Luton Airport owners rebrand to become Luton Rising

London Luton Airport Ltd has changed its name to Luton Rising to reflect is is "more than an airport"

The owners of an airport are to operate under a new trading name, saying they are "not just about planes in the sky".

London Luton Airport Ltd has become Luton Rising to avoid confusion with London Luton Airport Operations Ltd, which runs the airport.

Most of the rebrand work has been done in-house, costing about £10,000, a spokeswoman said.

Luton Rising chairwoman, Cllr Javeria Hussain, said: "We are more than an airport."

Luton Council is the sole shareholder of Luton Rising, with the day-to-day running of the airport carried out by a separate private consortium.

Earlier this year, the council's executive committee agreed to a loan totalling £119m - plus a contingency of £20m - to help the airport recover from the pandemic.

The authority confirmed that this took the total current package of loans to £507m.

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Andy Malcolm, portfolio holder for finance, said if the loans were not agreed the council would have to "sell its most valuable asset".

The airport generates 27,000 jobs and £1.8 billion in economic activity, Luton Rising said

Cllr Hussain said the new name would express that Luton Airport was "unlike any other major airport in the country, we are wholly community-owned".

The rebrand was revealed at the launch event of Morton House, a new skills, innovation and business hub which will create 200 jobs for the town.

Luton Rising chief executive Graham Olver said: "We are not so much a business as a movement.

"We believe our sustainability measures will be some of the most far-reaching commitments to minimise environmental impacts ever put forward by a UK airport.

"Our new name and strapline embody these values: Luton Rising - our airport, our community, our planet."

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