Getting Bigger and Better. (London Luton Airport (LTN))

Member Name: daseaford

Product:	London Luton Airport (LTN)
Date:	05/08/01 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very clean., Spacious., Well laid out.

Disadvantages: None.

When I was young I used to go to Luton Airport as a “plane spotter”, but that was about 35 years ago. At that time the facilities at the airport were very poor and you could just wander about anywhere.

About 10 years ago I went to Luton Airport to fly to Austria for a skiing holiday. Unfortunately after 36 hours of fog we eventually were taken by coach to Manchester, but the facilities and staff at Luton had been quite good considering the number of people stranded there.

Now it was time to return there again, this time for a flight to Glasgow with the family.

My first job was to book a car parking place. I decided this would be easiest to do on-line so I just entered Luton Airport on the Yahoo search engine and one of the results near the top of the list was car parking. This was the site of Airport Parking UK. The site was very easy to navigate and after a few minutes I had booked the place for our car in the long stay car park. The cost of £5.45 per day did not seem too unreasonable as this also included transport from the car park to the departure lounge and transport back to the car park on our return. Two days after making the booking we received confirmation through the post, with a car park voucher and directions how to get to the pink car park.

When we arrived at the airport I kept following the signs for the pink car park and kept driving on and on and on. It did seem like an eternity, but looking back it was probably just about ten minutes, but if it had been close to our flight time then I think I would have started to panic.

At the car park you park your car in front of the reception area where you go in to register. The whole system is computerised and your details are quickly brought up on the screen. A label is attached to your keys and you are instructed to take all your luggage from the car and then leave the car unlocked, with no immobilises or alarms on, with your keys in the ignition and
to hang a card from the interior mirror. We were told that our car would be parked somewhere and returned to this area for us to collect on our return. From the expression on other peoples faces you could tell that I was not the only person who seemed a bit nervous about just leaving the car unlocked. There is a regular bus service (about every five minutes) from the car park to the terminal building.

From arriving at the airport, finding the car park, registering the car and getting the bus to the terminal building, took just over half an hour. This needs to be kept in mind when planning your arrival time for a flight.

I was staggered by how much Luton Airport has grown and how busy it now is. Everywhere at the airport was very clean and even though it was a very hot day the air conditioning made it a very comfortable environment.

There are a few shops in the general terminal building, but the majority of the shops are in the departure area. There are a number of cafes and snack bars, but my previous memories of Luton Airport were that you needed to take out a second mortgage to get some food and drink. We were therefore very pleasantly surprised to find that the prices were not at all unreasonable and we enjoyed some snacks in one of the cafes. I assume that the choice and number of food outlets has kept prices down.

There is plenty of seating throughout the airport and an endless supply of trolleys if you need one for your luggage.

I was very impressed with how Luton Airport has “grown-up” and is now a major airport run in a very professional manner. I would have no problem in deciding to use this airport again.

FOOTNOTE: We arrived back at Luton in the early hours of the morning. The car park bus picked us up from the terminal building after about a five minute wait and our car was waiting for us a few yards from where the bus dropped us off. The keys were waiting for us at the reception desk and
everything was fine with the car.

Summary: