Luton Airport
| London Luton Airport | |
 | |
|---|---|
| Code | IATA: LTN, ICAO: EGGW |
| County | Bedfordshire |
| International | |
| Location | Luton TL12312088 51°52’31"N, 0°22’12"W |
| Website | www.london-luton.co.uk |
Luton Airport, now officially named London Luton Airport (and formerly Luton International Airport) is an international airport located a mile and half east of the town centre of Luton in Bedfordshire. The airport is two miles from Junction 10a of the M1 motorway.
Luton is the fourth-largest airport serving the London area, exceeded in capacity only by Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. It is one of seven airports to which now bear the name of London, along with Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead, London City, Southend and Oxford.
In 2008, over 10 million passengers passed through the airport in a single year for the first time. However, passenger numbers were slightly lower during 2011 at 9.5 million, making Luton the fifth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom. The airport serves as a base for EasyJet, Monarch Airlines, Thomson Airways and Ryanair. The vast majority of the routes served are within Europe, although there are some charter and scheduled routes to destinations in Northern Africa and Asia.
History
Early history
An airport was opened on the site on 16 July 1938 by the then Secretary of State for Air, Kingsley Wood. During Second World War, it was a base for Royal Air Force fighters. Standing where the valley of the River Lea cuts its way through the north-east end of the Chiltern Hills, the airport occupies a hill-top location, with a roughly 130-foot drop-off at the western end of the runway.
After the war, the land was returned to the local council which continued activity at the airport as a commercial operation. Percival Aircraft had its factory at the airport until the early 1960s.
From the mid 1960s, executive aircraft have been based at the airport, initially operated by McAlpine Aviation. These activities have grown and several executive jet operators and maintenance companies are now based at the airport, handling aircraft from all over the world.
It became the operating base for charter airlines such as Autair (which went on to become Court Line), Euravia (now Thomson Airways, following Euravia's change of name to Britannia Airways and subsequent merger with First Choice Airways), Dan-Air and Monarch Airlines. In 1972, Luton Airport was the most profitable airport in the country. It suffered a severe setback in August 1974 when major package holiday operator Clarksons and its in-house airline Court Line (which also operated local bus services) went bankrupt.
1980s and 1990s
In the 80s the airport was seeing a decline in customer numbers, this was due to lack of re investment and Stansted. The council responded to lobbying and focused again on developing the airport, first by operating the Airport at arms length via an independent management team. As a result, necessary infra structure work was undertaken. The next 15 years saw a process of updating, including the opening of a new international terminal,an automated baggage handling facility, a new control tower with updated air traffic control systems, a new cargo centre and runway upgrades.
The original runways had been grass tracks 18/36 and 06/24, and then a concrete runway 08/26. By the end of the 80s there was only one runway, 08/26. The 18/36 grass runway had disappeared under a land fill, while 06/24 had effectively become a taxiway. To remain a viable airport it was necessary to update airfield services and achieve CAT3 status. This meant updating ILS; glidepath & localiser and removing the hump in the runway; even a six-foot man could not see one end of the runway from the other. The hump was removed by building up layers at the end of the runway; this was done over 72 successive nights between October 1988 & February 1989, with the height raised 3½ inches on one particular night. During the course of this work the airport would reopen for flights during the day.
While developing the basic infrastructure, various business partners were courted and business models were considered. The process envisaged a cargo centre, an airport railway station and a people-mover from the station to the airport Terminal (hence the unused underpass parallel to the road as you approach the terminal).
In 1990, the airport was renamed London Luton Airport to re-emphasise the airport's proximity to the capital. In 1991, another setback occurred when Ryanair, which had flown from the airport to Ireland for a number of years, transferred its London operating base to Stansted Airport. Later in the 90s, MyTravel Group began charter flights from the airport, using the Airtours brand and new low-cost scheduled flights from Debonair and EasyJet, the latter making Luton its base.
In August 1997, to fund an £80 million extension of the airport, the council issued a 30-year concession contract to a public private partnership consortium, London Luton Airport Operations Limited, a partnership of Airport Group International (AGI) and Barclays Private Equity. AGI was a specialist airport management and development company once owned by Lockheed Martin Corp. of USA and Barclays P E was a Barclays Bank subsidiary. In 1999 AGI was sold to TBI plc and in 2001 Barclays also sold its shares in Luton to TBI plc.
The main feature of the development phase in 1998 was a £40 million terminal made from aluminium and glass, based on an original design by Foster and Partners. The new terminal, which was officially opened in November 1999 by The Queen and Prince Philip, houses 60 check-in desks, baggage and flight information systems and a wide range of shops, restaurants and bars.
