Third world airport has had its day
From: Keith Massey, Bishopthorpe, York.
LEEDS Bradford Airport (LBA) has gone past its sell-by date (Harvey Logan, The Yorkshire Post, June 25).
What was acceptable post-war and the expansion of air travel from the 1960s is not relevant today.
The airport facilities are virtually third world and a disgrace that it represents two major Northern cities when we are endeavouring to promote the Northern Powerhouse structure for serious future government investment.
I decided several years ago to exclude LBA from any of my holidays or business travel after some of the worse landings in my life.
My wife was a nervous passenger and I would spend most of the holiday anxiously worrying about the landing conditions regarding high winds – and serious crosswinds – that affect this airfield.
A close friend arriving back in winter was terrified on a shocking landing in turbulence, claiming the wing touched the runway before aborting.
The airfield is in the wrong place and far too high – and not a penny more should be spent on it.
For holidays (though you are restricted) I prefer Doncaster, which is low down, with a superb, long, flat, runway, modern terminal and extensive car park facilities and excellent accessibility by motorways, railway and bus connections.
This is the airfield that should represent Yorkshire looking to the future.
From: Nicky Ford, primary school teacher, Leeds.
HARVEY Logan talks about improvements to customer experience, but does not talk about the dire public health consequences of significant increases in noise.
I will ask the children I teach at school which they consider the most important:
■ More shops, restaurants and perhaps nicer views at the airport on their annual holiday (bearing in mind that many of them do not have an annual holiday that involves flying).
■ Sleep, undisturbed by noisy, scary aeroplanes (bearing in mind that the World Health Organisation has raised serious concerns over the effects of noise on human health and in particular healthy brain development in young children).
Harvey Logan would have us believe that the profits made by LBA are in some way essential to the growth of future green initiatives.
LBA is owned by AMP Capital, an Australian investment company. I would suggest that their main focus right now will be covering their losses and protecting their shareholders.
If they had any interest in the shift into green industry which our planet so desperately needs, then they should not be investing in airport expansion.
Neither, of course, should Manchester Airport. Two wrongs do not make a right.
From: Hywel Rees, CEO, Leeds Bradford Airport.
THERE seem to be some misconceptions around access to Leeds Bradford Airport’s new terminal planning application, and it is important that we are clear on the facts.
I have seen many claims that if approved our plans would result in additional traffic on the roads, but we are doing all we can to prevent this.
We are not proposing to extend our car parks, which means that there are only a limited amount of people who can feasibly drive to the airport, and we have created a new travel plan to maximise opportunities for sustainable travel which includes a restriction on any new car parking.
We have committed to a Sustainable Travel Fund of £4m which will be used to fund a range of sustainable measures and public transport improvements, particularly the new rail link off Scotland Road.
One of these improvements is a new dedicated bus terminal at the front of the main entrance, with segregated access for buses.
As part of this venture, we are committed to enhancing and bettering these services, including increasing the daytime frequency of the bus routes, introducing a direct coach service between Leeds and Bradford interchanges and additional bus routes, and bringing new shuttle bus services to areas with large numbers of employees.
The bus terminal will be future-proofed to allow for operations following delivery of the planned new rail station, which will be just under a mile away and provide the airport with increased connectivity with Leeds, Harrogate and the East Coast main line.
As well as continuing to promote car sharing schemes for staff and passengers, a new, shared footway/cycle route between Whitehouse Lane and the terminal will be created.
From: Nick Hodgkinson, Leeds.
HARVEY Logan suggests that LBA expansion is in some way crucial for the local economy – the day after both Jet2 and Swissport announced large-scale redundancies.
The CEO of Swissport said: “We are now facing a long period of uncertainty and reduced flight numbers, along with significant changes taking place to the way people travel and the way goods move around the world. There is no escaping the fact that the industry is now smaller than it was, and it will remain so for some time to come.”
When considering the business community, is Mr Logan possibly the only person not to have discovered the cost effectiveness of Zoom? British Airways has withdrawn its Heathrow link from LBA so the train is now the only realistic option of getting to London anyway.