Leeds Bradford - General Thread

[lbia]

I hope it's Turkish Airlines, they have built up a real good product with some decent connections to the east, I think we can all agree tha Emirates/Etihad etc are pretty unrealistic but Turkish would be a massive achievement and open up a totally different market from LBA.

 

[a300boy]

Let the speculation begin !! My wish for some different liveries passing my back window might come true.

 

[White Heather]

Interesting. Also interesting to see that the AOA chairman is Ed Anderson, who was, until the Bridgepoint purchase of LBA, MD of the airport. There is often much negativity about the airport and its weaknesses, which are well documented, so an award coming from the votes of airlines using airports is significant. LBA must be doing something right given the steady flow of awards over the past few years.

 

[752]

I think it is great that the Airlines voted this! however I am surprised to some degree because of the amount of diversions etc. I could see how airlines get frustrated by this as it becomes costly diverting to other airports. I guess the £11 million redevelopment of the terminal has helped and could help push the management to start on the next phase.

 

[SNOWMAN]

where are you WAWKRK
high, I just wondered where you have gone,i for one looked forward to your posts of your travels ex lba and your comments on all matters,i hope you have not fallen out with us.hope to here from you soon.
all the best
sm1
pm me if you want. :s_cry

 

[Aviador]

I've been thinking the same. The last time I heard from him he'd not been well. I hope he's OK.

 

[a300boy]

Very slow morning today now the winter is upon us. Two flights due to land around 1000 then nothing until 1225. Some big gaps in the day. Three Jet 2 arrivals in total today the first one not due until 1405.

 

[Aviador]

Leeds Bradford Airport Arrivals

BRITISH EUROPEAN	08:15   SOUTHAMPTON 	
BRITISH EUROPEAN	08:25	BELFAST CITY		
BRITISH EUROPEAN	08:15	GLASGOW         	
BRITISH AIRWAYS    08:55	LONDON HEATHROW		
RYANAIR	         09:20	DUBLIN	                	
KLM CITYHOPPER	  09:45	AMSTERDAM	     	
EASTERN AIRWAYS	 09:50	ABERDEEN	                
BRITISH EUROPEAN	12:25	BELFAST CITY	   	
JET2               14:05	ALICANTE	                	
BRITISH AIRWAYS    14:10	LONDON HEATHROW

In contrast here's Bristol's winter arrivals for the same period.......................scroll down here \/

DUBLIN	     Aer Lingus      0800	
NEWCASTLE     EASYJET         0815	
AMSTERDAM	  KLM	          0820	
DUBLIN        Ryanair         0905		 
JERSEY        Blue Islands    0935	
EDINBURGH	  easyJet	      0945	
BELFAST INTL  easyJet	      0945	
GLASGOW    	easyJet	      0950	
BRUSSELS	   Brussels Airl   1000	
ABERDEEN 	  bmi regional    1020	
FRANKFURT	  bmi regional    1030	
HAMBURG	    bmi regional    1045	
GUERNSEY	   Aurigny	      1155		
GDANSK	     Ryanair	      1200		
CORK	       Aer Lingus	   1235		
DUBLIN	     Aer Lingus	   1240		
AMSTERDAM 	 KLM	          1245		
DUBLIN	     Ryanair	      1450

The population of Leeds is 715,404 - malking it the third biggest city in the UK after London and Birmingham. source with around 3 million people living within the Leeds City Region.

Bristol in contrast has a population of around 432,500 with a population of around 1 million in the greater metro area.

Bristol airport handles around 5 million passengers each year in contrast Leeds Bradford airport handles just over 3 million.

During November 2012, Bristol airport handled a total of 346,452 passengers. During the same month Leeds Bradford airport only handled 141,027 passengers.

During August 2013 Bristol airport handled a total of 707,649 passengers. During the same month Leeds Bradford airport only handled 443,076 passengers.

Competing airports for Bristol include include Exeter (78 miles), Birmingham (93.9 miles) and Heathrow (104 miles)

Competing airport for Leeds Bradford include Manchester (57 miles), Doncaster (42.8 miles), East Midlands (82.5 miles), Liverpool (72 miles)

It's difficult to quantify what sort of passenger levels LBA should be handling. The population of Yorkshire is around the same as Scotland yet Scotland has two major airport only 46 miles apart handing around 10 million passengers each with other smaller airports handling over 5 million passengers between them. Leeds on the otherhand has a substantial competitor within 60 miles of Leeds city centre.

The airport can be quoted as having said they think the airport should be handling around 5 million passenger a year. I personally think this is a significantly watered down figure. If Leeds and the Leeds City Region is to ever be considered as a serious competitor to neighbouring Manchester it will need to aim much higher.

 

[lbaspotter]

Very slow morning today now the winter is upon us. Two flights due to land around 1000 then nothing until 1225. Some big gaps in the day. Three Jet 2 arrivals in total today the first one not due until 1405.

What do you expect?
Its winter, Its LBA and unless things change like Bridgepoint Capital spending some money on the airports Infrastructure/runway so to allow for better winter operations nothings going to change quickly as people will not change there travelling ways and they will continue to avoid using LBA due to the unreliability. Need we say any more really!