Recent history
In September 2004, a new terminal was completed covering 9,000 square feet and featuring a spectacular vaulted ceiling. It was intended to lie unused until required. The new departure hall opened on schedule on 1 July 2005 and features a new boarding pier extending 200 yards out between the airport's north and east aprons and relocated security, customs and immigration facilities. This also expanded the number of boarding gates from the previous number of 19 to the current 26.
In January 2005, London Luton Airport Operations Limited was acquired by Airport Concessions Development Limited, a company owned by Abertis Infraestructuras (90%) and Aena Internacional (10%), both Spanish companies. Abertis is a European infrastructure provider, whilst Aena Internacional is the international business arm of the Spanish national airport and air traffic control organisation. Airline Silverjet operated flights to Newark (USA) and Dubai from a dedicated terminal between 2006 and 2008; however, the airline has since ceased operations due to the global economic crisis.
Development plans and the future
In 2004 the airport management announced[1] 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)[2] and Stop Luton Airport Plan (SLAP)[3] 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 had decided to scrap plans to build a second runway and new terminal for financial reasons.[4]
In order for the airport to expand further, the Department for Transport (DfT) advised the airport authority to use the airport site more efficiently. The DfT supports plans to extend the runway from its current 2,160 m length to 3,000 m (3,281 yards) and increase the length of the taxiway. A full-length runway would increase airlines' operational flexibility by enabling the use of aircraft that have a greater payload capacity and longer range than is currently possible. A longer taxiway would maximise runway utilsation by reducing the need for taxiing aircraft to cross or move along the runway.
The airport today
The airport possesses a single runway, running roughly east to west, with a length of 2,362 yards. The runway is equipped with an Instrument Landing System (ILS) rated to Category IIIB, allowing the airport to continue operating in conditions of poor visibility.[5][6] 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 (which goes under the taxiway) to a bus station, drop off area, taxi rank and short term car park on the runway side of the terminal building. There are approximately 60 stands available for aircraft. All of these 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, emphasising the fact that Luton is a major maintenance base for several airlines. 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 (LLAOL). London Luton Airport has a Civil Aviation Authority Public Use Aerodrome Licence 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.[7] The airport has become even more critical to the future of Luton given the closure of the Vauxhall Motors factory in March 2002.
Luton Airport in popular culture
Luton Airport became widely known as a result of the television series Airline and Luton Airport. The former follows the staff of EasyJet at Luton and the airline's other bases across the country whilst in Luton Airport, broadcast in 2005, followed the life of employees at the airport in a similar format to the show Airport which follows staff at Heathrow Airport.
The airport was 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.
The airport was the punchline in a much celebrated and parodied Campari advert featuring Lorraine Chase. The advert was filmed in an idyllic country-house garden with Chase having drinks with an elegant, sophisticated gentleman suitor played by Jeremy Clyde. To his romantic question "Were you truly wafted here from paradise?" Chase answered in her full cockney accent "Nah, Luton Airport!" This advert launched Lorraine Chase's television career (and was the source for an execrable 1979 song by Cats UK).
The airport recently featured in the series "Supersize Grime" which focused on the cleaning of an Airbus A321 at the Monarch Aircraft Engineering Ltd hangar 127.
Surface access
Luton is connected:
- By road, close to the M1 motorway between London and Leeds
- By rail at Luton Airport Parkway railway station, built in 1999 to serve the airport.
- By shuttle busses between station nad airport
- By local busses from Luton town centre and other nearby places, and coaches from further afield including London's Victoria Coach Station and other airports.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Luton Airport) |
References
- ↑ "London Luton Airport – Future Developments". London-luton.co.uk. http://www.london-luton.co.uk/en/content.asp?area=4&id=218. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
- ↑ "Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise – Campaign Headlines". Ladacan.org. 22 January 2011. http://www.ladacan.org/. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
- ↑ Stop Luton Airport Plan
- ↑ "New runway plans at Luton shelved". BBC News. 6 July 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/6276506.stm. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
- ↑ "Luton Airport Technical Data". TMC Ltd. http://www.luton-airport.info/luton-airport-technical-data.htm. Retrieved 20 December 2006.
- ↑ "Community Newsletter – August 2006". London Luton Airport. http://www.london-luton.co.uk/en/download.asp?id=170. Retrieved 21 December 2006.
- ↑ "Luton South", UK Polling Report