LBA Expansion...read this
In 2007 the Civil Aviation Authority recorded that 3.7 million passenger journeys had taken place at Manchester, Liverpool, East Midlands and London airports by people who started or ended their journey in West & North Yorkshire. On average that’s 10,000 trips every day, 365 days a year travelling on the local road network to get to the M62 and M1 to get to other airports. It is the same number of passengers as currently handled by Leeds Bradford and Doncaster Airport combined. It means over 6 out 10 passenger trips that start or end in West/North Yorkshire don’t use Leeds Bradford. Whether we like it or not, demand for air travel to/from the region is high and will continue to be so whether Leeds Bradford expands its terminal or not. Any demand that can’t be met locally will simply continue to displace to other airports, creating traffic on the roads, contributing to the expansion of other airports and the growth of other regional economies. Locals who can’t fly from Leeds Bradford are not choosing to sit at home or take a local “green” holiday; they are getting in cars, taxis or mini-busses to undertake journeys of between 120 to 500 miles to get the flight they want. This will always be the same unless there is a consistently applied national policy from central government that restricts air travel across ALL UK airports. Given this is not likely to happen, it is only right to consider how we can achieve a better balance of how much of the demand that already exists across Leeds Bradford’s hinterland is met by Leeds Bradford Airport itself.
Also worth remembering is that the council sold the airport to the current owners because they wanted a developer to come in and develop the airport. Having sold the airport as a development opportunity and pocketed the money to fund their dream of a city centre arena, I’m struggling to see how the council can legitimately keep this cash but stop any development of the airport.
Last edited by Runway 32/14; 27th Apr 2009 at 15:19.