Leeds Bradford Airport CEO apologises to all customers and issues recruitment update amid huge queues

Vincent Hodder, CEO of Leeds Bradford Airport, said he wanted to assure passengers the airport is "working hard to overcome these challenges".

He said the current challenges are "an industry wide problem, caused by the speed of withdrawal of travel restrictions and testing which has led to the rapid recovery of international travel. Airports across the country are being impacted by lead times to recruit and train additional staff".

In a statement released on Monday (May 16), Mr Hodder said: “Staff shortages continue to be an issue for us, as well as other airports across the UK, but we are doing everything we can to get staff into positions that can ease the current pressures. We’re confident that we now have the necessary staff recruited or in the pipeline to operate the airport at its full capacity, and we hope that Home Office accreditation, following extensive referencing checks, is imminent to enable us to enhance our team as quickly as possible.

"We’re doing everything we can to make travelling through LBA is as smooth and comfortable an experience as possible, whilst also being a safe environment.

“While we address these issues, we ask passengers to work with us and help us minimise queues. Please arrive to the airport no earlier than three hours before departure, as arriving earlier will exacerbate queuing issues further. We are working closely with our airline partners to actively manage queues, ensuring that passengers are brought forward if required. Please also follow all rules and procedures through security as per our website listing, signage within the airport and video instructions.

“Once again, I’m sorry for all passengers that have had a negative experience travelling at LBA in recent weeks and want to assure everybody across the region that we have solutions in place to fix these problems as quickly as possible and that we remain committed to making improvements to our airport for the future.”

The airport has a large amount of new recruits confirmed.

However, a spokesperson said LBA are still awaiting full Home Office approval across all positions, following extensive referencing and accreditation checks.

More staff are being released into operation from training each week, it was announced.

Last week, around 67,000 passengers travelled through LBA.

Less than 0.01% of the total number of passengers in the last week missed flights according to the airport.

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Advice for passengers from LBA:

To streamline your journey and minimise the risk of any issues in security, we ask passengers to:

Please join the security queue not earlier than 3 hours before your flight

Prepare your carry-on baggage – remove all large electronic devices, carry liquids and gels less than 100ml in a 1 litre zip lock bag, do not carry liquids over 100ml or other prohibited items in carry-on baggage

Empty your pockets - Remove all items from pockets, remove any belts, jackets or coats and any boots, platform or high heeled shoes and put them and pocket contents through the xray units

Peak security demand at LBA is between 04.00 and 08.00 in the morning and 13:00-16:00 in the afternoon, outside of these hours there are virtually no queues.

The airport is making announcements 60 minutes before the schedule time of departure to call any remaining passengers into the fast tray queue for processing.