Our travel plan will make Leeds Bradford Airport more accessible - YEP letters

There seem to be some misconceptions around access to Leeds Bradford Airport’s new terminal planning application and it is important that we are clear on the facts.

I have seen many claims that if approved our plans would result in additional traffic on the roads, but we are doing all we can to prevent this.

We are not proposing to extend our car parks, which means that there are only a limited amount of people who can feasibly drive to the airport, and we have created a new Travel Plan to maximise opportunities for sustainable travel which includes a restriction on any new car parking.

We have committed to a Sustainable Travel Fund of £4 million which will be used to fund a range of sustainable Travel Plan measures and public transport improvements, particularly 
the new rail link off Scotland Road.

One of these improvements is a new dedicated bus terminal at the front of the main entrance, with segregated access for buses.

As part of this venture, we are committed to enhancing and bettering these services, including increasing the daytime frequency of the bus routes, introducing a direct coach service between Leeds and Bradford interchanges and additional bus routes, and bringing new shuttle bus services to areas with large numbers of employees.

The bus terminal will be future proofed to allow for operations following delivery of the planned new rail station, which will be just under a mile away and provide the airport with increased connectivity with Leeds, Harrogate and the East Coast mainline.

As well as continuing to promote car sharing schemes for staff and passengers, a new, shared footway/cycle route between Whitehouse Lane and the terminal forecourt will be created.

Though it is clear there is a perception in Yorkshire that Leeds Bradford Airport is hard to get to, readers may be interested to know that Leeds Bradford Airport is reachable by nine per cent of the UK population within 1.5 hours, which is much higher than most other UK regional airports which significantly outperform Leeds Bradford Airport passenger numbers.

I’m confident that these enhancements to our surface access will only make LBA more accessible in efficient ways as we move towards a more sustainable future.