up to 9 new routes at LTN

[LTNman]

The airport must have run out of overnight stands now with this latest announcement due today. With any new stands needing planning permission the full notices will be going up soon. I guess that any BBJ operator looking to night stop might now be turned away.

I wonder if easyjet caught wind of what was going on and pledged three new aircraft to LTN weeks ago thus stopping FR basing seven aircraft at the airport.

TBI have been caught napping and need to spend some money now!

[Buster the Bear]

Well according to Ryanair on line booking the Bergamo flights will orginate from Luton with a 06:30 dep and the Dublin service reduces to 4 return flights per day from 5, but if a 737-800 is used there are actually 200 more seat available. Dublin has an earlier morning departure and a later arrival back in the evening.
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[Powerjet1]

Buster, it does look that way. The Dublin flights reduce to 4 x daily from 1 Nov, whilst the early Bergamo flight which originates in LTN starts 19 Jan 05. The second Bergamo flight seems to say the same, ie originating in BGY for the winter period.

[The_Bean_Counter]

just up on the FR website

Dinard x 1
Dublin x 4
Esbjerg x 1
Girona x 1
Reus x 1
Milan Bergamo x 2
Murcia x 1
Nimes x 1
Ciampino x 1
Stockholm Vasteras x 2

[Powerjet1]

News Release
22.07.04
RYANAIR ANNOUNCES $240M INVESTMENT IN LUTON BASE
9 NEW EUROPEAN LOW FARE ROUTES WITH 250,000 SEATS FROM JUST £1 !



Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, today (22nd July 2004) announced a major expansion of its London Luton base with an investment of $240 M in 4 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft and 9 NEW European routes from London Luton to:

BARCELONA (GIRONA) ESBJERG ROME
BARCELONA (REUS) MURCIA STOCKHOLM
DINARD NIMES VENICE


Ryanair, which began services at London Luton in 1986, already operates 14 daily international flights from Luton to Dublin and Milan, and this year will carry 1.6M passengers to/from Luton, saving consumers over £60M on high fares charged by Easyjet. This massive increase in routes, destinations and passenger numbers is also good news for the local economy too, because it will create and sustain over 1000 new jobs in the Luton area

Announcing this expansion of its Luton base today, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

"Consumers using London Luton airport now have a real low fares airline offering fares that are half the price of Easyjet, serving 11 destinations throughout Europe and delivering unbeatable punctuality, and that’s Ryanair.

Our message to Easyjet is simple:

Easyjet can’t match Ryanair’s low fares
Easyjet can’t match Ryanair’s punctuality

These new routes, with fares from an incredible £1 (excl. taxes) are available for booking right now, at www.ryanair.com, Europe’s biggest travel website.”

RYANAIR EASYJET
PUNCTUALITY 2003* 81% 68%
AVERAGE FARE** €40 €62
*SOURCE – OFFICIAL CAA STATS FOR 2003
** ANNUAL PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS

[Powerjet1]

RYANAIR ANNOUNCES $240M INVESTMENT IN LUTON BASE
9 NEW EUROPEAN LOW FARE ROUTES WITH 250,000 SEATS FROM JUST £1 !



Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, today (22nd July 2004) announced a major expansion of its London Luton base with an investment of $240 M in 4 new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft and 9 NEW European routes from London Luton to:

BARCELONA (GIRONA) ESBJERG ROME
BARCELONA (REUS) MURCIA STOCKHOLM
DINARD NIMES VENICE


Ryanair, which began services at London Luton in 1986, already operates 14 daily international flights from Luton to Dublin and Milan, and this year will carry 1.6M passengers to/from Luton, saving consumers over £60M on high fares charged by Easyjet. This massive increase in routes, destinations and passenger numbers is also good news for the local economy too, because it will create and sustain over 1000 new jobs in the Luton area

Announcing this expansion of its Luton base today, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

"Consumers using London Luton airport now have a real low fares airline offering fares that are half the price of Easyjet, serving 11 destinations throughout Europe and delivering unbeatable punctuality, and that’s Ryanair.

