Luton Airport Blog

Flights to Corfu on sale at Luton

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:40:33 GMT

Corfu, one of the most famous Greek islands, is the newest destination on offer from London Luton Airport. The flight is part of a UK-wide expansion by Monarch Airlines, which will also see a new route to Bodrum, Turkey, added at Birmingham, Manchester, and Gatwick airports from summer 2011.

In Greek mythology, Corfu was the place where the god of the sea, Poseidon, married a nymph named Korkyra, whom he had recently abducted from the mainland. The island is one of the most popular holiday destinations in the Ionian Sea, alongside Zante and Kefalonia, and apart from sun and sand is perhaps best known for its selection of museums. Corfu’s clement temperatures and forested peaks are not unique in the Eastern Mediterranean, but the island’s Venetian architecture sets it apart from Rhodes, Kos, and other destinations in the Ionian and Aegean seas.

Beginning on May 23, flights from Luton to Corfu International Airport will operate three times a week. The route from Gatwick and Birmingham to Bodrum will also begin on May 23, while the same flight from Manchester will take off on May 2 2011. Kevin George, chief at Monarch Airlines, explained that the new routes being added at four UK hubs were in response to growing customer demand. Monarch recently experienced its most lucrative January on record, experiencing growth of 24% over the same month in 2010.

Monarch, which is based at Luton Airport, says that the May 2011 expansion is separate from a capacity boost in February, which added 135,000 seats onto the carrier’s summer programme. Flights from Gatwick to Palma and Tenerife were increased by one flight per week, while three additional journeys were introduced on to the popular Gatwick-Paphos service. Similarly, at Manchester Airport, routes to Larnaca and Paphos on the island of Cyprus and the island of Tenerife were boosted by one extra weekly flight each.

Tickets for Monarch’s new route to Corfu begin at £59.99 for a one-way trip departing on May 23 2011.

Luton invests in two holograms, Holly and Graham

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:55:44 GMT

Two computer-generated holograms, or ‘virtual assistants,’ have joined the workforce at London Luton Airport. The unusual couple, dubbed Holly and Graham by their co-workers, were installed inside Luton’s security search area at the end of January 2011.

Holograms, almost as difficult to define, as they are to produce, are 2D projections of light that give the illusion of a 3D object. In other words, Luton’s newest members of staff are short ‘films’ of a real person, produced by recording the way that light scatters from the real-life Holly and Graham, and then replaying the patterns precisely. The concept has been a staple of science fiction shows for decades, featuring in Star Trek, Red Dwarf, and more realistically, in the movie, I Robot.

Described as “absolutely remarkable” by Glyn Jones, managing director at Luton Airport, Holly and Graham were created by Tensator, a company that produces “crowd control and hospitality solutions.” The holographic pair use pre-recorded phrases, such as “place coins, phones, and keys in your hand luggage,” to assist (or terrify) travellers on their journey through the Bedfordshire hub.

Tensator claims that Luton was the first airport in the world to integrate holographic announcers into the regular workforce. However, Manchester Airport has since introduced holographic versions of existing staff members, John Walsh and Julie Capper, and made the same claims regarding their novelty. Manchester’s holograms were created by entertainment firm, Musion, to enable security guards to concentrate on something other than reminding travellers to remove watches and belts.

Whether holograms or other pieces of software will one day replace the lowly human is debatable, but unlikely, as present designs are incapable of interacting with travellers.

Officials at Luton hope to distribute Holly and Graham to other areas of the airport, if the 4-8 week trial is successful.

Anger at 'pay as you weigh' plan

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:23:08 GMT

Weighing scales may seem inoffensive but a Bedfordshire airport has managed to turn them into an object of “fury,” to quote a major news website.

Luton International Airport has introduced a 50p levy for the use of the hub’s weighing scales. The fee is likely to upset the travelling public, but there is no indication that Luton’s new scales, numbering four, are a mandatory expense, or that conventional weighing devices have been removed from the airport’s main terminal.

However, even if the airport has turned all of its scales into coin-operated mercenaries, travellers can save money and time by weighing their luggage at home on a set of ordinary bathroom scales, a course of action recommended by the Air Transport Users Council.

Luton’s ‘pay as you weigh’ scheme, to coin a phrase, is designed to eliminate delays at check-in desks by ensuring that flyers are aware of the total weight of their luggage, and whether their suitcase exceeds the limits imposed by their airline. The scales have a “large, easy-to-read screen,” says a notice on Luton’s website, which can also display a list of “allowances and excess charges.”

Worryingly, such ‘supplemental’ levies are often a means of recouping financial losses, as is the case at Cardiff Airport, where a service fee was recently applied to the hiring of parking spaces, and at Durham Tees Valley, which recently began charging visitors for using security checkpoints.

