Latest expansion updates

[dalten1]

andyH- Thanks for your response to one of my rare postings. Not wishing to make this a long trail of postings, as some have become, I will keep this brief.
You are quite correct about your CAP168 statement, For any runway to be an instrument runway it has to have some kind of approach light system,whether it be radar,CAT1 / 11 or 111 ILS instrumented. Most of the time the runways need the approach lights for routine ops.
While somebody is investigating the approach light scenario maybe they could find out the definitive reason why LJLA is taking so long to get the Cat111 :)ops certificated.

[aland]

I was recently informed by an Easyjet LPL based captain that the 27 ILS was presently undergoing a 3-month continuous monitoring period that should result in CAT III approval during autumn. He did say however that if, for any reason during this period, there were any glitches i.e. the system tripped out etc, then the 3-month period had to restart.
Not sure how accurate this is but thought I'd pass it on anyway.

[lukemc]

Hi,

Do you know when construction of the proposed eastward expansion of the terminal towards the old control tower will begin? It was shown in the masterplan and when it is built what will it contain? More check in desks, or more retail areas etc. And is the hanger going to be made part of the terminal with gate areas and retail facilities in there too?

Luke

[lfc84]

Just to report back after my query relating to queues at security at the bottom of page 4...

It was 620am on Fri 10th, I estimate from the queue length it would have been around 15 mins.

Due to shortage of time we used the fast lane and breezed straight through.

[trumpeter]

Is any apron expansion planned in next 12-24 months?

[davel]

Visited airside today and found that work on moving the lifts and staircase well advanced. Look out for some adverse criticism in the next few weeks as the passenger route from level 3 to level 2 is somewhat a bit of a maze. They are using what used to be the staff exit route and the stairs behind what was the food village (now duty free shop) near the prayer room, to get from level 3 to level 2 and it's not very wide. The hordings have a gap at the top and you can just see the skeleton of the lift shaft which is being moved. All this is supposed to be finished mid November but don't hold your breath! There's going to be some fun when the Napoli supporters go though next week. we are expecting 8 flights up to now including a B767 and B757 and these supporters are not known for their friendliness!!
As for future work it is known that the arrivals are next in the firing line. Apron expansion will depend on airlines commiting to new routes and based aircraft.

[Deleted]

Any news of the planned runway extension?

[lfc84]

i passed through security on sunday about 3pm. no queues whatsoever. whether this was due to the number of departures, good luck or good staffing at security i dont know. whatever it was, it made my journey alot more pleasurable!

[baldyman26]

I went into the airport for the first time in a long while the other day, and I have to say how Tatty I think the place is looking, and I am not talking about the building work being the cause, I am talking about the floors ( I remember when they where building the terminal they said the floor wasn't cheap) looking like they havn't been cleaned for years, and the toilets are quite frankly hideous. My question are these on the list to be rectified, and why when compared to our near neighbours, is our terminal ageing so quickly. Terminal 2 at Manchester opened in 1993, and prior to improvement works, looked pretty much as it did when it opened, and is a damn site cleaner. They said all the materials used where high quality, yet they really havn't stood the test of time in my opinion.

[northbynorthwest]

Baldyman, I am not alone in my thoughs about how dirty the terminal looked when I flew in/out of LPL recently. I put my comments on the KLM thread just a few hours prior to your posting here. I am copying it again below for inclusion into this thread. I also wrote my concerns to the Airport website, but so far have had no response. I really do hope that they both respond to me and, above all, act on this.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nov 25, 2010, 2:19am, northbynorthwest wrote:Flew into LPL on KL 1041 on Tuesday, November 9th - flight had 60 pax onboard with one business class. Several pax were business travellers, which is a good sign. Flew back out on KL 1034 on Friday, November 19th. 45 or so pax onboard, two in business. Only a couple of businessmen - but as it was a Friday morning, this was hardly surprising. Last time I flew out on KLM - same flight, same day of the week about 18 months ago, there were around 15 of us onboard. Nice to see the overall growth into a fairly successful route for KLM.

Arrivals were speedy - but we arrived just before two Ryanair flights disgorged their pax. Would have been pretty miserable waiting outside in the cold and rain. The whole arrivals area is pretty grim. I hope that this is dealt with in the next stage of the redevelopment - SOON.

Stayed at the Hampton Inn for four nights total - two at each end of my stay. Was very impressed with the hotel. Clean, friendly staff, very convenient, great breakfast. Seemed to have decent amount of people there every night.

Rented a car for a week and made the mistaken assumption that, because the rental car check-in is now in the multi-storey carpark, they had moved the actual rental car pick-up into the multi-storey carpark. This would have been tremendously convenient rather than having to walk the the present pick-up area. It was a cold, wet, windy day, and this walk was miserable. As the multi-storey carpark was deserted on the 3rd and 4th floors, to me this might make great sense to have the rental cars in the multi-storey.

Found the terminal outside of security to be looking quite tatty and worn. Really could do with some serious deep-cleaning. The floors in particular looked scuffed and dirty. Last time I was here, the place sparkled in comparison to this.

With regard to the new security area - the escalator up from the main floor was not working, so several of us had to wait for the elevator. Don't know if this was a short outage but there was no sight of anyone doing any maintenance on it. If the escalator was to be inoperative for the early morning rush in the summer, there will be some serious delays for passengers. The new security area was actually quite efficient. They had 3 security lines up and running and from what I could observe, the staff were generally efficient and friendly. When the summer flight schedule starts, they will definitely need all of them working for the early morning flights.

[harbourcotter]

Travelling through airside yesterday and some of the boarding has been taken down. You can see the new staircase plus escalator which wasnt shown on the visual representation.

It looks as if the work will be completed within a couple of weeks or so to my untrained eye

[lfc84]

Are there any plans to repair or refurbish the toilets landside opposite the Information Desk? They are an absolute disgusting disgrace.

[cambrian5619]

Neither the previous or the current Airport Management seem to think that providing good quality toilets are essential for an Airport carrying 5 million passengers.

[lfc84]

to be fair some of the airside toilets are good. but if i am not very much mistaken the landside ones i refer to are the only ones landside....and as i say they are awful. been like that for a while now

[ametyst]

The toilets are the next thing on the airport's agenda. The present toilets landside are indeed a disgrace and these are going to be replaced over the winter period with possibly two sets of toilets landside (one the departures end and one the arrivals end).

The area close to where the present landside toilets are, will become a Starbucks.

A new set of toilets (already in place, but not commissioned) will be opened airside towards the easyJet area. In addition other airside toilets will be refurbished and the Executive Lounge area is to be re-vamped and the lounge re-located.