Our message to Easyjet is simple:

Easyjet can’t match Ryanair’s low fares
Easyjet can’t match Ryanair’s punctuality

These new routes, with fares from an incredible £1 (excl. taxes) are available for booking right now, at www.ryanair.com, Europe’s biggest travel website.”

RYANAIR EASYJET
PUNCTUALITY 2003* 81% 68%
AVERAGE FARE** €40 €62
*SOURCE – OFFICIAL CAA STATS FOR 2003
** ANNUAL PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS

[irishmafia]

just announced 4 more ac to be based there usual hype.

[Copenhagen]

Its all down to the fact that FR are losing their cheap landing rights for STN. Expect growth at LTN and Southend???

[PitotTube]

Press release:

http://www.ryanair.com/press/2004/jul/rte-en-220704.html

/pt

[The_Bean_Counter]

Looks as if the Esbjerg, Dinard, Vasteras and Nimes flights are all moving.

The Venice, Rome, Barcelona and Murcia services are all additionals.

[Mark Lewis]

Not starting until January though.

[Powerjet1]

Apart from Dinard starting 11 Oct 04

[colegate]

Me thinks that what we are seeing here are signs of serious tension between BAA and Ryanair. Please remember that BAA has by far the deeper pocket. They do not need Ryanair but Ryanair need Stansted. Strength always wins in situations like this.

This is also an indication of just how bitter the senseless pricewar between the low cost carriers is going to become. I am thankful that I do not own shares in Ryanair. Any such shares look as if they are to become worthless.

When a substantal business like Ryanair is not paying its bills you have got to get cautious.

Watch this space. The wimnter of 2004/5 will provide bankrupticies among the low cost airlines. Ryanair is starting to look very vulnerable.

[TS Hauler]

Colegate

FR are very clever at everything they do. Never underestimate them. They are canny people. MOL didn't get rich by playing the soft game - he and his team play hard ball. With a balance sheet and a cost base like Ryanair's - it's the others who should watch out.

As for taking on BAA, then good - if only they would/could work in concert with VS, LH, UA and BM at LHR to reduce the high capital charges that BAA impose on all airlines.

TS

[Cyrano]

A little puzzled by MO'L's arithmetic. His press release claims RYR's fares are "half the price of Easyjet" but from the table later in the same release, RYR's average yield is EUR40 against EUR62 for EZY. I mean, if you're going to be economical with the truth wouldn't you at least try to be consistent within the same release? :*

[Standard Jet Dep]

I think you have mentioned something quite important there TS, regarding what BAA charge and its service levels to its "customers". High landing fees, nice profit and more interest in gaining retail outlets. I understand a business is there to make money, but I personally think they give nothing back to the airlines. There "customers"!!
This situation with Ryanair will be a very interesting one to watch.

[brabazon]

Cyrano

One of Ryanair's trademarks is their ability to be "economical with the truth" when it comes to statistics, even their tag-line on their website says: "50% cheaper than easyJet". As you say that doesn't strictly tie in with their own data which would infer that they are 35% cheaper than easyJet. However, they could (and in other places have) turned it around and said that easyJet are 50% more expensive than Ryanair. Which I believe is right, in fact it's 55%. (So long as I've done the right calculations in Excel).

Anyway the last two days could be another defining period for UK LCCs when easyJet and Ryanair push their Luton presence to the point when the airport infrastructure may start to be a limit and passenger loyalty may be stretched and when bmi baby decide to cannibalise their NEMA market by developing BHX as a base. Is there really enough new demand to go around?

[Avro Arrow]

The determing limitations on capacity will probably be:

Stands
Gates
Runway at peak - No parallel taxiway/RET combination - slots
NATS and airspace
Cash

If you go back to 1998 before Buster's "Tinminal" was opened over 5m pax went though a terminal designed for half that number. Remember how bad things were then. Luton's passenger/customer base has changed since then surely(?). Will they accept the overcrowding unless they open the first floor of said "Tinminal".

