Luton Airport is planning to increase its capacity to 18 million passengers a year and improve efficiency in a bid to capture some more of the demand at London’s airports, especially since the Government is adamant there won’t be a third runway built at Heathrow, and the Thames Estuary Airport is just a dream at the moment.

Luton is already a popular low-cost gateway for easyJet, Ryanair, Wizz Air and others, and it has also made a mark for itself as THE place for biz jets visiting London. On any given day there are up to a hundred biz jets present (admittedly a number are based, or are in for maintenance). So to expand on this seems a good idea.

This article states the airport will look to “consider where modifications are required to optimise capacity, including taxiways, aprons, piers and parking stands, the road network, car parking and the passenger terminal.”

It’s not clear when these changes will take place – presumably it will need a lot of planning. But I anticipate one of the improvements they’ll look to add is a full-length parallel taxiway for the runway, which will instantly increase the hourly capacity of the runway.

Luton Airport’s Holiday Inn car park now has barriers in place, so you can’t just come and go as you please. This is a handy spot when spotting at Luton.

From now on you get the first 15 minutes free, then it’s £3 an hour to use it.

Bedfordshire Police have announced a new photo ID scheme for aircraft spotters who visit London Luton airport.

They would like interested spotters to register with them and send two passport photos. You will then be issued with an ID to show if you are ever challenged at the airport.

Please visit this link for more information.

Quite what these schemes achieve is questionable, with many airports issuing or showing interest in issuing schemes like this over recent years. In fact, Luton has apparently issued a pass before which has never been used since.

Whether it is illegal to stand on a public road and look at aircraft is something the police have not commented on.