Nice big pull out in the evening paper this evening regarding Bridgepoint, John Parkin and "the future". Interesting to see someone in an offical capacity at the airport acknowledging the leakage to MAN and saying they are going to do something about it. Something in the past that was always know about, but seldom said.
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Bridgepoint – which had previously been a shareholder at Birmingham airport – is planning to invest £70m into the airport to provide additional terminal capacity and, in Mr Parkin's words, to 'move the airport up a league'.
It is an ambition that both supports and reflects the wider ambitions of Leeds itself. A fact which is not lost on the new boss – who has not wasted any time in making his presence felt.
Not surprisingly, the 'new broom' instigated an all-encompassing review of the business which took about four weeks to complete. "It has helped to inform what it is that we will do and the order in which we will do it as we move forward in bringing our strategy to life," he says.
There have been a number of changes already. The airport now has full 24-hour operations on the apron throughout the whole year. Normally, operations on such a scale are stepped down in the winter but Mr Parkin says he is convinced LBIA is now of sufficient size to have fully operational 24-hour service 'partly because of our expansion plans and partly because we are already of a size where that is appropriate'.
Added to that, the skips have been in, 'things have been moved around' and a lot of existing signs have been taken down to be replaced by 'less signage but more clarity' as part of a modernisation process ahead of the major redevelopment plans.
"What we will get now will be a period of investment that I think is unprecedented in the history of LBIA.
"We are at about 2.9 million passengers per annum today – within five years we want to be at around 5 million passengers per annum. We want to invest in the business by revamping the terminal and making it a much more pleasant place to go through – upgraded and more modern. We want to create, in every sense, the gateway to the region that the region wants.
"I've talked to an awful lot of people and I'm struck by the loyalty of customers in our region who want to use LBIA and the desire to see the airport raise its game. He doesn't believe the airport's development will be hindered by frequently raised concerns about transport links and, while he admits he would be happier if it lay at the end of a dual-carriageway, he cites his experience at Bristol. Everybody described Bristol as having poor access. It too is on a hill and, at that time, it was a very tired terminal with around 1.4m passengers per annum. Today it is 6.4m passengers, has a brand new terminal and is recognised as being one of the top performing regional airports in the country – and its access issues are much the same as they were. Transport issues are not the disabler of growth that people might think. Regional airports provide a local means of accessing international and domestic destinations and that convenience element is very high in the travelling requirements of the passenger – our customer. It's up there with price and choice."
Looking ahead – without betraying any commercial confidences – he says there are aspirations to introduce longer range services from Leeds. From an infrastructure point of view we can certainly operate New York and we can operate Dubai (don't expect to see Jumbo jets, though) and a number of other long-range places but that is just part of a route development strategy – it is not THE route development strategy. We have very tightly-defined catchment area – 98 per cent of our customers come from Yorkshire and Humberside and we estimate that something in excess of two million people from this region use Manchester for flights that we already have here – and there's a challenge for us.
"I think we need, as an airport, to become more visible as well as investing, and upgrading, and introducing more choice of routes and services. He adds: "I'm pressed to think of a better catchment area for an airport to sit in outside of the major UK global gateway airports than this one. The potential here is exciting. We have a lot to go at and some key things in our favour but the airport needs to move up a league and that's what we plan to do.
And he is also acutely aware of the airport's importance as a business facilitator. One of the other critical things that a successful regional airport does for its region is that it provides direct access to and from markets. Our region is becoming more and more visible internationally, and successfully regarded internationally, due to a concerted strategy to deliver that based on real deliverable things that have happened..and you can see the evidence of that in the region, all over the place.
He explains that it is in the nature of the air travel business that airports chase airlines for routes rather than the other way round. There are key routes that we would like to see. And its up to us to compete and to make sure we get flying coming into this airport because there is a good case for doing so." Of Bridgepoint, he says: "I could hardly have a more committed investor and shareholder than I do now." Over the next 12 months there will be some physical changes in advance of the major upgrade works 'when people will notice the really big changes' and the plan is for that to happen in 2009 – with careful planning ensuring that it will not affect the running of the business.
"It gives us the chance to re-engineer the way this place works – make it simpler and easier to use, with more space for the passengers and a better environment; to design in a better experience – the best experience – with half an eye on the changing regulatory and security related environment that we have to deal with and that people understand.