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London Luton Airport (IATA: LTN, ICAO: EGGW) (previously called Luton International Airport) is about 35 miles north of London and east of the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England. 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. It is one of London's 5 international airports, along with London City Airport.

In 2005, total passengers at London Luton increased by 21.5% to 9.13 million, making it the UK's sixth busiest airport and the fastest growing UK airport. Growth slowed to 3% in 2006, when passengers totalled 9.41 million. The airport serves as a hub for easyJet, Monarch Airlines, Thomsonfly, First Choice Airways, Thomas Cook Airlines, Wizz Air, Silverjet and Ryanair.

History

An airport was opened on the site on the 16 July, 1938 by the Secretary of State for Air, Kingsley Wood. During the Second World War it was a base for Royal Air Force fighters.

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 tour operators such as Euravia (now TUI, following previous growth as Britannia Airways) and Monarch Airlines. 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.

The next fifteen years saw a process of rebuilding, including the opening of a new international terminal in 1985. In 1990 the airport was renamed London Luton Airport to boost the profile of the airport in the eyes of foreign visitors heading to London. In 1991 another setback occurred when Ryanair, who had flown from the airport to Ireland for a number of years, transferred its base of operations to Stansted. Later in the 90s MyTravel Group PLC 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 hub.

In August 1997, to fund a £80 million extension of the airport, the council issued a 30 year management contract to a public private partnership consortium, London Luton Airport Operations Limited , which was headed by Barclays Bank. Barclays later sold 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 which The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh officially opened in November 1999. The building is nicknamed "The Tinshed" by locals. The new terminal houses 60 check-in desks, baggage and flight information systems and a wide range of shops, restaurants and bars. In the design brief for the 1999 terminal, a 9000 sq ft first floor area featuring a spectacular vaulted ceiling originally conceived by Sir Norman Foster, was built but intended to lie unused until required.

In September 2004, development work started on a major project to transfer departures from the International Terminal Building built in 1985, to the previously unused first floor of the 1999 Terminal Building. The new departure hall opened on schedule on 1 July 2005 and features a new boarding pier extending 190 metres out between the airport's north & east Aprons and relocated security, customs and immigration facilities.

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.

Description

The topography of the Luton area, situated where the valley of the River Lea cuts its way through the north-east end of the Chiltern Hills, has influenced the location of the airport. The airport occupies a hill-top location, with a steep drop-off to the town of Luton.

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 meters). 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 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.

Luton Today

The airport is 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 the town has the highest number of taxi cabs 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 car factory.

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

The airport has been featured on two popular British television series. Airline, follows the staff of easyJet at Luton and the airlines other hubs across the country.

In 2005, a series called Luton Airport was shown which followed the life of employees at Luton 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".

The advert inspired a 1979 UK hit by Cats U.K. entitled "Luton Airport".

Development plans and the future

In 2004 the airport management announced that they supported the government plans to expand the facilities to include a full-length runway.. Local campaign groups including LADACAN and SLAP are opposed to the new expansion plans. The expansion plans would result in the destruction of Someries castle, a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Access to the airport

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.

A railway station, Luton Airport Parkway, was built to serve the airport. It is served by Midland Main Line, with services to London St Pancras and to the north, and by First Capital Connect, with services to Bedford, St Albans, London, Wimbledon, Sutton, London Gatwick Airport and Brighton. A free shuttle bus connects the station to the airport, a distance of just over a mile. There are plans to replace the shuttle bus with a segregated tracked transit system.

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 (running to London Victoria) and Easybus (running to Baker Street). National Express coaches link the airport to other towns in the midlands and north of England.

Air Traffic

Formerly, charter passenger services provided the main traffic for the airport, with few scheduled passenger services. Whilst the airport still carries a significant number of charter flights, it is now also a major hub for several low-cost carriers, with scheduled services to many European destinations.

The airport is a major centre for business jets, with an executive aviation base run by Harrods Aviation, part of the same group as London's Harrods department store. The airport is served by cargo airlines, as well as being used by the England football team when flying out to international games.

Scheduled airlines

Scheduled airlines operating out of Luton include:

• Aer Arann (Galway, Waterford)
• easyJet (Aberdeen, Alicante, Amsterdam, Athen, Barcelona, Basel/Mulhouse, Belfast-International, Berlin-Schönefeld, Bordeaux, Bremen, Budapest, Cagliari, Dortmund, Edinburgh, Faro, Geneva, Glasgow-International, Grenoble, Ibiza , Inverness, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen, Kraków, Lisbon, Madrid, Málaga, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Charles De Gaulle, Rijeka, Turin, Warsaw, Zurich )
• Monarch Airlines (Alicante, Almería , Faro, Gibraltar, Gran Canaria, Ibiza , Lanzarote-Arrecife, Málaga, Menorca, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife-South)
• Ryanair (Brest, Dublin, Fez, Girona, Knock, Malta, Marrakech, Milan-Bergamo, Murcia, Nimes, Reus, Rome-Ciampino, Shannon, Treviso)
• Silverjet (Newark)
• Thomsonfly (Málaga, Marrakech, Palma de Mallorca, Prague, Tenerife-South, Zakynthos)
• Wizz Air (Bourgas, Bucharest-Băneasa, Budapest, Gdańsk, Katowice, Poznan, Sofia, Split, Warsaw, Zagreb)

Charter operators

Around 5% of flights out of Luton are operated by charter airlines. Charter airlines who fly to Luton include:

• First Choice Airways
• Flyjet
• Monarch Airlines
• SunExpress
• Thomas Cook Airlines
• Thomsonfly
• XL Airways

Cargo operators

• DHL
• MNG Airlines
• Varig Logística (from March 2007)

Additionally, business jets are frequent visitors.

Airport statistics

Number of millions of passengers using Luton airport.

• 1992 - 1.943
• 1993 - 1.844
• 1994 - 1.804
• 1995 - 1.810
• 1996 - 2.406
• 1997 - 3.221
• 1998 - 4.116
• 1999 - 5.251
• 2000 - 6.170
• 2001 - 6.540
• 2002 - 6.474
• 2003 - 6.786
• 2004 - 7.520
• 2005 - 9.135
• 2006 - 9.415

The above figures are quoted from the Civil Aviation Authority website.

The top ten destinations from Luton Airport in 2006 were:

1. Edinburgh
2. Malaga
3. Glasgow
4. Belfast International
5. Dublin
6. Amsterdam
7. Warsaw
8. Geneva
9. Paris Charles de Gaulle
10. Budapest

The above figures are quoted from the Civil Aviation Authority website, 2006 annual passenger data.

References

1. ^ Ordnance Survey (2006). OS Explorer Map 182 - St Albans & Hatfield. ISBN 9780319237809.
2. ^ Ordnance Survey (2006). OS Explorer Map 193 - Luton & Stevenage. ISBN 9780319237830.
3. "Luton Airport Technical Data". TMC Ltd. Retrieved December 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
4. "Community Newsletter - August 2006". London Luton Airport. Retrieved December 21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
5. London Luton Airport - Future Developments
6. Luton and Distric Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise - Communities affected
7. Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise - Campaign Headlines
8. Stop Luton AIrport Plan

External links

• Official Website
• London Luton Airport Consultative Committee

51°52′29″N 000°22′06″W / 51.87472°N 0.36833°W / 51.87472; -0.36833

• Airports of the London region
• Luton
• Transport in Bedfordshire
• Buildings and structures in Bedfordshire