Originally Posted by
LNIDA
Leeds Approach
From what i can see no one is denying Leeds a new airport, the problems to overcome are enormous, the fact is nobody other than perhaps you and a few other spotters want a new international in their back garden. Church Fenton is a beautiful rural area and the last thing the locals will want is a new International airport with wide body jets roaring overhead.
The economic argument has been well explained by others, but like them i remain flummoxed that you seem to feel that it should play no part in the debate when most would see it as the very foundation upon which an airport is built. In England there are no state owned airport, you need to look at PIK in Scotland or CWL in Wales to find failing airports kept alive by tax payers money.
So unless you have someone who is both incredibly wealthy and stupid at the same time (a rare beast indeed) then CF will remain a sleepy hollow.
One other consideration is that some of Manchester's flights would not be viable without Yorkshire passenger and would not be viable from Yorkshire either.
It may be that you have missed the debate over new runway capacity in the SE where it is needed, the money is there, the demand is there the airlines are there, LBA provides an adequate service for bucket n spades and BA gives you access to a world wide network the likes of which MAN or LBA can only dream of.
What Leeds needs is an new runway(s) at LHR and have written into planning law that they must grant access to regional airports like LBA, if you want to spend local tax payers money then it should be on subsidies to keep access to LHR open to the good of Leeds
I can assure you I am not a spotter and I am in fact based at Yeadon - an airport I love.
Yorkshire and the Humber region is propping up a competing regions airport purely down to past political mistakes. There is a massive demand in Yorkshire for 1 suitable airport. Having two airports (or more) in the region fighting against one another will only ever hold the region back and help competing regions. Nobody wants an airport in their back garden but a region with a population of a small country should have an airport to aid its economy rather than help some competing regions economy. It is not about the flights from Manchester that need Yorkshire passengers to work it is about the flights from Manchester that would work perfectly well and profitably from 1 well placed suitable Yorkshire airport. The ratio of passengers East and West is purely down to past political mistakes. This has absolutely nothing to do with another London runway, which would inevitably help this country's economy. My wish of 1 airport for Yorkshire at Church Fenton faces all kinds of obstacles but if it did happen it would take multiple millions of passengers off manchesters total.
I will try to take a break from pprune now as I've made my point as clear as day. Church Fenton could easily have been turned into a business park and yet the new owner wants to develop an airfield and has stated he wants to run European schedules. I remain optimistic especially in light of what the leader of Leeds council has stated and my very close knowledge of LBA. From small acorns mighty oaks sometimes grow.