I quite agree. There is a serious discussion to be had about airport provision West of the Pennines. MAN will, I believe, develop an extensive longhaul network, but there may be a viable business case for a Yorkshire airport operating European services on a larger scale than presently available. And to operate at scale, you need mass transit access. You only have to read the Luton thread to see the travails of trying to run a substantial airport without it.
Obviously, Church Fenton is the best located for this. Access could be created to the railway, which has regular services N towards Newcastle and to Scarborough, and S to Leeds, Sheffield, and via Selby to Hull. Only Doncaster is missing and a junction could be provided.
Furthermore its runway could be easily extended NE to a more than adequate length before reaching the east coast main line.
BUT the bill for this would be huge, and the cost of buying out LBA would be only a small part of this. After all the present owners paid £150million nine years ago; I have no idea what would be a fair price now. AND, if HS2 gets built, the line through CF will become the main line.
This is what regional transport planning is about. It is not individual businesses in competition, it is trying to work out what is in the best interests of the thousands of businesses and millions of people who live West of the Pennines.
So please stop slagging off each other. There is a serious discussion to be had.