I'm going to get shot down for this, but PIA will not be a major loss for the airport. Those flights cause nothing but problems. The aircraft is always late, causes a high level of complaints from residents due to the night flying restrictions for noise aircraft. The passengers can be awful at times, I have never met such rude women who do not move for disabled passengers and are quite happy to talk down to white female passengers. The airport cannot make any money from PIA operations as the passengers do not purchase car parking, fastrack or spend any money in the terminal. Quite simply LBA does not have the infrastructure to deal with the amount of people who come to see relatives off for the flights,
The airport will loose credibility for future long haul links, but I’m going to be really honest here, Leeds Bradford will never be a long haul airport, the likes of NYC, Dubai etc are completely unrealistic in the foreseeable future. Even should the 'new terminal' (very much in inverted commas) be done, the airport still has very limited runway and taxiway infrastructure. The only long haul hopes could be from either Jet2, Thomas Cook or charter airlines i.e. Air Transat. I believe this is much more likely and will be happening in the next 12-24 months. Leeds Bradford is a great little airport, if PIA choose to stay, then great. If they don't then LBA need to stick to what they do well, that is low cost, charter and business services to Europe. I hate to talk like this, as I’m very loyal to LBA and a dedicated employee but there really needs to be a sense of reality. I'm afraid the wrong people bought the airport, money has dried up. The airport needs a massive shake up, which involves loosing some of the security and management staff, some who have been there for years and their customer service skills are none existent considering one of the airport keystones is excellent customer service.
Watch this space, keep an eye out in the Yorkshire Post property pages, if you see an airport for sale (with planning permission) for around £180 million, its not Doncaster, Humberside or Durham Tees.