Latest News

Plans to improve lighting in a tunnel beneath Leeds Bradford Airport could have troubling consequences for the village of Carlton, Leeds.

The project, which began on the 4th January, is an essential part of city caretaking, but local residents are concerned that a river of heavy traffic could be diverted through suburban areas of Leeds.

Carlton is located to the northwest of the airport, and experiences high volumes of traffic on a daily basis, despite being little more than a rural hamlet. Villagers have already voiced criticisms about the speed of vehicles passing through the Carlton crossroads.

Local councillors were apologetic – “We are confident that the measures we are putting in place will keep disruption to a minimum. The works will be carried out as safely and quickly as possible.”

The affected tunnel is 200m long, and forms part of Victoria Avenue, an extension of the busy A658 road, which serves Bradford in the southwest. The works will replace the existing safety lights with energy efficient bulbs, requiring less maintenance.

Planners have earmarked a full ten weeks for the completion of the project. Lanes will be closed at off-peak times, after the morning rush hour, then through the night until 4:30am. The airport itself will not be affected by the closures, but be wary of congestion in the local area.

Earlier this week, Leeds Bradford Airport was closed while ice and snow was cleared from the runway. Extra flights have been made available for customers affected by delays, but bosses request all customers check with their airline before departing.

Related Links

Motorway Hits £11m Roadblock

Master Plan Upset by Road Link

Residents of Yorkshire, wishing to fly to New York, may no longer have far to travel if bosses at Leeds Bradford Airport succeed in their new campaign. Project America has recently been launched and seeks to attract an American airline to the airport, with the aim of introducing a daily flight to New York by 2015.

This would of course not only benefit travellers in the region but would also create 400 new jobs and inject £10 million into the local economy. Half a million passengers per year have to travel from Yorkshire to other airports to fly across the Atlantic, and Leeds Bradford Commercial Director, Tony Hallwood, believes that it is crucial to “capture this market for both leisure and business travellers”.

According to preparatory research, America is the most popular long haul destination which is not currently served by services in the region. With flights to New York hopefully on the horizon, passengers would be able to connect with flights to other popular destinations, such as Florida, California, Canada and the Caribbean.

Mr Hallwood added that there are 750 American businesses in Yorkshire and that with a decent transatlantic service available on the doorstep further growth and investment in the region would follow. It would also raise Leeds’ status as a “core city” and the profile of Yorkshire as a whole.

Bosses at Leeds Bradford are also looking into the reinstatement of a public transport link from York to the airport. The head of York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce said that in order to attract more tourists and businesses to the region all the “building blocks of transport” had to be in place.

Flybe has announced its early-summer timetable from Leeds-Bradford Airport, allowing customers to book next year’s holiday months in advance.

Founded in 1979 as Jersey European Airways, Flybe claims to be the UK’s number one domestic airline, offering over 130 flights from Leeds-Bradford alone.

The carrier is keen to promote its Easter and Bank Holiday routes before larger airlines get their teeth into the public.

Routes to Italy, Germany, and France make up the continental half of Flybe’s 2010 roster, and UK tourists can also choose from a number of domestic destinations including Belfast and Aberdeen. Officials have reported ‘brisk interest’ from holidaymakers and business folk alike.

Flybe continues to carve out a niche as a budget business carrier, claiming many critical business customers on the route to London Gatwick.

Beginning in October, the airline will increase its commitment to the capital by offering an additional flight from Leeds-Bradford to Gatwick, as public interest in the route begins to soar.

Early birds can now depart at 0700 – two hours earlier than the previous Leeds-London flight.

“We recognise this route as being of crucial importance.” Mike Rutter, Officer at Flybe, explained. “We advise people to book early to take advantage of the lowest fares possible on this popular route.”

Flybe’s new flights cost between £23 and £26 for a one-way trip, all taxes included. The airline has promised to maintain the timetable until June 30th 2010.

A full list of the new destinations is available at the official website.

Budget carrier, Ryanair, has announced that it will be launching 14 new routes out of Leeds Bradford airport, following news that the airport is to have a £28 million makeover.