In addition, Luton Borough Council will be dancing around the town hall with all that extra concession fee money they will make.

I guess TBI be looking very carefully at these new opportunities before they commit to anything.

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

Given the statement by the airport on their Website, I would guess that they are delighted with all the new business.

Bearing in mind their previous statements about investing in new infrastructure when the business is there I would expect to see the first floor of the "Tinminal" opened and an additional "6-pack" of stands built. Watch this space!

[LTNman]

From January Ryanair will have 32 movements a day out of LTN.

The good news is that Luton already has planning permission for a new immigration hall and a continuation of the existing walkway to the northern and eastern aprons. The first floor only needs fitting out and a staircase and lifts putting in. The new airport dual carriageway will be started next year.

The bad news is that no planning application has gone in yet for a new apron or a full length parallel taxiways although I have heard that the airport might use the cargo apron for additional stands in the short term. The baggage reclaim area is already over crowded with no improvement in sight. Car parking is an issue particularly with half of the existing mid term car park set to become a dual carriageway although a new site has been identified. The central area is congested with no simple solution.

[Shaka Zulu]

It may look like the knives are being sharpened, but the only route FR and EZY share out of LTN is the Barcelona route (albeit EZY serves El Prat, FR Reus and Girona).
It's already a shambles with stands at the moment in LTN, look at the amount of BizzJets currently fly out of here.
And with the taxiways as they are, you need the a/c landing at least on a 6NM final to let another 737 onto the runway backtrack and take-off. It's far from ideal.
TBI should get their fingers out of their arses and do something, but it seems government is not playing ball either.

MOL isn't thick, a lot of what this guy does or seems to do, seems really far fetched. He didn't make money out of the blue, this guy knows what he's doing. This winter will see a lot of things happening in aviation, and it ain't pretty.

[TopSwiss 737]

Has anybody else heard the rumour that FR want to start operations out of Geneva with the new low cost terminal coming up soon?

[CentreFix25]

Just following on from Avro Arrow's post, why when they built half a parallel taxiway few years back didn't they go all the way to the end?

[LTNman]

They used the earth that was dug out from under the new terminal and the east apron to build up the land to the north of the runway for the new taxiway. The bottom line is that they run out of soil and to import it was too expensive.

The lack of a full length taxiway isn’t having that much impact as the runway has handled over 30 movements an hour when required.

[CAP670]

Quote: "It's already a shambles with stands at the moment in LTN, look at the amount of BizzJets currently fly out of here.
And with the taxiways as they are, you need the a/c landing at least on a 6NM final to let another 737 onto the runway backtrack and take-off. It's far from ideal."

Shaka Zulu may be right about the six mile spacing necessary to accommodate departures at Luton, but until the departure routes out of Luton are afforded the same ATC handling and priority as routes out of Gatwick, Heathrow and (most of) Stansted, a one-and-half minute movement rate afforded by a full-length parallel taxiway is unachievable.

This requires a fundamental re-design of the airspace and route structure - something that the 'experts' at the CAA couldn't probably manage in less than five years. After all, it would take the neddies twelve months just to convene a meeting to discuss the issue.

NATS and its controllers do the best they can with airspace that's a total can of worms, long overdue for revision.

The six mile spacing at Luton compares very favourably with the spacing at Gatwick (also a single runway operation) and the fact that it works most times is a credit to the aircraft crews and to the NATS controllers at Luton and at West Drayton.

Stand allocation at Luton isn't a 'shambles' - it's simply a case of running at capacity because of various increases in business. Heathrow on a far larger and grander scale is just the same - look at how many times it has a 'Full House' situation because they've run out of stands for arrivals.

If the business is there, you can bet that TBI will pour concrete and if the vultures in Luton Council see all these extra pound notes winging their way, rest assured there won't be any formal opposition to another few parking spots, especially if Ryanair's expansion creates some additional employment in that run down toilet town...