 

[Tarn Spotter]

having lived and worked in Bristol in my opinion your not looking at like for like so not a fair comparison. It is not just the catchment area that you have to take into consideration buy the rival offers within a sensible travel.
How better would Leeds do if it just had Doncaster and Humberside, which relate to Exeter and cardiff. Suggest if manchester and East Midlands not in the mix more offers from Leeds.
You only have to look at Ryanair figures released on Monday, they expect airfares to fall by 10% over the next 6 months, having experienced a 2% fall over the previous 6 months.
This is not the time for airlines to be brave, Ryanair are standing nearly double the number of aircraft this winter against last winter, Jet2 has cut flights to both Murcia and Malaga already for this winter, cut backs are on the cards, low cost airlines want full flights even if this means missing out on possible income. Leeds cant rail against this trend.
better a quiet winter and then a fulsome summer, then no airlines.

 

[a300boy]

I agree with you all ! nothing we can do about it. I believe our owners are happy with the infrastructure as it is. They have no plans for major investment to improve it and accept our lack of operational capability in bad weather. I watched 6 or 7 long haul aircraft arriving at Manchester early this morning on flightradar24 and thought what a pity it will never happen here. Could be worse I suppose just look at the Dtv thread.

 

[yorkie40]

The long haul flights will never happen at lba end of, one main reasons people choose manchester is cos it cheaper flights from there, you just have to go a1 travel or such like choose lba to fly from and then do same from manchester and see to prices, its a no brainer really.

 

[User0001]

The population of Leeds is 715,404 - malking it the third biggest city in the UK after London and Birmingham. source with around 3 million people living within the Leeds City Region

I think quoting city size is a fruitless exercise.

Firstly, its not about just the core city size, but the area that surrounds it. For example, Leeds city centre may be 3rd largest in England, but then the area around it fast becomes sparse due to a lot of countryside, the peaks, Dales etc.
For example, lets take the ever compared Manchester. Its well known the metro area is much bigger than Leeds. However, due to council boundaries, half of Manchester city centres population is 'non-existant' in the Manchester stats as its technically in a separate city (Salford).

Bristol airport handles around 5 million passengers each year in contrast Leeds Bradford airport handles just over 3 million.

Competing airports for Bristol include include Exeter (78 miles), Birmingham (93.9 miles) and Heathrow (104 miles)

Competing airport for Leeds Bradford include Manchester (57 miles), Doncaster (42.8 miles), East Midlands (82.5 miles), Liverpool (72 miles)

It's difficult to quantify what sort of passenger levels LBA should be handling. The population of Yorkshire is around the same as Scotland yet Scotland has two major airport only 46 miles apart handing around 10 million passengers each with other smaller airports handling over 5 million passengers between them. Leeds on the otherhand has a substantial competitor within 60 miles of Leeds city centre.

I think you have answered your own questions really.

Firstly, Bristol does better than LBA because there is not much competition nearby (which incidentally you forgot Cardiff, possibly its closest competitor). Then you consider the 2 closest competitors offer much less choice than BRS. There you see how it works.

Leeds on the other hand. You say that Yorkshire has the same population as Scotland, which has 15 million passengers.
Lets look at it this way, Leeds/Yorkshire has the choice of Manchester (just under 21 million) (already ahead of Scotlands figure in 1 airport), Leeds (3 million), Newcastle (5 million), Doncaster (700,000), Liverpool (4 million) and Hull (?). So, Granted, the boundaries are blurred but that means in the Yorkshire and surrounding counties locality, some 35 million passengers are travelling. Its obviously not a case of populations not travelling, but the local competition whereby 33 million are bypassing Leeds (obviously Leeds cannot handle 35 million pax, but you get the picture).

 

[Aviador]

Leeds shouldn't be defeatist and just accept that Manchester airport is successful, it should aim to compete with them. Manchester airport is hugely successful as we all know but LBA should compete with Manchester in the same way that Glasgow competes with Edinburgh. At the moment it's like LBA shuts up shop in November until April. This is ludicrous in a city the size of Leeds and it must change if we (the city of Leeds) are to compete on a national and global stage.

 

[User0001]

Im not saying LBA should admit defeat, but what I am saying is that when one of your closest competitors has more traffic than all of Scotlands airports combined, then another 10 millions pax worth of competition surrounding you, its going to be a hard slog.

The seasonality issue affects many UK airports. MAN too has suffered terribly in the past (traffic could be as much as halfed over winter in the past, thankfully that gap is not so steep now).

Leeds is up against it because a lot of its routes are holiday ones. The resorts flown to have seasons, so, the fact routes are seasonal is not really a slight on LBA, but just the way the market is.
No point flying 2 weekly to Kos over winter if the majority of hotels are closed.

 

[yorkie40]

Should fly to places that are open then, there nothing to tunisa eygyt morroco WHY?

 

[SNOWMAN]

yorkie40

who should??
smi

 

[yorkie40]

Snowman any airlines would do

 

[User0001]

Should fly to places that are open then, there nothing to tunisa eygyt morroco WHY?

The best airline for that job would be jet2, but, since it all kicked off on North Africa, they have no destinations to that area.

Other than that, the Canaries and the likes are the other option, and I assume the based airlines are happy with the allocated capacity for the time being.

 

[Seasider]

I think that the notion of people not booking flights from LBA inthe winter because of the bad weather is a no-brainer. As previously stated, the majority of LBA traffic is tourist who do not travel in the same numbers during the winter. Reduced passengers, therefore the airlines consolidate on the major airports.
If people decide to avoid LBA because of the weather, how are they going to get to the other airports? The number of flights affected by the weather is only a small percentage of the total number.
By the way, I have just booked to go to AGP at the beginning of January, never thought about the weather affecting my flight.