Leeds Bradford: (LBA) - General Thread

[LBAYORKIE]

Well they need to up their game then.

 

[Statto]

Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. I don’t think anyone on here is going to be close enough to the confidential negotiations between an airline and an airport to comment either way.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Probably not, but is it unreasonable to judge them on their results, or lack if them?

 

[LBA4EVER]

Thats their job. It’s what they do week in week out. But hundreds of other airport teams are doing the same.

Is it, could of fooled me! LBA has huge potential in fact far more potential than most other airports.

 

[Jetchaser]

Good to see Vincent Hodder on Look North today saying how appalling it is that the Government has not made a decision on the terminal development. It's the second time he has been on Look North after talking about how the airport will be carbon neutral by 2030. Its about time LBA started to get some major PR out there and lets hope it continues.

 

[Len Fish]

Indeed, he was rightly pretty damning regarding the delay and the whole planning process. Gove needs to get his backside into gear, he seems to disappear from view for weeks on end.

 

[Statto]

Probably not, but is it unreasonable to judge them on their results, or lack if them?

Not unreasonable at all. But in my view, that's probably in a couple of years time when we'll be able to compare passenger numbers, route networks to the pre-covid position. We'll then see how different airports have recovered and the winners and losers will be clear. At that point, the speculation can begin in earnest about whether that's about the performance of the management, the facilities or perhaps just the bigger economic picture. Who knows?

But running a post mortem on every single route announcement at other airports and automatically leaping to conclusions about what might or might not have gone on at LBA, is bonkers. It would be amazing if Lufthansa didn't have a very sophisticated set of market analysis tools. Maybe LBA-FRA doesn't make it near the top of their list and as a result they aren't prepared to move to the next stage of negotiations. Let's be honest, we've been hearing about LBA-FRA being a priority for every LBA management team since the 1990s. It's never happened, which means the odds are heavily staked in favour of it not being a priority for LH or their subsidiaries.

Or maybe LBA-FRA is a priority and the team at LBA haven't bothered returning LHs calls, or not taking the pitch seriously. I mean, it's possible. But really?

Is it, could of fooled me! LBA has huge potential in fact far more potential than most other airports.

Great. The forum is a bit quiet at the moment, so show us your data and analysis and we can have a good discussion about it.

 

[LBA4EVER]

Not unreasonable at all. But in my view, that's probably in a couple of years time when we'll be able to compare passenger numbers, route networks to the pre-covid position. We'll then see how different airports have recovered and the winners and losers will be clear. At that point, the speculation can begin in earnest about whether that's about the performance of the management, the facilities or perhaps just the bigger economic picture. Who knows?

But running a post mortem on every single route announcement at other airports and automatically leaping to conclusions about what might or might not have gone on at LBA, is bonkers. It would be amazing if Lufthansa didn't have a very sophisticated set of market analysis tools. Maybe LBA-FRA doesn't make it near the top of their list and as a result they aren't prepared to move to the next stage of negotiations. Let's be honest, we've been hearing about LBA-FRA being a priority for every LBA management team since the 1990s. It's never happened, which means the odds are heavily staked in favour of it not being a priority for LH or their subsidiaries.

Or maybe LBA-FRA is a priority and the team at LBA haven't bothered returning LHs calls, or not taking the pitch seriously. I mean, it's possible. But really?


Great. The forum is a bit quiet at the moment, so show us your data and analysis and we can have a good discussion about it.

I don't have to show any data at all, the huge potential of LBA is right there for us all to see, a huge west yorkshire population home to the 2nd largest financial centre and alot of wealth around to match. Its totally unacceptable we have an airport like it currently is.
On a seperate note i see MAN is certainly getting back upto capacity again, one only has to check fl24, even now in winter we see 1 or 2 arrivals every 5 mins! MAN seems to be a winner in all whats happening even more than gatwick.