:ok: :ok: :ok:

[Shaka Zulu]

I agree with the other problems LTN airport have with SID/STARS accross the London TMA, point taken.
But if there is no will to move forward, maybe even with some bold/brash forward thinking I can't see why LTN should not be able to get more flights in and out of here especially during peak times.
It's just so apparent that the initial plans for the terminal were cancelled. Upstairs Departures to Jetways, Downstairs Arrivals.

Maybe LTN has grown enough now and maybe via optimizing capacity it will be able to handle more pax but sometimes I hope somebody else than BAA does something a little bit earlier than normal. So capacity is there when you need it. Frustrating.

See how MOL fairs then ey

[runawayedge]

'Watch this space. The wimnter of 2004/5 will provide bankrupticies among the low cost airlines. Ryanair is starting to look very vulnerable.'

Colgate...you are so funny, it borders on hilarious, have you any idea of the size of FR's reserves. Ryanair have a history of moving flights when full charges apply. Airports should know that by now! They are so greedy to take in the business in the first instance, they never look down the road, they once the routes are successful they gamble on the airline not moving. I am not a fan of FR, but in this case I say hats off. I would caution LTN to structure a water tight long-term deal with no ambiguity. BAA deserve a kck on the teeth, they expect business to fall in front of them, treat it like dirt, and wonder then why they complain.

[Buster the Bear]

Now I realise we all like to make up TALL stories, but 4 x B737-800's based at Luton will create 1000 jobs locally!

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

[LTNman]

By the end of January there will be 32 Ryanair movements a day into and out of Luton. Ryanair aircraft have an average load factor of around 80%, which means around 150 passengers per flight, 4800 passengers per day or 1,747,200 per year. As Ryanair has around 600,000 passengers using Luton at the moment the 1,000,000 extra passengers is meant to equal 1000 jobs which is based on the work done by the Government's consultants

[Powerjet1]

LTN-DUB seems to go back up to 5 daily from 27 March

[kala87]

It's a shame FR aren't going to move their Newquay Cornwall flights to LTN along with the other destinations. Much better connections to London from LTN than from that Essex airport. It makes a difference when the flight is only 60 minutes duration. Any chance, MOL??

The extra flights are good news for LTN but to be sure, MOL isn't doing it because of his love of Luton Airport. Remember the late 1980's, when LTN was their London base? IF BAA have a change of heart (ie become cheaper again or offer more incentives) then those flights could move back to STN.

On another theme, is it too much to ask the airport management to provide decent car parks (potholes everywhere), and to clean up the litter more efficiently/more frequently that is all too obvious outside the terminal, close to the fence? Baggage reclaim has always been a bit of a joke (cramped, not enough carousels). What can't UK airport designers/operators get it right? Buildings that resemble tin sheds, acres of ghastly carpets, poor signeage, in-your-face shopping ads, litter, badly designed car parking, poor access... ordo the great British flying public get the airports they deserve??

[Buster the Bear]

I still do not see how 1000 jobs will come from an extra 1,000,000 pax via RYR? Maybe 200 staff to fly and crew inc those already based and a few line maintenance staff, a few extra at check in, security, apron staff, a couple of extra re-fuellers?

The days of 1000 workers to 1,000,000 pax were in the times of high cost airlines. RYR will employ only the bear (Not me) minimum and so will their sub contractors.

Anyway, still blissfully good news for Luton. Who knows just how long it will last though.
http://www.ajpotts.fsnet.co.uk/beartumble.gif

[bacardi walla]

Classic case of MOL fudging the figures to make FR look good. Fact is, they ain't that good...... see other currently running threads.

FR would do well to look at LTN-PIK-LTN in competition with EZY and maybe get into Spain a bit more, maybe MJV !

With some STN routes looking like they will close when the -300's vanish, MOL will need to start new routes or increase frequency on others to compensate.

Anyway, FR will move back into STN when the dust settles. But then with all the shiny new -800's he can't afford arriving at a fast rate, where will he park them? Even STN is getting full....

[LTNman]

With BAA spending money like water at Stansted the airport will soon be an expensive airport to operated from although the airport is ideal for Ryanair as it likes to operate from airports in the middle of nowhere and you can’t get a much more remote airport in southern England than Stansted.

