Airport reacts to passenger numbers surge as aviation industry faces disruption

Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) is forecasting a busy Easter season, with a 76% return on passenger numbers expected compared to pre-pandemic levels of travel.

Around 37,000 passengers are expected to take to the skies at the airport over the Easter weekend.

The loosening of travel restrictions and increased availability of flights, along with a release of pent-up demand from holidaymakers has seen LBA and other airports across the UK start to see meaningful signs of recovery from the pandemic.

However, LBA has warned that due to recent changes in Home Office accreditation for airport staff, uncertainty around when pandemic travel restrictions were due to ease and ongoing staffing disruption due to Covid-19 absences, a longer lead time for recruiting staff is being experienced across the aviation industry.

It says this is resulting in some delays for passengers moving through LBA at peak times on some days.

LBA stresses this disruption is not as severe as that which other UK airports are currently experiencing, but can unfortunately be unpredictable.

It adds it has put in place measures in place to address these issues, including:

• Actively managing queues to bring passengers forward if their flight is departing shortly
• Identifying peak periods of travel to ensure staff are allocated appropriately throughout the terminal
• Recruiting rapidly in areas with current staff shortages

Vincent Hodder, CEO of Leeds Bradford Airport, said: “The return of some normality to international travel after the past two years is very welcome news.

“However, we are currently contending with industry-wide issues in recruitment and staffing that are leading to longer times for passengers to move through the airport than usual.

“Although the disruption at LBA is not as severe as other airports, it is not up to our high standards.

“We would like to apologise to anyone who has experienced excessive queuing in recent weeks and ask for your continued patience as we do everything we can to ensure a smooth journey for passengers.

“More staff are joining our team every week, so we do feel confident that the processes are in place to fix current issues.”