 

[Len Fish]

I don't have to show any data at all, the huge potential of LBA is right there for us all to see, a huge west yorkshire population home to the 2nd largest financial centre and alot of wealth around to match. Its totally unacceptable we have an airport like it currently is.
On a seperate note i see MAN is certainly getting back upto capacity again, one only has to check fl24, even now in winter we see 1 or 2 arrivals every 5 mins! MAN seems to be a winner in all whats happening even more than gatwick.

Whilst I agree with most of what you say, any new airline contemplating coming to LBA would need a detailed analysis and statistics before committing itself. Yes, West Yorkshire, in particular Leeds, is thriving and has great future potential but it would take more than that gut feeling to tempt a new airline into LBA.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Well on the basis the airport must have access to this data and havent attracted any new carriers maybe we should conclude it isnt as favourable as some of us thought.

 

[Seasider]

I read on a lot of threads on this forum of members stating that there is a market for Airline A, B, C etc to fly to destination X, Y, Z. I believe LBAYorkie isn't far off the mark when the market we think is there, isn't, for whatever reason.
We all want our local airport to prosper and expand services but airlines will not come if there isn't money to be made and I think the airlines are better at "reading the Market" than the members on this forum.
We should all take a reality check, the way things are going at the moment I am pleased that we still have some services.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

To be clear I said either the demand isn't there or LBA aren't doing enough. Personally I think its the latter.

 

[LBA4EVER]

If you can fill 3 flights a day to ALC, PMI and AGP then demand is there!

 

[White Heather]

To be clear I said either the demand isn't there or LBA aren't doing enough. Personally I think its the latter.

And on what do you base this? You cannot base such a statement purely on the outcome. Do you actually know what LBA are doing behind the scenes in contacting airlines, negotiating with them, visiting route fairs worldwide etc.?

I doubt it.

If you don't know what is happening, nor why we have seen nothing new in terms of new carriers (other than a pandemic), or whether anything is lined up for a future announcement then you cannot claim that LBA are ' not doing enough'.

 

[752]

I think still in this moment, launching a new route / airline is risky business, bookings for travel are at an all time low / booking confidence has plummeted. I would much rather wait and see a new airline/route flourish after the pandemic then have it announced now, and scrapped in a couple of months time due to poor LF. Leisure travel isn't strong at the moment, neither is business. Like I mentioned previous, my personal opinion / best bet would be a PIA service to ISB, VFR traffic, strong local demand even within a pandemic.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

I agree things are hard right now but even so other airports are announcing new routes and all I expect is some if the same from LBA. If they can do it why cant we?

 

[752]

I agree things are hard right now but even so other airports are announcing new routes and all I expect is some if the same from LBA. If they can do it why cant we?

Also agree, strong point there. Its is clear airports are incentivising airlines in to operate (MME, DSA, SEN to name a few). I do think some of these Turkish airlines operating DLM / AYT from other airports would work well here as well. as seen this summer and winter, Spain have been quite tough on restrictions for brits, Greece and Turkey are more relaxed. so I could imagine it them doing well if times are appropriate for Turkey inbound operators.

to add to this, Wizz have announced more push backs to their DSA base, some now starting OCT22, clearly forward bookings / confidence isn't there.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

If incentives are what it takes to be competitive then thats what should be offered.

 

[LBA4EVER]

I think still in this moment, launching a new route / airline is risky business, bookings for travel are at an all time low / booking confidence has plummeted. I would much rather wait and see a new airline/route flourish after the pandemic then have it announced now, and scrapped in a couple of months time due to poor LF. Leisure travel isn't strong at the moment, neither is business. Like I mentioned previous, my personal opinion / best bet would be a PIA service to ISB, VFR traffic, strong local demand even within a pandemic.

So based on the current state of the market at the moment going east is best, a route/s to pakistan and of course Istanbul is key. What operators are currently out there with suitable aircraft to operate to pakistan? ideally an internal pakistan airline that is perhaps looking to go more long haul would be best, still amazing we had an airline from sweden flying to pakistan from LBA!

 

[LBAYORKIE]

I have to assume there is demand (under normal circumstances) for a route to Pakistan but what is less certain are the economics of such a service.