On the other hand TBI are always short of money and like to spend next to nothing at Luton unless they really have to which is something Ryanair will like. The state of the short term car park is a classic example although I have heard that TBI are going to rent it out to Land Rover as an ideal testing ground for their vehicles.
:ok:

[Powerjet1]

Agreed LTN Man. TBI & Ryanair are almost like one of a kind when it comes to spending money and in that they are well suited.

Luton will always have 'limited' use for Ryanair as against STN but MOL probably sees it as not such a bad thing to base the odd additional aircraft at LTN every few months and add a couple of routes every so often, as the occassional alternative to the high spending, money grabing, monopoly known as BAA.

Access is easier at LTN and some believe LTN may actually out-perform those routes that will be continued & run in parallel with those from STN. At the end of the day, easy do very well out of LTN & STN, so why shouldn't ryanair do the same and have a piece of the action.

Arn't NCP meant to be adding 2000 car parking spaces to cover the expected increase in pax. If so, where?. Needs a multi-storey somewhere.

[LTNman]

According to the airport's website London Luton Airport has passed the 7 million barrier. It passed the 6 million barrier in October 2000, I guess this time next year 8 million will be passed.

I also see in the airports new passenger magazine that the first floor above the check-in area plus 2 new piers will be open for Christmas 2005.

I would have thought that TBI would like their 2 stands back that are being used by EasyTech for their tent.

[brabazon]

Buster, bmibaby use the same rule of thumb as Ryanair - ie 1,000 jobs per 1,000,000 passengers:

"However, with the one million plus passengers we're projecting from Birmingham by 2005, Department for Transport figures suggest that the wider local impact of bmibaby in the West Midlands will be an additional 1,000 local jobs." quote from Tony Davis, MD of bmibaby.

The DfT in turn undoubtedly were influenced by consultants such as York Aviation

http://www.yorkaviation.co.uk

who recently produced this report for the ACI Europe:

http://www.eraa.org/socialecoimpact.pdf

It is debatable exactly how many regional jobs are created due to new services at an airport.

[Powerjet1]

LTN Man

If, and it is a big if, Wizzair are still around and flying to LTN this time next year, 8m pax might be a little conservative. With a couple of things still 'brewing', a figure nearer 9m pax is quite possible.

[Buster the Bear]

The Baltic News Service reports easyJet is in talks with Tallinn Airport about starting services to the Estonian capital. However, the talks are believed to have stalled over the airline’s demand for lower charges.

Eduard Turr, the airport’s marketing director, told Estonian daily Postimees: ‘If we were to meet them halfway, we’d have to lower airport fees for all carriers.’ But he added that one option could be to offer easyJet ‘lower fees outside rush hours’.

According to the report, easyJet is also considering launching flights to Riga.
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

My diminutive spy tells me that some sort of meeting was held at Luton yesterday to discuss plans for building the very much needed new stands.

Anybody out there with some more definitive information?

[LTNman]

Three locations have been identified for future aprons so take your pick which will be the first.
1/ Opposite the east apron on the other side of taxiway delta.
2/ Between the east apron and the south stands which is presently the short term car park.
3/ Opposite the short term car park on the other side of taxiway delta.

Whatever the choice planning permission will be required which will delay the start.

Also where are the staff parking these days? Their car park is now the north apron so they were shifted next to the Harrods hangar with a staff bus taking them to work but this is now the long-term car park.

[Powerjet1]

Buster

Less than two weeks to go before that screaming old 732 departs for the last time. 738 - here I come. No more interupted 'snoozes' in your bearpit. How will you wake up in the morning?. 07.10 will never be the same again - we hope!!

What are the chances of a LTN-PIK in the not too distant future. Reasonable?.

[Buster the Bear]

My 07:10 Luton on Westerlies, wake up, still hear it on Easterlies!

I am booked on one of the last flights, day return for £25!

Prestwick, 200's.....please say you are joking?

