Luton Airport Parking

Luton airport history

An airport was first opened on the site on the 16th July, 1938 by the then Secretary of State for Air Kingsley Wood. During the Second World War the airport was used as a base for RAF fighters.

Following the war the land was returned to the local council who continued activity at the airport as a commercial operation, providing the base for major tour operators such as Euravia (now TUI, following previous growth as Britannia Airways) and Monarch Airlines. In 1972, Luton Airport was the most profitable in the country. The airport suffered a severe setback in August 1974 when a major package tour 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. At this time Ryanair flew flights from Luton to Ireland. In 1990 the airport was renamed "London Luton Airport" in order to boost the profile of the airport in the eyes of foreign visitors, likely to be heading to London but not realising Luton was close. In 1991, Ryanair transferred its base of operations to Stansted, again resulting in the decline in the airport's importance in the British transport network. This trend was dramatically reversed later in the 90s with the introduction of charter flights for Airtours and new 'low cost' scheduled flights from Debonair and easyJet, the latter making Luton its hub.

Today, the Airport remains in municipal ownership, owned by Luton Borough Council in August 1997, in order 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 (LLOAL), which was headed by Barclays Bank. Barclays later sold to TBI plc. In January 2005, LLAOL was acquiredby Airport Concessions Development Limited, a company owned by Abertis Infraestructuras (90%) and Aena Internacional (10%) – both of Spain. Abertis is one of Europe’s leading infrastructure providers. Aena Internacional is the international business arm of Aena, the Spanish national airport and air traffic control organisation which owns and operates 47 airports across the Iberian Peninsula. Some 155 million passengers per annum use its airports. Aena also has operations in Central and South America. LLAOL can now rely on additional operational experience and financial support when developing future plans.

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 terminal houses 60 check-in desks, "state of the art" baggage and flight information systems and a wide range of shops, restaurants and bars. In the original design brief for the 1999 Terminal, a 9000 sq ft 1st floor area - which features a spectacular vaulted ceiling originally conceived by Sir Norman Foster; was built but intended to lie fallow until required for a development of this type.

In September 2004, development work started on a major project to transfer departures from the International Terminal Building built in 1985, to the 9000 sq ft first floor of the 1999 Terminal Building. The new departure hall opened on schedule on 1st July 2005 and features extensive 'new build' in the form of the new Boarding Pier extending 190 metres out between the Airport's North & East Aprons and relocated Security, Customs and Immigration facilities. It also encompasses the development and remodelling of the entire 1st floor of the so-far unused 1st Floor of the 1999 Terminal.In 2005 total passengers at London Luton increased by 21.5% to 9.135 million, making it the UK's sixth busiest airport. It is also the fastest growing UK airport.

A 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.

The airport has also been featured on two popular British television series. The first, Airline, now follows the staff of Easyjet at Luton and the airlines other hubs across the country. In 2005, a new 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 Heathrow Airport.

This history article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article " London Luton Airport".