Plans were unveiled on 11 Aug for new routes to the French cities of Carcassonne, Montpellier, Limoges and Nantes, the Spanish cities of Malaga, Murcia and Palma, the Italian cities of Pisa and Venice plus Knock in Ireland, the island of Malta, Krakow in Poland, Faro in Portugal, and the Balearic island of Ibiza. This was greeted as good news, not only for holidaymakers in the north of England but also for job seekers in West Yorkshire who were promised the creation of around a thousand new jobs.

Not everyone is happy though, with the Irish airline being accused of muscling in on routes already being operated by Leeds based airline Jet2 and it seems a price war is bound to follow.

Michael O’Leary, head of Ryanair, said that he had chosen Leeds Bradford airport for his latest base because it does not currently have any low cost carriers operating out of it. He went on to say that there are a couple of carriers “masquerading as low cost.....but it is a fact to say that they charge high fares”. The carriers which he was thought to be referring to are Jet2 and flybe.

Philip Meeson of Jet2 responded by pointing out that Ryanair have so many hidden extras in their fares that it works out as an extremely expensive option, especially for families who need to check in luggage.

Tickets are already on sale for Ryanair’s new routes and the new base at Leeds Bradford will open in Mar 2010.

With this new competition on many routes it will be interesting to see just how low fares go.

Leeds City Council has given the thumbs up to an ambitious expansion plan for Leeds Bradford airport after a four and a half hour meeting last month. The plans had originally been turned down in April on the grounds that better transport links had to be established but, having listened to a report from the planners, the council was satisfied that a lot of work had been done to address environmental concerns and the scheme was approved.

It is estimated that the expansion will cost £28 million and will involve a doubling in size of the airport and create up to 2,000 new jobs. Under the plans the security zone will be extended, the immigration and retail areas improved, and a new departure lounge constructed.

The regional airport currently sees some 3,000 passengers per year but it is estimated that as a result of the improvements this will increase to 5,000 by 2013.

The Chief Executive of the airport, John Parkin, said he was delighted by the approval and that it was “really good news for the people of this region”. Residents in West Yorkshire will be pleased to know that by 2013 they will be less likely to have to travel to Manchester airport to take a long haul flight.

Not everyone, however, is pleased and concerns have been voiced by environmental campaigners who held a demonstration outside the Civic Hall, whilst the Council debated the issue. A spokesman said that he was very disappointed with the decision and that the expansion would lead to traffic congestion, noise for local residents and higher carbon emissions in the future.

As from the end of June Flybe will be operating three flights a day from Leeds-Bradford airport to London Gatwick. This March saw bmi scrap the service from Leeds-Bradford to London Heathrow so passengers and businesses alike will benefit from the introduction of the new service from rivals Flybe. It is expected that the new route will attract close to a hundred thousand passengers a year.

Around 130 new jobs will be created as a result, some with Flybe (both at Gatwick and Leeds-Bradford), some with the airport operator, Bridgepoint, and others within the travel-related industry.

The news has been welcomed by the commercial director of Leeds-Bradford airport although the chief executive of Bradford Chamber of Commerce has expressed reservations about Gatwick, saying that it may be less popular with the business traveller than Heathrow with its underground links straight into central London.

The new service starts on June 29th and tickets cost from as little as £24.99 (taxes and charges included) for a one way trip. Weekday flights will leave Gatwick at 07.25, 12.30 and 18.55 whilst those from Leeds depart at 09.00, 14.05 and 17.05. The service is reduced to twice a day at weekends but the times of the flights will appeal to anyone in Leeds who fancies a weekend in London, with a flight leaving Leeds-Bradford at 08.45 on the Saturday morning and flying back from Gatwick at 18.55. With a flight time of only an hour and ten minutes it will certainly beat driving.

Approximately 3000 new jobs are going to be made available in the West Yorkshire region after an expansion to Leeds Bradford Airport has been completed. The terminal building at the airport is set to be expanded in a scheme which is part of an overall plan costing around seventy million pounds. Leeds Council will be presented with the proposed master plan later this month and, if the planning application is accepted, work will begin early next year.

The airport officials hope that the expansion to the terminal building will see passenger numbers increase to five million per year by the end of 2013. John Parkin, the chief executive of the airport, has spoken about the other motivational factor behind the scheme. Leeds Bradford Airport wishes to attract passengers who usually choose to travel to Manchester. Parkin believes that “we need to get the facilities and services here in our back yard so that we address the transport requirements of the region in the region”.