I hate them 200's now, will miss em' when retired! Bring back the 1-11's!

That would really hack off me and easyjet, a 06:50 departure!

When is a bear supposed to sleep!

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

[Powerjet1]

Am I right in thinking that the new 738 that starts ops from Luton next Monday, is the one just delivered to Ryan from Boeing, in the 'Dreamliner' livery, or is this destined to be based elsewhere. Anyone confirm?.

[LTNman]

According to the newsgroup free.uk.airports-luton this is the aircraft that will be LTN based http://www.airliners.net/open.file/680437/L/

[Powerjet1]

Thanks. Nice pics

[Buster the Bear]

I see easy have/are to reduce LTN-CDG from 5 to 3 flights per day!

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

[Powerjet1]

Today saw the start of the new Dinard service operated by the first, new, 738 in the 'Boeing Dreamliner' livery. Will also operate the LTN-DUB route. Should be considerably quieter around LTN now, with the old 732 gone to pastures new.

From the ryanair website, it usual Ryan voice speak.......


News Release
11.10.04
RYANAIR EXPANDS LUTON BASE




BRAND NEW BOEING 737-800 AIRCRAFT & 75% OFF THE LOWEST FARES!


Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, today (11th October 04) celebrated the expansion of its Luton base with a giant 75% OFF OUR LOWEST FARES SEAT SALE. The inaugural flight from Luton to Dinard in France today is the first of 9 new international daily routes which Ryanair will operate from Luton in addition to the highly successful Dublin and Milan routes. The occasion was also marked with the arrival of the first of four brand new Boeing 737-800’s (the world’s most successful jetliner) which has been especially liveried in the new Boeing Blue colours.

Speaking in Luton today, Ryanair’s Deputy CEO, Michael Cawley said:

“Consumers using London Luton airport now have a real low fares airline offering fares that are half the price of Easyjet, delivering unbeatable punctuality and that’s Ryanair! Ryanair is Europe’s No.1 low fares airline, and huge part of our success is our partnership with Boeing and our exclusive use of the Boeing 737-800 series aircraft. It is simply the best aircraft for passenger comfort, efficiency and reliability and enables us to offer more to consumers with lower fares, Europe’s No.1 for punctuality and customer service.

For consumers, our expansion at Luton means 4 brand new Boeing aircraft and a total of 11 low fare international destinations throughout Europe. Our message to Easyjet is simple – Easyjet can’t match Ryanair’s low fares and they can’t match Ryanair’s punctuality either. To celebrate the arrival of low fares at Luton we’re offering a fantastic 75% OFF our lowest fares. Raynair’s seat sales are incredibly popular and we would urge consumers to book immediately at www.ryanair.com.”

Eric Hild, Sales Director Boeing Commercial Airplanes said:

"We are pleased to be helping Ryanair celebrate the launch of their Luton service to Dinard. The airplane we delivered last week to Ryanair in the new Boeing livery is just a visual example of our very successful partnership. We are looking forward to working together to continue bringing affordable air travel to Europe".

[LTNman]

This thread was started last July with the news that easyJet were to base a further 3 aircraft at LTN taking their total to 16. In fact only 1 new aircraft has been based at LTN taking the total to 14. What happened to the other 2?

Wednesday 19th January sees the start of new routes from Ryanair with their fleet of 4 LTN based aircraft.

[Powerjet1]

The original press release stated 3 additional aircraft would be based at LTN by the end of March 05. Some of the new routes already started, seem to have been at the expense of a reduction in rotations on other routes, ie Paris CDG, Athens etc.

Does seem strange though, what with the summer timetable already announced. I suppose it is still possible with about two & half months to go, but I can't see easy announcing more routes/increased freqs to cover two further aircraft during that time. Perhaps the aircraft are now to go elsewhere?.

[LTNman]

This thread was started last July with the news that easyJet were to base a further 3 aircraft at LTN taking their total to 16. In fact only 1 new aircraft has been based at LTN taking the total to 14. What happened to the other 2?

