The planning certificate for the terminal development was granted on December 15th 2009. The airport has therefore had just over 4 months in which to have started work. Had they done so, the initial work would have coincided with the summer season when the airport is around 3 times busier than the winter and the management are trying to embed a new Ryanair operation. Their working assumption is to defer the start of work until the end of this summer season, although nothing is confirmed.
The real delays in this project were caused by a combination of;
- the original terminal designs that were prepared by consultants acting on behalf of the local authorities when the airport was being sold, had to be reworked due to issues with internal passenger flows
- when these issues had been addressed and a planning application was submitted, the planning office in Leeds committed to complete the process in 3 months. The actual time was 12 months
No doubt these were just as frustrating to the airport owners and management team as anybody else.