Originally Posted by
HOODED
Leeds Approach. You seem to have a bee in your bonnet re Church Fenton. Whilst I admire and agree with much of what you are saying. This simply won't happen. LBA is in the right place conurbation wise but the wrong place geographicaly. Unfortunately it has managed to serve the region well for years, and yes I know not to its full potential. We will always loose pax to MAN and yes with some money spent (parking small runway and terminal extensions better access roads etc) we could reduce this substantially. CAT3 has helped reduce the diversions. Better snow clearing and dicing kit would too. The cost of doing some of these would be high but no where near the cost of developing Church Fenton into what LBA currently is. It is also not exactly next to The massive conurbation that LBA is. DSA was the new Yorkshire airport a while ago which had the runway parking and terminal but I haven't seen The airlines switch in droves. Sorry but LBA will soldier on I'm afraid.
I don't have a bee in my bonnet about CF but in time it most certainly will become the airport that properly serves West Yorkshire and indeed the whole of Yorkshire. CF is actually quicker to get to for huge areas of the W. Yorks conurbation as I've proved logically beyond any doubt on the CF thread. With an upgraded or dedicated link road from the A1 CF would be even more ideal. Obviously people in North Bradford and West Leeds would have to travel slightly further but on average people from all parts of Yorkshire and the Humber would be able to get to CF much quicker and easier. There would be substantially less leakage to Manchester from anywhere in Yorkshire including Halifax and Huddersfield because of the good motorway and existing rail link to CF.
Quite simply there is absolutely no logic or value for money in throwing yet more millions of pounds at an airport that cannot properly do the job. You wouldn't have a railway station in Leeds that cannot properly do the job so why would you have an airport? Even spending millions of pounds cannot resolve the problem of too high an airport with too short a wrong direction runway on a bumpy hill-ask any pilot on this planet if LBA has any prospects going forward and you will get the same reply. It is no coincidence that very little has been done infrastructure wise since the runway extension built over 30 years ago. Did you know only virtually half of it can be used for landing from the North? Nearly a thousand feet of lost runway due to its hilly location. If they cant land then unfortunately they cant take off. We had wide body flights 30 years ago and now we have none - progress eh! Isn't Yeadon doing well!?
LBA has not served this region well for years - I completely disagree with you. Perhaps you are just used to the level of service and like so many stoic 'take it on the chin' Yorkshire folk balk at demanding better? If you don't stand up to things you'll fall for anything. 3 million passengers a year for an airport serving a population of a small country is utterly risible. LBA with its airfield failings and inaccessibility has served another region very well over the years and that's exactly how they want it to remain. They would dread the day that CF was established as a civil airport for Yorkshire.
As I've stated many times now finningley airport is completely in the wrong place for an airport to even serve Sheffield let alone be an airport for the whole of Yorkshire. It would never be able to bring about the closure of Yeadon because it is too far away (despite its brilliant long runway and flat building land). Yorkshire must have one airport in the best central location and CF is absolutely ideal if a phased in run down of Yeadon could be agreed upon by all parties and politicians. If the opportunity is missed or denied then the region of Yorkshire and the Humber will never have an airport that can suitably and effectively do the job in my opinion.
Yes the SAS Copenhagen advert has at last been replaced by an advert for Dubai! You couldn't make it up. Where are the emirates flights to Dubai? What happened to the PIA flights to Pakistan? Proper airports handle proper aeroplanes on proper runways.