Leeds Bradford Airport

Leeds Bradford International Airport File:LeedsBradford-IA-Logo.png
IATA: LBA ICAO: EGNM
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Bridgepoint Capital
Operator	Leeds Bradford International Airport Limited
Serves	Leeds/Bradford
Location	Yeadon, Leeds, West Yorkshire
Elevation AMSL	681 ft / 208 m
Coordinates	53°51′57″N 001°39′38″W
Website	www.lbia.co.uk
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 14/32 2,250 7,382 Concrete

Leeds Bradford International Airport (IATA: LBA, ICAO: EGNM) is located between the cities of Leeds and Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. The airport was in public ownership until May 2007, when it was sold for £145.5 million.

Leeds Bradford has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P800) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.

History

Early history

The airport was opened as the Leeds and Bradford Municipal Aerodrome or more commonly Yeadon Aerodrome on 17 October 1931 and was operated by the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club on behalf of Leeds and Bradford Corporations. In 1935 the aerodrome was expanded by 35 acres and scheduled flights begin on 8 April 1935 with a service by North Eastern Airways from London (Heston Aerodrome) to Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Cramlington) the service was soon extended to Edinburgh (Turnhouse). In June 1935 Blackpool and West Coast Air Services started a service to the Isle of Man. By 1936 the London/Yeadon/Newcastle/Edinburgh service was three-times a week and also stopped at Doncaster and carried on to Aberdeen (Dyce).

In 1936, No.609 (West Riding) Squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force, RAF formed at Yeadon, and seasonal flights between Yeadon and Liverpool commenced. Work also began on a terminal building, but progress was halted after only one section had been completed.

Wartime use

Civil aviation ended at Yeadon in 1939 when World War II started; Avro built a new shadow factory just to the North of the aerodrome which was used to produce military aircraft, a taxiway connected the factory to the aerodrome and many of the aircraft first flew from Yeadon Aerodrome. Aircraft manufactured included Bristol Blenheim(250), Lancasters(695), Anson (over 4,500), York(45) and Lincoln(25).

Significant developments were made to the aerodrome; the addition of two runways, taxiways and extra hangarage led to Yeadon becoming an important site for military aircraft testing.

1947 to 1969

Civil flights recommenced at the airport in 1947, and subsequently Yeadon Aviation Ltd was formed in 1953 to run the Airport and Aero Club. Two years later in 1955 flights to Belfast, Jersey, Ostend, Southend, the Isle of Wight and Düsseldorf were added to Yeadon's destination list.

Scheduled flights to London began in 1960, and Dublin was added shortly after. A new runway was opened in 1965, and in that year the terminal building was destroyed by a fire, with a replacement terminal opened by 1968.

1970 to 1994

By the mid 1970s the package holiday had grown become popular in the UK and in 1976 the first holiday charter flight to the Iberian Peninsula departed Leeds Bradford.

In 1978 it was decided that with runway extensions the airport's status could be upgraded to a regional airport. Work began in 1982, and was completed by 1984. This included significant extension to the main runway including the construction of a tunnel beneath the runway on the A658 Bradford to Harrogate road. The airport also underwent significant terminal extensions and redevelopments, the first phase of which was opened in 1985.

For a period in the 1980s there were transatlantic services from Leeds Bradford Airport operated by Wardair that flew to Toronto Pearson International Airport using Boeing 747 aircraft.

In 1986, Concorde visited Leeds Bradford for the first time, and an estimated 60,000 people were at the airport to see it land.

Although initially the airport had restrictions on its operating hours, these were removed in 1994, meaning that flights could operate at the airport 24 hours a day.

1995 to date

Work on the airport terminal has been ongoing since 1996, and the result of this has been significant growth in terminal size and passenger facilities. In 2007 nearly 2.9 million passengers passed through the airport, an 88% increase in just seven years and more than twice as many compared with 1997 (1.2 million). Much of the growth in passengers since 2003 has been due to the introduction of scheduled flights by the based low-cost airline Jet2.com.

Since 2000 the airport has been home to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

The original runway, 09/27, closed on 6 October 2005, to be redeveloped as a taxiway and to provide additional apron space.

In 2006 Isle of Man based airline Manx2 re-opened the airport's oldest air route, to the Isle of Man.

February 2008 saw the introduction of long-haul scheduled flights to Islamabad with Shaheen Air International, however the link will end indefinitely on 30 May 2008.

Future

In 2004 the airport published a masterplan in line with government recommendations. The masterplan sets out any furture development. The document proposes the following developments as part of their expansion plan

• Expansion to the terminal buildings, with new gates added including airbridge boarding tunnels.
• New aircraft parking areas (there are currently 19 stands, this will increase to 31).
• A change to the runway configuration (part of which has already been carried out). This includes building a taxiway parallel to the main runway. This will allow aircraft movements to increase from 16 to 25 per hour.
• New airfield equipment and buildings (Including aircraft hangars, new flight catering facilities and a new fuel farm).
• Hotel and office space (the first phase of which is now complete)
• A railway station from a spur near Horsforth
• New car parking areas
• A new link road from the A65, to the airport and then to the A658.

The masterplan sets out the stages of development for Leeds Bradford Airport over the next 10 years and outlines general proposals for the period from 2016 to 2030. It is estimated that by 2016, the airport will handle in excess of 5.1 million passengers per year as well as seeing a significant increase in freight traffic.

Airport ownership

Leeds and Bradford councils jointly bought the airport site at Yeadon in 1930, which opened as Yeadon Aerodrome in 1931.

The airport became a limited company in 1987, and was shared between the five surrounding boroughs of Leeds (40%), Bradford (40%) and Wakefield, Calderdale and Kirklees (together sharing the remaining 20%).

