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Leeds is ‘fastest growing airport’

Page last updated: 1st Oct 2010 - 02:18 PM

The number of people flying out of Leeds Bradford Airport increased to 352,175 in July 2010, according to the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority), an 11% increase in traffic compared to the same month last year.

Leeds is the largest airport in the Yorkshire area, ahead of Robin Hood in Doncaster and Humberside on the east coast of England. The Yeadon hub regularly attracts in excess of 2.5m passengers per year, compared to 890,000 at Doncaster and a paltry 390,000 at Humberside Airport.

Bosses claim that Leeds’ soaring passenger numbers can be attributed to a series of new routes from budget airlines Thomson and Jet2, rising demand for Flybe’s domestic routes and a new Ryanair base that opened at Leeds in March 2010. The airport is also pursuing a £28m re-jig of its terminal in a bid to attract extra passengers in the future.

Tony Hallwood, commercial director at Leeds Bradford, claims that the Yorkshire airport is “bucking the national trend” by gaining new passengers and can “look forward to 2011 with confidence”. Tony also mentioned on-going expansion by resident airlines, enabling Leeds to offer flights to 76 destinations.

Jet2, which has called Leeds home since 2003, will add a route from Leeds to Madeira, an island owned by Portugal, in 2011.

Flights to Bodrum in Turkey and New York in North America will grace Jet2’s schedules later this year, helping chilly Brits get some sun in the colder months or, in the case of New York, enjoy shopping in one of the biggest cities in the world.

Despite promising figures for Leeds, a second report by the CAA discovered that aircraft punctuality at ten UK airports had fallen to 78% between April and June 2010, a 4% slump on last year’s figures.

Gatwick, the second largest airport in the UK, suffered a miserable 10% drop in punctuality, with local rival Luton reporting a 9% decline in timely planes.

Comments - 1

1. Richard Clapham

14th Oct 2010 - 10:41 AM

Leeds and Bradford Airport may be the fastest growing airport, but its bursting at the seems when it comes to passenger organisation. Bottlenecks are wide spread from entering to leaving the airport. I currently fly out from the airport on a Mondays and return Fridays. Its through necessity and not choice that I have to use the airport. Using LBA is not a pleasure. There are queue's at check-in validation before moving to larger queue's at security. You pass through to departures and are confronted by impassable pass-ways to the restaurant area. Upon boarding again you are subjected to horrendous queue's while waiting for flights that have just arrived, although outbound flights are supposedly given priority. Then on arriving, you are sat on the plane waiting transport to the terminal building, 35 minutes being the longest to-date and the cherry on the cake comes almost to the last, passport control, queues the full length of the Terminal Building which equates to anything from 30 to 45 minutes. Last of all, you walk to claim your baggage off one of the carousel's to find a heap of and I'll repeat "a heap" off suit cases that have fallen off (carousel 1). Flying back and forth to Paris means the flight home is shorter than the time I spend trying to leave the airport. Leaving the airport through Arrow Taxi's with their booking system is both efficient and a pleasure.

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