Originally Posted by
pwalhx
Your desire for a Yorkshire International Airport is laudable, but the one factor that has not been mentioned is the vast majority either don't care or don't want it. I am afraid you are in danger of swimming against the tide. I don't recall much mention in the Yorkshire Post or local business magazines any clamour for a new 'Leeds' airport or have I heard anything on Calendar or Look North. I attend a lot of meetings including the Northern Futures and do not recall it being a subject that has been mentioned at all.
The North has too many airports, and despite your contention that Finningley wasn't the answer, Finningley was touted to be exactly what you wanted and has hardly set the world on fire.
As has also been said hindsight is the only exact science, Heathrow would not have been built where it was, Manchester and Liverpool would have built on the former 5 runway USAAF base at Burtonwood and Yeadon would not be the airport for Leeds but there it is and despite your desperate wish for it to change it won't.
I live in Yorkshire, pay my taxes here and I would much rather any money available was spent on other projects than an airport that has no guarantee of being the success you wish it would be in a location that would be no more convenient for me.
Manchester will I am afraid remain the major gateway for the North of England and the flights you desire this side of the Pennines to DXB/EWR etc have already gone to Newcastle.
You make some very good points - I don't it's that Yorkshire people don't want an efficient airport - I think it is that they don't care. They have grown up with LBA's offering and MAN over the hill and just come to accept that's the way it is. They are not aviation experts and therefore do not realise LBA is totally inadequate. People in Yorkshire will only realise what they and this county has been missing when a suitable airport is provided. Another issue is that almost half Yorkshires population live in West Yorkshire, not far from LBA, so they wont be asking for another airport if they think it will be further away - that's why CF's location is critically important to the project working. Those politicians who thought finningley would be an airport for the whole of Yorkshire should have stuck to politics. The whole project revolves around two poorly placed low potential airports becoming one ideally placed airport with huge potential. Do you live in Halifax? Even from Halifax, the far west of region, getting to CF (with an A road from the A1 in time) would be so much quicker and easier than Yeadon or MAN and there wouldn't be the need to go over the top of the pennines (important in winter). Newcastle is a purely North Eastern airport and pulls very few passengers from Yorkshire. Most people heading to DXB / EWR will go to MAN because of the train and motorway connection. If flights to New York / Dubai were started from CF they would be able to pull from the North East though. CF could pull passengers from all points of the compass to add to the passengers from Yorkshire and the Humber just like MAN does. Leeds is at the crossroads of the urban North. There are so many political obstacles to overcome for CF to be a success but if they were overcome CF would be a money making success for Yorkshire for years to come in exactly the same way MAN is now.