With yacht crew increasingly using Luton airport and its links to superyacht ports the likes of Nice, Barcelona, Palma, Genoa Naples and Olbia it comes as no surprise to learn the airport is equally popular with superyacht owners and celebrity charter guests.
The airport is currently the UK’s busiest airport for General Aviation, the 3rd in Europe and 7th in the world. In 2017 the airport handled around 30,000 General Aviation flights, about a quarter of all such flights in the UK.
There are two based operators at Luton both with their own private terminals with their own security and immigration facilities. They are Harrods Aviation and Signature Flight Support. There are also more than a dozen Private Jet charter companies operating out of Luton.
There are a number of reasons for Luton’s popularity in the private jet world: its proximity to London, the length of runway, the airport technology to land almost any plane in weather unlike smaller airfields, but it is still small enough to be swiftly negotiated.
A private jet passenger can be in a car heading to London within 10 minutes of touching down.
Because of this a whole economy exists in and around the airport to cater for cleaning to hangarage, maintenance and servicing, catering and crewing, and chauffeur driven limousines.
The airport is regularly used by world leaders, diplomats and business leaders. Yacht owners the likes of Lord Sugar and celebrity charter guests such as Simon Cowell, Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry have also used the airport to join yachts. Sports stars including Lewis Hamilton and Premiership football stars are also regular flyers as well as the England football squad.
For yacht crew who fancy getting a taste of the Private Jet experience despite flying with easyJet there is Signature Elite Class:
Here, for a sizable fee, they can be dropped off outside the door of Signature’s Luton Airport terminal, check-in their luggage and enjoy the opulent surroundings before passing through the private security lane and being driven to their easyJet plane in an executive limousine, boarding at the time of their choosing!