The facilities at LBA are poor in places. I believe there is a reason for it, which is not one that places all the blame on the door of the management.
In 1989/90 at the height of the Capital / Air UK dog-fight, LBA was close to handling 1m passengers. In 2002 passenger numbers were 1.5m. So growth of half a million passengers in 12 years - which basically amounted to the Ryanair Dublin service and the 2 summer charter units post 24H ops. 6 or 7 extra departures per day, nicely phased through the day (and night of course) was hardly going to put pressure on the infrastructure.
Then along comes the real boom in low-cost and coupled with the myriad of industry issues post 9/11, regional airports are left with the requirement to lower fees to get growth and change their business models to earn revenue from non-airline fees such as car parking and retail concessions. LBA gets in on the act with Jet2; passenger numbers grow by half a million in 2003(just to reinforce - that's the past 12 years of growth in just 1 year) but finds itself facing the paradox of being successful while profits are falling.
Unlike most of the other regional airports, it has no capital support from its shareholder (the local councils) and so has to fund expansion through its own profits or via commercial loans - the size of which is determined by profitability. But profitability is falling due to 9/11 issues and the crux of the issue is how to fund the expansion it needs to continue the passenger growth. The answer is to do things on the cheap. Check in hall B, tents on the apron, piecemeal extensions to departures etc are all the results of this fundamental strcutural issue with the airport's ownership which has been exposed by changes brought about by the airport / airline market. Arguably this was the only course of action available.
The root of the problem has therefore laid with the local councils who should have either provided capital to fund the business or, if they couldn't, sold to someone who could. The problem is they took the "do nothing" option, which wasn't a tenable option at all. Let's not forget that as recently as March 2004 the then ruling Labour group in Leeds overturned a motion calling for a feasibility study into the relative merits of private or public ownesrhip - this despite the issues discussed above being plain for all to see.
Thankfully common sense prevailed. 5 if not 10 years later than it should, but here we are. Of course the actual sale process will inevitably have resulted in some delays to further 'on the cheap; terminal extensions that may well have eliminated some of the current capacity issues and it will have put route development on hold as well. A case of one step back for a good few forward hopefully. Bridgepoint have had the keys for 7 weeks now and are actively recruiting a new MD who will be their man on the ground and will be entrusted with the job of getting the return on the £145m purchase price and the £70 investment pot. I'm not sure why people expect anything to happen or have happened so soon after the sale and turning the exisitng mish-mash layout of ther terminal into something that is fit for purpose and future-proofed will need some careful planning. Surely winter 07/08 for readiness for summer 08 is the very best that can be expected and I wouldn't be surprised to see more work over winter 08/09.
No-one is going to start ripping things up during the summer season so it will just have to cope the best it can.