Late December 2025, saw Luton Rising (LR) file its accounts for the Financial Year 2024/25.
The year saw many occasions where LR trumpeted how well they are doing, and how their Airport Expansion plans will propel it to even greater profitability in future years. So let us now have a look at some the details in these accounts and how they have changed since the previous year.
As we have stated previously none of our group has financial backgrounds, so we will be giving our own simple, non-jargonised thoughts on what we find.
A link to these accounts can be found further on in this article, and we will reference each of our points on a page-by-page basis.
On Page 4, under Principal Activities, LR refer to them owning land adjacent to the airport, New Century Park. LR do not own this land, they hold it under Licence from Luton Borough Council (LBC), and it is still the wild parkland, Wigmore Valley Park. New Century Park, or plain old Century Park as it was known was never a project designed to bring commerce and jobs to Luton, it was purely a smoke screen for the Terminal 2 Expansion and would have delivered the crucial access road to the site, thus removing those huge costs from the Airport Expansion budgets.
Page 4 also details the recovery of a further £7.3 million, on the Luton DART impairment figure from previous accounts. This figure was £240 million and now stands at £232.7 million.
Page 4 also included yet another Revaluation of the Airport which has had a new figure applied at the point of the current Concession ending, in September 2032. This figure is not detailed, but the accounts state that the value of the airport, has increased over the previous year, from £1.54 billion, to £1.79 billion.
We are confused by this figure as nothing substantial has occurred at the airport site in 2024/25, apart from a runway resurfacing project undertaken by the airport operator, that commenced in late 2025 and is fully funded by them. We refer to this Revaluation figure again, under the Auditor’s Qualified Opinion.
So where exactly has that £250 million increase in value come from? Has something happened that has not been publicised, or have LR, just plucked another figure from thin air to temp new investment for their Expansion Plans?
Page 5 details a Business Transformation, which now has six individual Departments. Again we are confused – why does LR need a Commercial Operations and Aviation Departments when it doesn’t talk to airlines, or make commercial decisions about the airport as that task sits with the Concessionaire?
The only explanation we can find, is that LR is positioning itself to take over running the airport itself in 2032, or even sooner? There is one huge flaw in this Strategy of course LR want the next Concessionaire to pay off all their debts, circa £1 billion, to secure the Contract. But if there is no new Concessionaire, where will that money come from?
Page 6 refers to LR delivering social value to the community and that £7.7 million has been made available to charities and community groups. This is the same figure as last year despite the increase in passenger numbers. The increase in passenger numbers means he Concession Fee collected also had a very healthy increase, but this figure of £7.7 million, is still half the figure in donations made, before LR decided to pump those donations into itself and the Airport, rather than the communities it purports to support to the best of its abilities.
As per previous accounts over recent years Page 16, includes the Qualified Opinion the Auditors and their valuation of the Airport. They suggest a valuation of the airport of £950 million to £1.01 billion would be more proportionate. But remember, LR value the Airport at £1.79 billion, the differential between those two figures being the total of the loan stream that LR have from LBC. A coincidence or design? Only LR know that answer.
Page 21 together with the reports on pages 31&33, shows the Profit and Loss figures for the year. Turnover for the year rose by £10.3 million to £86.9 million, and that figure comprises of:
- £14.3 million from DART tickets sales, which have increased to £1.5 million.
- The Concession Fee Income, the amount paid each year by the airport operator, London Luton Airport Ltd, on passenger and cargo throughput, which returned £71.7 million, up £9.8 million,
- And incomes from other properties, which was £0.9 million, down by half on the previous year.
Note 3, page 31, shows the returns for the DART Operation, which saw tickets sales rise to £14.3 million from £12.8 million. However, the actual cost of ticket sales makes for interesting reading.
During 2023/24 ticket sale costs stood at a loss of £1.5 million, but for 2024/25, that loss has rocketed to £7.9 million. So, whilst ticket income appears to rise, it hasn’t, so why could that be? It could be that the rail operators have charged more for selling DART Tickets as part of their ticket sales. Or could LR have been discounting tickets themselves? As far as we can tell, there are no discounts available to non-Luton residents, so only LR can explain this large rise in ticketing costs? Was £6.4 million spent on selling DART Tickets whilst only £7.9 million given to local charities/groups. We wonder if all those local groups who wrote to the Planning Inquiry supporting Airport Expansion as it would boost their chances of increased income feel the same way now after seeing this?
The Concession Fee income grew, as it should, as passenger numbers grew year on year. £9.8 million is a considerable sum. But again, LR have decided not to pay a Dividend to LBC, for their service budgets. That makes it SIX Financial Years since a Dividend was paid. During those 6 years, £267.4 million has been collected by LR in Concession Fees and not a single penny has been delivered to the residents of Luton, the real shareholders of the airport.
Once taxes have been applied the final Operating Profit figure is thus, £194.6 million.
This appears to be another healthy sum, until you note that the previous year, it stood at a whooping £307.3 million. Income has tumbled £112.7 million, when passenger figures and therefore Concession Fee income has risen.
But we can find no explanation within the accompanying notes to say why this has happened.
So, a growing airport would appear to be losing money. Whilst one nearly twice the size, should apparently bring levels of income which will solve all the town’s poverty issues and make it financially sound for ever; or will it just flood the town with even more debts?
The full accounts can be found here: –
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02020381/filing-history
So, what do we surmise from the LR accounts for 24/25?
- Yet another Revaluation of the Airport’s worth without any actual solid evidence in the accounts to justify it. But which might go to improve its ‘look’ if you are trying to convince Investment Companies that it is worth the Billions of Pounds. Let’s hope those companies are skilled in doing their own due diligence.
- Another year where flights and passenger numbers grew on previous years, but where the income to LR plummeted.
- Yet another year, when the Board of LR didn’t think the Residents of Luton deserved one penny piece in the Dividend to pay for the financially strapped direct services they should be receiving.
For those of you who read this article and the Accounts, and who do have a financial background, do you feel that these are the Accounts of a company on a sound financial footing? Or, if their only creditor wasn’t their sole shareholder, LBC, do you think that LR would be in financial distress?
We ask because the residents of Luton will be the ones LBC will turn to asking for more of their hard-earned cash if LR does collapse, even if that collapse is entirely self-inflicted.