Why do people from the Sheffield area fly from Luton?

[westv]

The 2 1/3 hrs or so from Hull to Birmingham by taxi/car is about the limit of what I can put up with. I couldn't contemplate any longer than that or a journey to the airport by public transport no matter what the cost saving was.

 

[thejuggler]

I live in Leeds, 7 miles from the airport, and we were looking to go to Europe somewhere for my 60th. It was shocking how much more flights cost were from Manchester and where applicable, LBA. Added to which they are far more frequent in many of the Southern airports. The cost differential sometimes was hundreds of quid for a few days away.

For those who live withing travelling distance I'm not sure they realise just how the 'north south divide' crops up in situations like this. The choice is far greater, probably due to competition.

Anyway we ended up going to Brussels on Eurostar. The rail fare element (including LNER down to London) cost far less than the cheapest flight.

It more demonstrates how few non holiday destinations are now served by LBA. I've flown directly to Brussels Aberdeen, Bristol and Heathrow. All now history along with Edinburgh, Glasgow, Isle of Man, Exeter.

 

[1D54]

Luton’s proximity to the midlands was cited by easyjet as one of the reasons they closed their base at East Midlands.

I'm Leics based and Luton is my favourite. Travel time is similar to Birmingham and i rarely use East Midlands simply because of lack of destinations on offer. I'd love easyjet to return (rumoured to be doing so) but can handle it if they never do. Always a good number of Leics/Notts and Derbys people on the platforms at Luton Airport Parkway station so a simple change at Kettering doesn't seem to bother anyone.

 

[Barnsley]

I flew from Luton to Alicante on August 8th, 1620 departure with Jet2, it cost £230 return, including legroom seats both ways. The same flights with Jet2 from LBA or Manchester were top side of £400, no legroom seats! Up here we basically have Jet2, limited EasyJet, and Ryanair (who I refuse to fly with) but I'm lucky to have PRIV so I will fly from anywhere! I went from Sheffield into St Pancras then straight back out on the Corby, didn't even go through the gateline!

 

[1D54]

What happened to make you refuse to fly with FR, if you ever did in the first place? Certainly not having a dig, just interested. I hate them but they are a means to an end. I used them this morning out of Birmingham but am returning with EZY on Monday. It has cost me more money but i can't be doing with the dreadful terminal they use for departures.

 

[Barnsley]

What happened to make you refuse to fly with FR, if you ever did in the first place? Certainly not having a dig, just interested. I hate them but they are a means to an end. I used them this morning out of Birmingham but am returning with EZY on Monday. It has cost me more money but i can't be doing with the dreadful terminal they use for departures.

I worked at LBA for Jet2 as a check in supervisor for 5 years before I got on the railway, when I went airside, I saw the way pax were treated, some were breaking wheels off their bags so they could take them on, and I’ve met O’Leary, I will never give him a penny of my money!

 

[Harpo]

I saw the way pax were treated, some were breaking wheels off their bags

We leave that to baggage handling. Two of our last three flights have had us claiming replacements.

 

[Barnsley]

We leave that to baggage handling. Two of our last three flights have had us claiming replacements.

I’m on about pax breaking the wheels off hand luggage so it fits, thats irrelevant now, because only Jet2 let you take a normal cabin bag for free, and if on a busy flight you can check it in for free, I did both ways! No messing about with liquids, Luton has the new security scanners, Alicante does not!

 

[CHobbs]

Moderator note: Split from

EMR intercity - As bad as xc?

EMR intercity - As bad as xc? Discuss. The trains are crowded, far to short and getting quite tatty yet EMR seem to escape the criticism fired at XC for the same things. How come? Today I have to use EMR to get to Nottingham and the trains are rammed packed

www.railforums.co.uk

What's the obsession with people (families at that) supposedly wanting to travel over 100 miles from Sheffield to Luton Airport to catch a budget airline flight to somewhere that they could probably fly to from a choice of 3 airports less than 40 miles away?

