Airport unveils £70m expansion plan

LEEDS Bradford International Airport (LBIA) has today unveiled its £70m expansion plan which will almost double passengers numbers and create several thousand new jobs.

The centre-piece of the expansion will be a £28m redevelopment of its passenger terminal to increase traveller numbers to 5m a year from the current 2.9m.

Plans will be submitted to Leeds City Council early next month and work is due to start in April next year.

Airport chiefs believe the expansion could result in almost 3,000 more jobs at the airport. deliver a step change in the passenger experience at Yorkshire’s gateway as the airport prepares for the next decade of air travel.

Chief executive John Parkin said the redevelopment would turn LBIA into “a proper airport”.

He said that 2,200 people are currently employed by the 40 businesses that operate on the airport site and the expansion will “create jobs” as around 1,000 people are employed at an airport on average for every 1m of passengers that travel from it every year.

LBIA’s terminal development proposals, designed by leading architects Pascal & Watson, include:

• a two-storey extension to the landside entrance to the existing terminal;
• an expanded new central passenger security screening zone;
• additional retail outlets;
• a new departure lounge with central seating area;
• moving the existing landside catering area to airside;
• improvements to the domestic baggage reclaim hall and the airside immigration facilities.

The move is the culmination of more than a year of work by LBIA chief executive John Parkin and its private equity owner Bridgepoint, which bought the airport from its five West Yorkshire local authority owners in May 2007.

Bridgepoint has pledged to invest £70m in the airport over the next five years.

Mr Parkin said: “‘Our exciting plans to improve the terminal building will transform LBIA. We will be creating modern, spacious and service focused facilities designed to make the airport easy and convenient to use.  The terminal proposals will also deliver impressive new facilities which will integrate with the existing building sympathetically in scale and design.”

“We are passionate in our determination to deliver a passenger experience for the next decade that offers the very best in airport design and service standards for the people of our region.  We will value and look forward to hearing their comments on our proposals as we prepare our planning application.”

He added that the expansion will not mean a runway extension or any significant increase in night flights

Further details are also available at http://www.lbia.co.uk by clicking on ‘Building a better airport for you’.