I have countless times reached LBA from East Yorkshire in under an hour at all times of day or night. I can also get to DSA in 45 minutes (from Leeds and from East Yorkshire). Given that most studies of catchment area dynamics use an hour travelling time as the benchmark, both airports are already well placed in that respect. What they're not well placed to do is compete on the same level as MAN, and that is purely down to size of catchment areas, economic factors and propensity to fly. Yorkshire is not as densely populated as the North West, and not as many air passengers have O&D's in Yorkshire as they do in the North Weat, hence MAN being the place most airlines choose to operate from. Therefore it is important to improve connectivity to MAN so that Yorkshires cities can capitalise on that growth.
pug I've explained it very clearly to you again and again and again with many many facts and figures. If you have too many airports within a potential catchment when that catchment is heavily under attack from neighbouring airports then nobody wins - both airports suffer. having 2 poorly equipped florists on the high street means they both suffer. Much better to have 1 efficient florist in the best location on the high street.
Yes there is not as many people live in Yorkshire than live in the North West but the ratio is NOT 7 : 1.
There are more people live in the North East and Yorkshire than live in the North West and Cumbria and so a well located and accessible functioning airport within this region will without doubt ensure that people remain in the region to fly - hugely more than is happening at present (where passenger leakage is gigantic exactly because of the clear reasoning I've explained).