Edit: To clarify, I was referring to posts which mentioned families travelling from Sheffield/Derbyshire to Luton Airport by train. I can understand why someone may choose a flight from Luton rather than East Mids or Leeds-Bradford, but families doing so and also wanting to travel there by train seems niche enough to not require a direct train.

Lots of people from Glasgow fly from Manchester

 

[WestCoast]

I worked at LBA for Jet2 as a check in supervisor for 5 years before I got on the railway, when I went airside, I saw the way pax were treated, some were breaking wheels off their bags so they could take them on, and I’ve met O’Leary, I will never give him a penny of my money!

I actually find easyJet just as bad in this regard nowadays, really brusque ground service and very strict on hand luggage. Jet2 are great and BA still treat their passengers reasonably well on the ground.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Aug 2025 ==

Lots of people from Glasgow fly from Manchester

They do indeed having done that when I lived there, equally this time of year it‘s not uncommon to find people from parts of northern England flying out of Scottish airports due to the school holidays finishing earlier there.

 

[thejuggler]

I have relatives in Darlington and they will often fly from Edinburgh or Glasgow at this time of year. Similalry Leeds Bradford has lots of Scottish passengers once Scottish schools finish in early July as prices are much lower.

 

[AndrewE]

My answer would be that flying out through Manchester airport is a horrible experience. We avoid it if we possibly can, Liverpool being infinitely nicer to use (- although that is starting to deteriorate in the same way. Don't plan to buy a beer there while you are waiting!)
Unfortunately Aurigny (for Guernsey) don't serve Liverpool but at least you can find midday flights from Manc.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Aug 2025 ==

I have relatives in Darlington and they will often fly from Edinburgh or Glasgow at this time of year. Similalry Leeds Bradford has lots of Scottish passengers once Scottish schools finish in early July as prices are much lower.

that's odd, because we encounter loads of Scots at Liverpool and Manchester who have driven south because their flights/holidays are so much cheaper from non-Scottish airports. Maybe it's because your people and the ones we meet are avoiding school holiday departiures in their home countries.

 

[Rob F]

We live in Nottingham and a few years ago had a week in Fuerteventura. It was cheaper to fly from Glasgow, including return rail fares and a night in the airport Premier Inn than it was to fly from East Midlands..

 

[westv]

We live in Nottingham and a few years ago had a week in Fuerteventura. It was cheaper to fly from Glasgow, including return rail fares and a night in the airport Premier Inn than it was to fly from East Midlands..

The large amount of additional travelling time was worth it for you as well then.

 

[sheff1]

There's plenty of people who manage to change trains to travel to an airport every single day - I'm just confused as to why people feel that Sheffield/Derby residents deserve some sort of special treatment

Not special treatment, more that people are unhappy the direct trains have been withdrawn (doubly unhappy that direct trains Sheffield to Manchester Airport have also been withdrawn in recent times).

We used to catch the train when flying from Luton, now we go by car. As to why people from Sheffield fly from Luton - it is the nearest 'London' airport and as such has a much wider range of destinations than either East Midlands or Leeds Bradford.

 

[AndrewE]

We used to catch the train when flying from Luton, now we go by car. As to why people from Sheffield fly from Luton - it is the nearest 'London' airport and as such has a much wider range of destinations than either East Midlands or Leeds Bradford.

Why London? Other "provincial" airports are available with much better ranges of destinations (I believe)...

Leeds/Bradford should be closed anyway, and E Midlands is crap for public transport access. My parents tried to use Leeds/Bradford as they lived nearby, got diverted to Manchester coming home because of wind or fog, took hours longer and baggage went astray. We were persuaded to travel with them once from there to assist, never again!

 

[sheff1]

Why London? Other "provincial" airports are available with much better ranges of destinations (I believe)...

Leeds/Bradford should be closed anyway, and E Midlands is crap for public transport access.

Airports? The only one which would qualify in my view is Manchester (which is somewhere I avoid).

East Mids is actually very easy by public transport from Sheffield but nowadays it concentrates very much on 'sun' destinations.

