Route Development & Rumours

[LBA4EVER]

I thought this was suppose to be a forum where we discuss all things LBA! What I write on here is the truth, I no a number of people who did not know Leeds had an airport. What I write about LBA not having the correct infrastructure is fact and it would appear some on here cant handle the truth! Untill LBA deal with the infrastructure and esp that runway then growth will only be slow and other airports will develop more and secure new routes/airlines etc its starring us in the face, is it not obvious enough!! but on a plus note im looking forward to seeing the new terminal and hopefully we can get a link road and station in the near future.

 

[LBA4EVER]

Believe it or not Im a massive fan of LBA and esp in my younger days spent many hrs up there watching the aircraft, in fact during euro 96 I actually camped up on plain tree hills that sat eve into sunday morn when spain played france to watch all the departing aircraft and the replacement challenge air dc10 come in late eve. Then I think the sunday we had a carravelle in?

 

[Aviador]

Ah Euro96 those were the days. It is Plane Tree and not Plain Tree, a common mistake. Although I totally agree with you @fight2win there is an alternative argument. Take BHX for example where very little growth has take place utilising it's recent runway extension. Swinging the argument back, you could argue that at least the infrastructure is in place for when it does.

As for LBA it's more about taking obstacles away from services already using the airport making the airport as attractive as possible with what we've got. That's the argument for moving the threshold rather than a runway extension. But again, we're told its a non starter, at least for now.

As for inbound tourism, I believe Jet2 inparticular have a big focus on attracting inbound customers. For European city routes especially, it's vital to have a good split of passengers to ensure the success of a route.

 

[armadillomaster]

Believe it or not Im a massive fan of LBA and esp in my younger days spent many hrs up there watching the aircraft, in fact during euro 96 I actually camped up on plain tree hills that sat eve into sunday morn when spain played france to watch all the departing aircraft and the replacement challenge air dc10 come in late eve. Then I think the sunday we had a carravelle in?

In pictures section I posted some from euro 96. I did the bus tour by the Air Supply guy.

 

[Aviador]

In pictures section I posted some from euro 96. I did the bus tour by the Air Supply guy.

There's a link at the top of the LBA forum direct to the photos from your good self and others taken at Euro96.

 

[Tarn Spotter]

I think that’s a well made point TheLocalYokel, also most people may know there’s regional airports in whichever location, but may assume routes are not served and expect them to be served only by larger airports. I often hear comments that people don’t believe they can fly from LBA to places, when in reality they can, just maybe not at the same frequency as other airports.
Back to the thread and route development I wonder if the airport has ever explored inbound tourism, especially in light of tour de Yorkshire etc. Could a weekly inbound route spark enough interest to whet the appetite for scheduled routes?

Unfortunately the welcome at LBA for overseas visitors is usually poor.
On landing on our Jet2 flight from spain, there was a welcome "home" to everyone, did not seem to occurr that there was quite a number of Spanish folk on the flight, no onboard spanish announcements.
Have lost count of the number of times my partner or I have had to translate as airport staff seem unable to speak anything more then english.
Whilst having spoken Spanish for over three weeks and very little english, I did not think I needed my spanish in the baggage hall to assist a spanish lady with three young children, who had no idea where to collect her large push chair and could not make anyone understand, I assumed where the golf bags arrived and asked staff to get her a baggage trolley and a means to get her and her three children to her partner, waiting to collect. She was really upset and stressed out, not a great start to her holiday.
One staff member opened an app to translate the spanish, but these apps are useless when technical terms used, I did not understand the english translation, it was certainly not the question she asked in Spanish. I would feel offended if a phone stuck in my face.

 

[Deleted member 82]

My reference to the potential inbound tourism was more thinking of weekly charter. Market the airport to say the German market (as an example) get a weekly rotation and move on to scheduled, similar to how things develop say at NQY or JER.

tarnspotter I’m not sure I agree that the welcome in LBA is usuallypoor, It maybe was for that lady, but using that example and use of Spanish, I wouldn’t have thought I would need to explain to a Spanish lady in Alicante that she was not going to Bremen by getting on my LBA bound flight, but I did. None of the local staff assisted her even though she was distressed. Does that make the costa Blanca unwelcoming, or just the staff who didn’t assist by using their native language? I do agree however that Jet2 should just say welcome to Yorkshire or Welcome To Leeds Bradford Airport

 

[Aviador]

Most airports are moving to automated public address systems. The type that are used in Spanish airports are exceptionally good with Spanish and the destination language used for all inbound and outbound announcements. It's a very English thing... to expect everyone else in the world to speak English. It's embarrassing sometimes when arriving back in the UK knowing there are visitors from another nation onboard. This isn't an LBA criticism, as a nation we need to get better at hosting other national's.

 

[lbaspotter]

Some Spanish Airports have stopped doing the preflight announcements, I know that's the case for Arrecife & Las Palmas

 

[Len Fish]

Not to worry, we’ll all be speaking Chinese soon enough!

 

[Tarn Spotter]

Some Spanish Airports have stopped doing the preflight announcements, I know that's the case for Arrecife & Las Palmas

I am surprised any do now, I remember Linate going silent mid 90's and the turn of the century at AGP, although we had fun at AGP last year, when all the systems went down, no information boards, no information above the gates, thankfully I had looked up the gate information the day before.

 

[Finger66]

There's plenty on this forum often speak Double Dutch already lol

 

[lbaspotter]

There's plenty on this forum often speak Double Dutch already lol

And that's without having a alcoholic drink!

 

[a300boy]

All I can say is bedank

 

[Seasider]

And that's without having a alcoholic drink!

Is that an Advocaat?

 

[a300boy]

I see that Loganair are re-starting a Brussels operation previously operated by Fly Bmi from East Midlands together with a 6 times a week Inverness service.
How nice would that be if they did the same from Leeds !
Ah only dreaming but I do wonder why they pulled the plug on our Glasgow service when by all accounts passenger figures were rising.
I can only assume the yield was poor or fees had been implemented or increased somewhere in the system or even both.

 

[Aviador]

Is that an Advocaat?

Haven't seen that for years. Alcoholic milkshakes.

 

[oldendays]

I thought we lost the Glasgow route for no other reason than Loganair wanting the aircraft to assist with their increasingly crackpot spat with FlyBe, i.e. competing on a route where competition was neither warranted nor desirable.

 

[a300boy]

Maybe thats true but we dont really know !
The Ceo of Loganair has been a long time supporter of Lba in the past as he is a local lad I would love te speak to him about what happened..

 

[Aviador]

Maybe thats true but we dont really know !
The Ceo of Loganair has been a long time supporter of Lba in the past as he is a local lad I would love te speak to him about what happened..

Nobody really knows what happened but if the relationship with LBA soured in the past it has new owners now. It might be worth restarting talks with LBA if they haven't already, that assuming Loganair still has the capacity to expand further.