I was wrong, still only 13 LTN based easyjet aircraft so nothing has changed! Big announcement last July to steal some of Ryanair’s thunder about their new LTN based aircraft then it all gets forgotten.

So has LTN’s recent growth spurt come just from Wizz?

[pabely]

New LTN expansion news...?

LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Irish low-cost airline Ryanair said on Wednesday it expected to break even in the second half of its financial year and confirmed a market forecast for annual profit of around 200 million euros ($262 million).

"With only two months to go in the year it is looking pretty much in line with general expectations," Ryanair (RYA.I: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive Michael O'Leary told Reuters in an interview.

He said the airline expected passenger numbers to increase by 20 percent in the current fiscal year to the end of March following a strong December.

Ryanair shares were up 1.9 percent at 5.86 euros in a firmer broader market at 1225 GMT. The stock is trading at its highest level since the company shocked the market with a profit warning in January last year.

The company, which competes aggressively on short-haul European routes, flagged a further expansion at Luton Airport north of London, the home base of rival budget airline easyJet (EZJ.L: Quote, Profile, Research) .

O'Leary told Reuters that Ryanair planned to base another two to three aircraft at the airport by summer 2006 as its main base at Stansted reaches full capacity.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ryanair launched six new routes from Luton, where it has three aircraft based.

The Dublin-based airline, which has been expanding rapidly despite its exposure to high fuel costs and falling ticket prices, said last week it was reversing plans to expand from Milan following a dispute with airport authorities there.

O'Leary said the company would make an announcement in the next two weeks about where it would redeploy the planned Milan flights.

Reflecting on the unveiling of the giant Airbus A380 aircraft in France on Tuesday, O'Leary predicted the superjumbo would be a success, although talk by customer airlines about installing lavish facilities was marketing hype.

"Clearly it is going to wipe the floor with the 747," he said.

"Will it be a success? Yes. Will you see things like gyms bars and a massage parlour in them? No."

Ryanair only flies short-haul and is not in the market for the A380.

The carrier beat forecasts in November with a net profit of 200.1 million euros and said yields -- average revenue per passenger -- would decline 5 to 10 percent in the second half.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

[Buster the Bear]

RYANAIR boss Michael O'Leary today warned that the bloodbath in the lowcost airline industry would continue this year as more European airlines are forced to the wall.

Speaking as the Irish carrier launched six new routes in a major expansion at Luton, O'Leary added that it would be Ryanair turning the screw on the rest of the sector by continuing to grow. He said: "The bloodbath will continue as competitors will lose money and go out of business. The problem for all of our competitors is that the lowest priced operator keeps expanding. It's a bit like Tesco. Ryanair is the Tesco of the airline industry." Italian low-cost operator Volare became the latest victim in the battle among no-frills operators before Christmas. O'Leary said UK holiday company MyTravel has also switched some of its
low-cost aircraft back on to charter routes. "It's happening just as we said it would," he added.

Ryanair began flights on six routes to Europe from Luton today It plans 12 routes in total from the Bedfordshire airport, traditionally the home of easyJet, following a fierce row over access charges with rival airport Stansted. Ryanair claims to have taken record bookings for the six new routes. O'Leary added he "couldn't care less" about any reaction by easyJet. "It's like
waiting for a reaction from a dead sheep," he said.

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

4 x B737-800's with 189 seats = 5 x B737-300/700's with 149 seats!

[MarkD]

I dunno, the thought of packing a 380 with 800 punters must appeal to MOL on some level. Although his hatred of jetways would mean pretty high mobile stairs would be needed to get on, but he could use air cushions to get people off like the fire brigade use in movies to catch jumpers :D

[Jamesair]

Ryanair has announced a new route to Dinard from Stansted today.

[LTNman]

Thought this was an old route that was just transferred to Luton. Now to be operated from both airports.

[Buster the Bear]

They did this with Nimes as well.

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

[LTNman]

So the Ryanair statement that they are moving flights from Stansted to Luton because of their dispute with BAA is just so much bull.