 

[Bald Rick]

Why London? Other "provincial" airports are available with much better ranges of destinations (I believe)...

Not really. Luton serves a wide range of destinations, only Manchester comes close of the regional airports.

 

[pug1]

Why London? Other "provincial" airports are available with much better ranges of destinations (I believe)...

Leeds/Bradford should be closed anyway, and E Midlands is crap for public transport access. My parents tried to use Leeds/Bradford as they lived nearby, got diverted to Manchester coming home because of wind or fog, took hours longer and baggage went astray. We were persuaded to travel with them once from there to assist, never again!

Leeds Bradford should be closed should it? Perhaps you should tell that to the private equity firm who have just made over £200million available to drastically increase capacity and improve overall customer experience.

Oh and by the way did you know Leeds Bradford has one of the best on time performance records of all U.K. airports? Perhaps we shouldn’t let facts get in the way of a good old rant though, eh?

 

[bramling]

For me, where I fly from is the outcome of shopping around for best value, suitable dates and tolerable times.

Family members within easy reach of Birmingham use Manchester based on similar criteria and Cardiff for a relaxed experience as well as Birmingham if it fits their needs. They won’t consider London due to the M25’s involvement.

I can understand being wary of the M25, however the same can be said of the M1 for accessing Luton (from either north or south). If anything I’d say the M1 south of Rugby is worse than the M25 these days.

 

[Harpo]

If anything I’d say the M1 south of Rugby is worse than the M25 these days.

Both very busy but at least the M1 seems to flow, as opposed to the great orbital car park.

 

[Bald Rick]

I can understand being wary of the M25, however the same can be said of the M1 for accessing Luton (from either north or south). If anything I’d say the M1 south of Rugby is worse than the M25 these days.

Both very busy but at least the M1 seems to flow, as opposed to the great orbital car park.

I’d say the traffic onthe M25 is worse but predictable. What the M1 is up to on any given day is a complete guess.

 

[bramling]

I’d say the traffic onthe M25 is worse but predictable. What the M1 is up to on any given day is a complete guess.

That’s my experience. I can normally predict that on that section of the M25, there will be something around Bricket Wood-Chorleywood, and also J17-15, just a case of how far each stretches.

Whilst the M1 is a complete lottery, but IME it’s rare to make a journey on it without there being some kind of significant problem.

I find the M1 sufficiently un-usable nowadays that I will try to avoid it if at all possible. I will do A1/A14 as standard if travelling north of Rugby on either the M1 or M6. In particular the section of M1 between Milton Keynes and the M25 is the worst, but the entire section south of Rugby isn’t much better.

There’s no way I’d want to rely on it if aiming for a flight.

 

[Rob F]

The large amount of additional travelling time was worth it for you as well then.

It was. I like travelling by train! Also, for the four of us it saved over £500.

 

[Tetchytyke]

My answer would be that flying out through Manchester airport is a horrible experience. We avoid it if we possibly can, Liverpool being infinitely nicer to use (- although that is starting to deteriorate in the same way. Don't plan to buy a beer there while you are waiting!)

I use both Manchester and Liverpool regularly.

My experience is that all airports are a bit zoo-like in the height of summer. Manchester T3 is too small for what it is used for, which is why they’re just finishing building a shiny new terminal down the street, but it’s only when you go through at the same time as a back of Ryanair departures are things very bad. In the winter, when Ryanair don’t fly much, security takes under five minutes. I went through London City a couple of weeks ago and that was awful too, when it usually isn’t.

Liverpool is definitely getting worse,
the new commercial manager there is one of those awful sorts who wants to make everything as painful as possible for people who aren’t paying to sit in a bar.

One of the Isle of Man had a little lounge, a room they’d paid to refurbish out of their own money, for people travelling on the patient transfer flights, usually because of cancer. First thing the new manager did was boot them out of it without replacement, so they could put another bar in. The airport only relented and gave them a replacement when the Manx government got involved. The other bars have also expanded into what was a general seating area and it’s now pretty much impossible to find anywhere to sit. You’re wrong about buying beer though- it’s pretty much the only thing you can do now.