The new terminal building will have a new passenger security screening zone, a brand new departure lounge, a better baggage reclaim hall, and improved facilities for immigration. The current building has often been criticised for becoming congested very easily and there is poor segregation between passengers arriving and passengers departing.

Furthermore, access to Leeds Bradford Airport will be made easier, with £450,000 expected to be invested in improving roads around the airport. Rail options are also being considered at the moment. The airport currently offers 76 routes but this number is set to increase rapidly over the coming years.

Leeds Bradford International Airport has revealed ambitious plans to increase passenger numbers from 3 to 5 million in the next five years, as well as increase the number of destinations served from 75 to 100.

New routes are planned for business destinations in Germany, as well as to the new EU states. In the wake of Pakistan International Airlines introducing its twice weekly service from Leeds Bradford to Islamabad, an airport spokesperson has said that plans are afoot over the next five years to introduce more medium and long haul flights to America and the Middle East, in order to meet the passenger targets.

First it is hoped that a new route to an as yet unnamed west coast US city will facilitate links to North and South American destinations. A new route planned for Leeds Bradford to Dubai would enable the Emirates city to be used as a hub for onward flights to Australia, Japan and China.

The owners of the airport, Bridgepoint Capital, a private equity firm, bought the airport last year for £145.5 million. The airport had previously been in public ownership since 1930 when it was opened as Yeadon Aerodrome. Although Bridgepoint Capital owns the airport from a financial point of view, the five councils who previously owned it still have a say in the operation of the airport.

Bridgepoint Capital has promised to spend a further £70 million to boost the region’s business and tourism prospects. A £3 million project is about to get underway to improve the airport’s parking facilities and drop-off and pick-up points.

We all know by now what’s going wrong with the pound in this country. It’s crunching by the day and by the time this is published we might be in the depths of a recession. The strength of the pound against the Euro resembles David and Goliath. This has resulted in a noticeable drop in the number of people going abroad on their holidays and also a noticeable number of people coming to the UK for their holidays to take advantage of the crazy exchange rate. What has this meant for the airports in the UK? It’s meant they’re overcrowded with incoming flights.

Jet2, which is a budget airline and flies into six UK airports, has seen an 8% percent rise in inbound traffic this year so far. It has meant that there is a shortage of hotel rooms and overcrowded tourist attractions but then UK based airlines are making quite a profit out of it.

The European airlines are in a much stronger position to offer new affordable deals for passengers. Their greatest asset is the fact that they are buying fuel in Euros but which is priced in dollars and so are getting a lot more for their money than anyone else in the world at the moment.

Across the Atlantic in the US, the dollar is in the doldrums too and so many Americans airlines are shelving their plans for new services and routes for the time being, whereas the European airlines such as Air France, Iberia and KLM are flying high with their business.

It has been announced this week that, as expected, Sir Graham Hall has stepped down from his post as chairman of Leeds Bradford International Airport [LBIA]. The announcement has come amidst reports that Hall did not see eye to eye with Bridgepoint executives, the private equity firm that bought the airport in 2008.

Hall became chairman of the airport just last year after Bridgepoint bought it in a £145 million ownership deal from the five local authorities which make up West Yorkshire. Before taking up the position, he worked as chief executive for Yorkshire Electricity and was on the board as chairman of the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward.

Hall has not made an official comment as to the details of his relationship with airport executives, but it is believed that he encountered difficulties chairing a private equity business that he was not familiar with in his previous corporate positions. In Hall's own words, he was not used to the "focused" style of management employed by private equity firms.

The new chairman for LBIA is Alan Lewis, who has been promoted to the role from his previous position as deputy chairman. Lewis is an advisory partner of Bridgepoint and has previously served on the board for Birmingham airport. Speaking about his predecessor, Lewis acknowledged that “Graham has played an important role during a key transitionary phase in the development of LBIA.” He went on to say that the management team and airport investors thank Hall for his contribution and are now looking forward to the airport’s future development.

Following his departure, Hall maintained that he is proud to have been able to contribute to the airport’s development and to putting a sound growth strategy in place for LBIA.