London Luton Airport sees another record month with over 1.4m passengers

London Luton Airport (LLA) has revealed another record month in October 2017, which welcomed over 1.4m passengers - an increase of three per cent from last year.

This is the airport’s 43rd consecutive month of growth, and as it continues to add more passengers, it is expanding its route network to cater to business and leisure travel.

So far this year, 22 new routes have been added, with the airport now offering more than 130 destinations across Europe, Asia and Africa. The latest additions include Thomas Cook announcing it will fly to eight new destinations next summer, including Palma and Dalaman.

Nick Barton, CEO of LLA, said: “We continue to welcome more travellers, introduce new routes and improve the experience we give passengers as they pass through the airport.

“We are very pleased that our airlines are expanding their offering and we are looking forward to welcoming more passengers whether they are travelling for business or pleasure.”

Sun Express has increased its number of destinations from one to four, including routes to Antalya and Ankara.

To meet continued demand from passengers, LLA is now investing over £150m in an ambitious redevelopment project which aims to increase annual capacity by 50 per cent to 18m passengers by 2020.

Construction is well underway and is already delivering an improved experience for passengers once they are in the airport, including an enlarged security hall and a variety of shops and restaurants in the terminal including The Smithfield and Bella Italia.

However, for LLA to deliver the full benefits of its transformation to passengers, the local and national economy, it needs improved public transport links to make it quicker and easier for travellers to use the airport.

LLA is calling for an express-style rail service from central London to help ensure it can play its role in delivering much-needed capacity demand as the government continues to debate the expansion of capacity at London airports.

London Luton Airport is one of the UK’s largest airports, carrying 14.5m passengers in 2016, an increase of 18.5 per cent on 2015. The airport indirectly employs over 9,400 staff.