London Luton Airport marks its busiest-ever April
LUTON, UK, 2019-May-17 — /Travel PR News/ — April 2019 marks the first time that London Luton Airport (LLA) has served 17 million passengers over a 12 month period. This comes as the airport experienced its busiest-ever April as 1.5 million passengers travelled through the airport, a 10.4% increase on the same time last year.
New figures also show the airport has seen a growth in the number of local people using the airport. CAA data for 2018, shows that 5 million passengers passing through the airport were from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire – accounting for around 30% of total passengers numbers for the year. Growth from the local areas was particularly driven by passengers from Hertfordshire where passenger numbers increased 11% in 2018.
Tel Aviv remained in the top five most popular destinations with April also marking the tenth anniversary of Israeli airline EL Al operating from the airport, who welcomed its one millionth passenger from LLA. Other popular destinations over the Easter period included Budapest, Bucharest and Amsterdam.
Alberto Martin, CEO of LLA, said: “April marks a real milestone for the airport given we have served 17 million passengers over the last 12 months. We are also delighted to have welcomed a record number of local residents – we’re aware of the important role which we play in the local community and are always working to ensure that the benefits of our transformation are felt by everyone.”
About London Luton Airport:
London Luton Airport (LLA) is one of the UK’s largest airports and carried 16.6 million passengers in 2018, an increase of 5% on 2017. The airport indirectly employs over 9,400 staff and is a key economic driver for the region.
easyJet, Wizz Air, Ryanair, Tui, EL AL, Blue Air, SunExpress, Iberia (Air Nostrum) and Vueling currently operate from the airport. The airport’s route network serves 150 destinations in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
The airport is operated and developed by a consortium of which the majority shareholder is AENA, the world’s largest airport operator, and AMP Capital, a specialist global investment manager.
LLA has invested over £160 million to transform the airport and increase capacity to 18 million passengers per year by 2020. The redevelopment includes a complete redesign of the terminal, bringing in new and exciting shops and restaurants and major upgrades to transport links, including better road access to the M1, new car parking facilities, a remodelled bus and coach interchange and improved rail links to Luton Airport Parkway station. In addition, work is well underway on a £225 million light rail system linking the airport with Luton Airport Parkway station and is anticipated to be completed by 2021. The project is being delivered by the airport owners, LLAL – a company owned by Luton Council.
LLA is the only London airport without a direct express-style rail service. LLA is therefore calling on the government to introduce four trains per hour as part of the refranchising of the East Midlands rail line. Doing so would require little to no capital expenditure, and would accelerate the economic benefits of the current transformation project which is set to increase LLA’s economic contribution by 77% from £1.3 billion in 2013 to £2.3 billion per annum by 2030.
Contact:
Press Office
pressoffice@ltn.aero
Tel: 01582 395333
Source: London Luton Airport
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