Anyway, we digress.

London airports are always going to have a much wider range of destinations than regional airports, it’s simply a case of demographics and supply and demand. The London boroughs have a population of a smudge under 10m and the population of the wider London hinterland is somewhere in the region of 15m people. So people will end up travelling to London airports to take direct flights.

 

[CHobbs]

I actually find easyJet just as bad in this regard nowadays, really brusque ground service and very strict on hand luggage. Jet2 are great and BA still treat their passengers reasonably well on the ground.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Aug 2025 ==



They do indeed having done that when I lived there, equally this time of year it‘s not uncommon to find people from parts of northern England flying out of Scottish airports due to the school holidays finishing earlier there.

Exactly!

 

[TravelDream]

I actually find easyJet just as bad in this regard nowadays, really brusque ground service and very strict on hand luggage. Jet2 are great and BA still treat their passengers reasonably well on the ground.

I don't think most people realise most of the staff they are dealing with at the airport don't actually work for easyjet or Ryanair. Even if they are wearing those airline's uniforms.
They are handling companies those airline contract out. Usually for the lowest price.

E.g. At both Luton and Manchester, Swissport handle Ryanair whilst DHL handle easyjet.

People might remember Airline on ITV with Jane Bolton and Leo Jones among others. None of those people worked for easyjet. They worked for their handling agent at the time (Reed I think).

It's not always the case. Jet2 generally self-handle and I think their customer service is better off because of it, but that comes at a cost to the company. Ryanair do also self-handle at some airports under a company they own called Azul Handling, but it's not the norm.

And whilst Ryanair admit they incentivize staff in terms of baggage size, I am pretty sure easyjet do too as their staff can be just as overzealous as Ryanair's.

 

[westcoaster]

People might remember Airline on ITV with Jane Bolton and Leo Jones among others. None of those people worked for easyjet. They worked for their handling agent at the time (Reed I think).

I worked there at this time and we worked directly for easyjet.

Back on subject. We are the opposite i prefer to fly from East Midlands then Birmingham.
Live near Northampton and avoid Luton at all costs

Would rather park at Bedford and train to Gatwick
Or the hours drive to East midlands or Birmingham.

Landed last week into EMA at 2305 through immigration, bags collected walked to the car and on the M1 by 2335. You don't get that elsewhere.

 

[TravelDream]

I worked there at this time and we worked directly for easyjet.

The base manager, yes. Ordinary staff up to supervisor, no.
A little research show's plenty of videos of Jane in her Reed uniform with a Reed name badge. Maybe easyjet brought it in house at some point, but today the staff work for DHL.

Landed last week into EMA at 2305 through immigration, bags collected walked to the car and on the M1 by 2335. You don't get that elsewhere.

That's just the difference between a small airport and a big one. Four planes landing at the same time at East Mids would see long queues at immigration which you wouldn't see at Birmingham or Luton.

 

[pug1]

I don't think most people realise most of the staff they are dealing with at the airport don't actually work for easyjet or Ryanair. Even if they are wearing those airline's uniforms.
They are handling companies those airline contract out. Usually for the lowest price.

E.g. At both Luton and Manchester, Swissport handle Ryanair whilst DHL handle easyjet.

People might remember Airline on ITV with Jane Bolton and Leo Jones among others. None of those people worked for easyjet. They worked for their handling agent at the time (Reed I think).

It's not always the case. Jet2 generally self-handle and I think their customer service is better off because of it, but that comes at a cost to the company. Ryanair do also self-handle at some airports under a company they own called Azul Handling, but it's not the norm.

And whilst Ryanair admit they incentivize staff in terms of baggage size, I am pretty sure easyjet do too as their staff can be just as overzealous as Ryanair's.

Think Leo Jones did work for easyJet directly. He did a stint at Jet2 also but where he is now I have no idea.