It is worth noting that baggage scales can be used free of charge at all other London airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick, reinforcing the idea that Luton is trying to refill its dwindling coffers. The airport has also introduced the controversial £1 drop-off fee and a £2 charge for the use of baggage trolleys in recent months.

Luton braced for Xmas rush

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:49:21 GMT

For many Britons, Christmas is a celebration of the world’s most famous bearded gentlemen, Jesus and Santa Claus, and an excuse to escape the country by any means necessary. It should come as no surprise then that London Luton Airport is expecting thousands of people to arrive at the Bedfordshire hub over the festive season, clutching tickets to more than 90 destinations.

easyJet and Hungarian carrier Wizz Air will provide the majority of Luton Airport’s winter schedule, closely followed by Thomson, Ryanair and veteran British carrier Monarch.

Wizz Air, one of the largest providers of routes to Eastern Europe from the UK, is selling tickets for Varna and Bourgas in Bulgaria, Zagreb in Croatia and the relatively unknown locations Cluj-Napoca and Târgu Mureş in Romania. EasyJet, known for its close relationship with Luton, is offering routes to Amsterdam and Barcelona, as well as ‘sun and sea’ destinations in Egypt and Cyprus.

"The vast range of destinations from London Luton Airport means we can meet the demands of the travelling public and help them to enjoy a fantastic festive season," Simon Harley, airline manager at Luton, explained.

Bosses say that 500,000 people could pass through the airport’s security gates during December and January, with winter ski routes expected to sell just as quickly as flights to coastal resorts in the Mediterranean.

Geneva, for example, is one of the most popular winter routes from Luton, suggesting that a few hardy Brits can’t get enough of freezing winds, snow and sub-zero temperatures.

However, the festive season has some unique security rules that may take people by surprise. Wrapped presents will be opened by border guards, ruining all your hard work, and Christmas crackers are forbidden on all the aforementioned airlines, barring easyJet.

More information on festive security can be found on Luton Airport’s official website.

UK airports accused of profiting from security checks

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:52:20 GMT

In this age of tightened security at airports across the world, with new security threats emerging on a seemingly monthly basis to throw security checkpoints into chaos and provide travellers with the worst possible start to their time abroad, the last thing those using British airports need is more cause for delay. However, it would seem that, as travellers, that's exactly what we're getting, and for a reason based solely upon exploitation and greed.

A whistle-blower at London's Luton Airport has publicly accused authorities at that particular airport of deliberately encouraging staff manning security checkpoints to allow queues to grow longer, in the hope that passengers will choose to make use of fast-track security lanes, which can cost up to £5 per person.

Luton Airport introduced pay-as-you-go fast-track lanes last year and they have since been introduced in airports including Leeds Bradford, Liverpool, and Bristol. According to the whistle-blower in question, a policy was introduced prior to the start of the scheme at Luton which encouraged staff to make the queues move more slowly and to do whatever possible to try to create queues when traffic through the security checkpoints wasn't at a high level.

With travellers from the UK currently having to arrive three hours before their scheduled departure time to ensure they get through security in good time, these claims, if true, are simply unacceptable.

Although Luton have denied the accusations, there's no doubting that these claims have done further damage to an industry that could do without any further negative news.

Police seek spotter 'intelligence'

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:27:38 BST

Bedfordshire Police are training an unlikely bunch of people to work as the “eyes and ears of the police” around London Luton Airport, in a bid to catch would-be villains unawares.

The trainees, 550 members of the Luton Airport Aviation Enthusiasts Scheme (AES), a collective of plane spotters, and a real mouthful, have been asked to collect “invaluable intelligence” whilst they watch the planes land at the UK's fifth largest airport.

Police introduced the scheme six years ago, as a wave of paranoia following the destruction of the World Trade Centre in 2001 forced an upheaval in airport security procedures. However, the project was initially used to keep an eye on plane spotters, ensuring that Luton’s anorak-clan masses were not Al Qaeda in disguise.

In 2010, Bedfordshire Police are realising the benefits of having sympathetic spotters stationed around Luton Airport. "(The AES) forms an extra layer of security for the airport," a local police officer explained. “Its hundreds of members have helped in a number of potential security situations,"

AES members are treated to a photo card and a car sticker identifying them as an authorised visitor to Luton Airport. Spotters are also given phone numbers to call in the case of an emergency, such as a hole in perimeter fences.

Despite the high profile of Luton’s plane spotters, the Bedfordshire hub is a “not a fantastic airport to view at all,” according to enthusiast website, Plane Mad, due to the airport’s proximity to cliffs and main roads.

However, local fans are directed to Luton’s high number of executive and private jets, which provide more variety than a Ryanair Boeing 737 or a Thomson Airbus A321.