In October 2006 plans to privatise the airport were confirmed when Bradford Council became the last of the five controlling councils to agree to sell off the airport to the private sector.

On April 4 2007 the five controlling councils announced that Bridgepoint Capital had been selected as the preferred bidder. On May 3 2007 Bridgepoint was confirmed as the buyer - the final price being £145.5 million.

On May 4 2007 Bridgepoint Capital acquired the airport from Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Calderdale and Kirklees councils for £145.5 million. The new owners have said they are to implement a £70 million capital expenditure plan, to focus on improving passenger and retail infrastructure. Other aims include more than doubling passenger numbers to 7 million per annum and adding up to 20 new scheduled destinations, both by 2015.

Statistics

Number of Passengers Number of Movements 1997 1,254,853 26,123 1998 1,406,948 25,615 1999 1,462,497 26,185 2000 1,585,039 29,263 2001 1,530,227 28,397 2002 1,530,019 28,566 2003 2,017,649 29,397 2004 2,368,604 31,493 2005 2,609,638 35,949 2006 2,792,686 37,251 2007 2,881,539 39,603 Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority [1]

Transport

The airport has connections to the local road network and is signposted on a large number of routes in the region. Bus services link the airport with Bradford, Leeds, Harrogate, York and other surrounding areas. Services to Leeds link the airport with the National Rail network via Leeds railway station and connects with long distance coach services at Leeds bus station.

Licensed private hire taxis are available by pre-booking at the office in the International Arrivals area.

As part of both the airport and Metro's long-term strategies, there are proposals for the construction of a direct rail link to the airport on a branch from the Harrogate Line, however no firm commitments or timescales have been announced.

Airlines and destinations

Scheduled flights

• Aer Arann (Cork)
• Air Southwest (Bristol, Newquay)
• bmi (London-Heathrow)
  • operated by bmi Regional (Brussels, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Glasgow-International)
• Eastern Airways (Aberdeen, Inverness, Southampton)
• Flybe (Aberdeen, Belfast City, Bergerac, Exeter, Southampton)
• Jet2.com (Alicante, Almería, Amsterdam, Avignon [begins 22 May], Barcelona, Belfast-International, Chambery, Düsseldorf, Faro, Geneva, Gran Canaria, Heraklion [begins 20 May], Ibiza, Jersey [begins 24 May], La Rochelle [begins 24 May], Lübeck, Kraków, Lanzarote, Madrid, Málaga, Menorca, Milan-Bergamo, Murcia, Nice, Olbia, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Pisa, Prague, Rome-Fiumicino, Salzburg, Tenerife-South, Toulouse [begins 24 May], Valencia, Venice)
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
  • operated by KLM Cityhopper (Amsterdam)
• Manx2 (Isle of Man)
• Ryanair (Dublin, Shannon)
• Shaheen Air International (Islamabad [ends 30 May])

Charter flights

• Air Malta (Malta)
• Austrian Arrows (Innsbruck)
• BH Air (Bourgas)
• bmi (Heraklion, Larnaca, Rhodes, Zakynthos)
• First Choice Airways (Faro)
• Jet2.com (Newark [begins 6 November, seasonal])
• Onur Air (Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman)
• Spanair (Palma, Ibiza)
• Thomas Cook Airlines (Alicante, Arrecife, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Heraklion, Ibiza, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Mahon, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Reus, Rhodes, Tenerife-South, Zakynthos)
• Thomsonfly (Corfu, Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca, Reus)

Airlines including Air Europa, Futura International, Iberworld and Pegasus Airlines also operate a variety of charter holiday flights from Leeds/Bradford.

Incidents and accidents

On 18 May 2005 a Jordanian registered Airbus A320 operating for Spanish charter airline LTE suffered a braking malfunction on landing at Leeds Bradford Airport following a flight from Fuerteventura. The aircraft touched down on runway 14 just beyond the touchdown zone, approximately 400m (1,300ft) beyond the aiming point. The pilots determined that the rate of deceleration was inadequate and applied full reverse thrust and full manual braking in an effort to stop the aircraft, however the normal braking system malfunctioned and the Captain turned the aircraft onto a level grassed area to the right of the runway where it came to rest. There were no injuries to the passengers or crew, however the Air Accidents Investigation Branch made seven safety recommendations in the final accident report.

On 24 May 1995 an Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante aircraft operating a Knight Air flight between Leeds Bradford and Aberdeen entered a steeply descending spiral dive, broke up in flight and crashed into farmland at Dunkeswick Moor near Leeds. All 12 occupants were killed. The probable cause of the accident was the failure of one or both artificial horizon instruments. There was no standby artificial horizon installed (as there was no airworthiness requirement for one on this aircraft) and the accident report concluded that this left the crew without a single instrument available for assured attitude reference or simple means of determining which flight instruments had failed. The aircraft entered a spiral dive from which the pilot, who was likely to have become spatially disoriented, was unable to recover.

On 27 May 1985 a Lockheed Tristar operated by British Airtours overran the runway surface on landing after a rain shower. The aircraft was evacuated, with only minor injuries sustained by the 14 crew and 398 passengers. The nose landing gear strut folded backwards during the overrun, leading to severe damage to the underside of the forward fuselage. The under-sides of both wing-mounted engines were flattened and both engines suffered ingestion damage. The mainwheels of the aircraft also dug deep troughs in area beyond the runway end, damaging the buried airfield lighting cables. The accident report concluded that the overrun was caused by the inability of the aircraft to achieve the appropriate level of braking effectiveness, and recommended that both the scheduled wet runway performance of the TriStar and the condition of the surface of runway 14 at Leeds Bradford Airport should be re-examined.

External links

• Leeds Bradford International Airport