Leeds Bradford Airport is situated
on the old Yeadon Aerodrome, which began life as the local
flying club on the Harrogate Road. The airport in essence
started operating in 1935 when internal flights to Newcastle
and Edinburgh by North Eastern airways.
This was followed
by west Coast services to Blackpool and the Isle of Man. As
with all present airfields the advent of the Second World
War saw runways widened and lengthened to test Lancasters,
Anson, York and Lincoln, which were built adjacent to the
aerodrome.
After the war Yeadon Aviation Ltd
operated the airport for the local flying club. The first
scheduled services were by BKS Air Transport to Belfast, Jersy,
Ostend, Isle of Wight and Dusseldorf. In 1959 the Leeds Bradford
Airport joint Committee took over the running of the airport
and improvements to lighting, runways and passenger facilities
were undertaken. BKS introduced the first daily flight to
London in 1960 and Aer Lingus to Dublin a year later.
A new runway was constructed in 1965
but this improvement was somewhat off set by a fire to the
terminal which required a complete rebuild and was not completed
until 1968. The boom in the package holiday trade was born
in the sixties and Thompson holidays started flights to Majorca,
Minorca and Iberia.
The next major landmark was in 1978
when the government selected Leeds Bradford Airport as the
Regional Airport for Yorkshire. Subject to a restriction on
night flights the go ahead was given for a £23 million
refit in 1982 to extend the runway to 2250 metres which required
the Harrogate road to be diverted to run under the runway
and improved terminal facilities. These works were completed
in 1982 and enabled Jumbo jets (Boeing 747) to operate from
the airport opening up important transatlantic routes, the
first of which was to Toronto. By 1986 over 500,000 passengers
passed through the airport.
Due to new legislation under the
1986 Airports Acts all airports must be operated by Limited
Companies, the five councils of West Yorkshire became shareholders
in the airport. The split of ownership was Leeds 40%, Bradford
40%, Calderdale 10% and Kirklees 10%. The night time flight
restriction for quieter aircraft was lifted in 1994.
The million passengers a year landmark
was achieved in 1996, which compares to just over 2 million
in 2003. This leaves Leeds Bradford airport lagging well behind
other regional airports. Airports, which offer low cost flyers,
are the airports, which are gaining numbers the fastest as
shown by the table below. Stansted and East Midland airports
have enjoyed staggering growth whilst the big 3 Heathrow,
Gatwick and Manchester airports show minimal increase.
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