London Luton Airport (LLA), which is this year celebrating its 85th anniversary, has revealed a strong start to 2023 with passenger numbers hitting 3.3 million in Q1. In March alone, the airport welcomed 1.2 million passengers, a 49% increase on the same month in 2022.
The February half term break has also been credited with contributing to strong passenger figures at the air transport hub with demand for ski travel seeing a strong pull for passengers travelling to winter sports destinations, including Austria, France and Switzerland.
Passenger journeys to and from the airport have also been made even easier with the launch of the Luton Airport Express, a non-stop train service connecting passengers from London St Pancras to the airport terminal. The train service, which connects the UK capital with Luton Airport Parkway where passengers are then whisked to the airport terminal via the DART – a new, automated, electrically powered people carrier in less than four minutes. The DART replaces the previous bus transfer service and means the journey to and from London is around 30 minutes.
“It’s great to see a continued rise in our year-on-year passenger numbers, a demonstration of the obvious appetite for air travel in 2023, and London Luton Airport’s appeal,” said Neil Thompson, Operations Director at London Luton Airport. “At LLA we’re focused on providing the simplest and friendliest end-to-end passenger experience and more sustainable connections from more than 60 stations across the rail network.”
Looking ahead to the summer months, LLA has added Istanbul to its network with new connections to Izmir, Murcia and Belfast set to begin over the coming months. Amsterdam, Kefalonia, Paris and Malaga are expected to be among the popular hotspots for teh 2023 peak travel months.
