News

Luton airport celebrates 80th birthday

Luton airport celebrates its 80th birthday today (Monday).

More than 250 million passengers have used the airport since it opened in 1938 as Luton Municipal airport.

It was re-named London Luton airport in 1990 after becoming pioneering departure point for holiday charter flights in the 1960s and 1970s.

A fifth of all holiday flights from the UK departed from Luton in 1969.

But passenger numbers fell in 1991 after Ryanair shifted much of its flights to Stansted.

Luton has since grown by attracting carriers such as Wizz Air and is now the UK’s fifth largest airport for passenger numbers with 16 million handled last year.

More than 1.5 million passengers used the airport in June – the 17th consecutive month that over one million travellers have passed through the airport.

The airport is nearing the completion of a £160 million transformation, which will increase capacity to 18 million passengers a year by 2020.

An upgraded and expanded terminal is due to be completed later this year.

Share article

View Comments

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.