Airport Consultative Committee [Questions & Responses]

[Finger66]

The early signs do look very promising and thanks for the info White Heather. The proof will be in the pudding and we have to give the new management chance. Human nature is to be impatient and want everything now and I suspect they are not going to let BA kill a prestige route if a whole array of current problems have already been identified

 

[a300boy]

Indeed a very positive meeting you have reported on and uplifting to hear of the enthusiasm of the new management.

 

[White Heather]

Thanks for the very encouraging update "White Heather". It looks like Leeds/Bradford Airport's management Bridgepoint Capital may have found a good replacement in David Laws. Lets hope he lives up to the hype....

Just a quick question!
Is the new CEO David Laws effectively combining both Tony Hallwood & John Parkin jobs in to 1 job role?

My understanding is that they will be advertising for Tony Hallwood's replacement.

 

[lbaspotter]

White Heather you bang on the money regards you comments about CEO David Laws working to deliver improvements to surface access.
The airport has just issued the following this press release following Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling call for evidence for a new "Aviation Strategy" http://www.leedsbradfordairport.co.uk/media/2667/21072017.pdf

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

Thank you "Whiteheather" for your post from this meeting. Sounds to me the new exec is up for the fight, so to speak, but put LBA on the map. One has to wonder what airlines in the long run this guy can attract? I hope he has power to pull it out of the bag.

 

[nwh45]

Morning Whiteheather
Do you have a date for the next airport consultative committee meeting.

 

[lbaspotter]

Morning Whiteheather
Do you have a date for the next airport consultative committee meeting.

All the dates you need are listed on the airports website here.
https://www.leedsbradfordairport.co...ironment-and-community/consultative-committee

 

[White Heather]

Morning Whiteheather
Do you have a date for the next airport consultative committee meeting.

It is this Thursday nwh45 - 29th March.

 

[White Heather]

Here is an update from today's LBA Consultative Committee Meeting:

Summer 2019: Jet2 flights are due on sale very shortly and the airline are in the process of loading them into the system. LBA expect a 2nd phase of flights to be uploaded later, which (they hope) will include 2 or 3 routes that are new to Jet2 from LBA.

I am not sure if it has been reported previously but TUi are dropping their Tenerife winter sun flight from LBA for winter 2018-19. Due to the time it operates, arriving late in Tenerife, it apparently has lost out to alternative flights from Jet2 etc. and was in fact their worst performing route this winter. Sadly, the axe has extended also to summer 2019 as they will not be operating the Tenerife route from LBA, or (and I know at least one member who will be unhappy to know this), to Malaga. That route is also dropped after we have only just got it back. However, there will not be a cut in flights overall and these two routes are being replaced by Antalya (another to Turkey!), and more interestingly, Dubrovnik.

As many will have noticed, Thomas Cook still do not have a base at LBA for summer 2019 and have announced flights for next year that mirror this summer (2 x Dalaman, 2 x Antalya & 1 to Palma). Apparently this is for the same reason as this year. A leased aircraft is not obtainable due to significant shrinkage in the availability of such aircraft. I am not sure but it may be that these are leased for more than one year at a time. We will have to wait and see what they do from 2020. However, flights for this year are apparently selling well and for summer 2019, LBA are reasonably confident that an additional flight will be introduced to Enfidha, Tunisia which Thomas Cook recently re-introduced.

LBA management are continuing to pursue new carriers and routes and are hopeful that there will be something positive to announce for summer 2019. For the time being, it is likely that passenger figures for this year will be slightly down on last year due to the loss of Monarch, Thomas Cook's inability to open the base they promised initially, and Ryanair not adding any peak summer additional flights as they did last year. A new flight to Pakistan remains high on the LBA agenda but (for those who are interested) Canada is no longer sustainable from Regional Airports due to the huge changes in the Canadian market. A Toronto route is unlikely therefore in the short term, but it was pointed out that Aer Lingus do operate to Toronto Pearson from LBA via Dublin in addition to their USA destinations (New York, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco).

Terminal and airport generally

The new Cabin Bar opened today and the 3 new lounges within the 1st floor extension open on 11th April, with good advance bookings already. The three lounges will be as follows, all with a view of the runway/apron:

Yorkshire Lounge, capacity 150, for leisure passengers including families & groups @ £24.95 per adult including complimentary drinks, food etc.
White Rose Suite. capacity 85, aimed at premium and business passengers. This lounge apparently has a 'fantastic' view of the airfield with full height panoramic windows. Entry is £29.95 per adult including drinks, food etc.
14/32 Runway Club - First Class, but not just for first class passengers. The best of the three lounges with a capacity of 46-50 (to be confirmed) and a cost of £34.95 per passenger.
All lounges have their own dedicated washroom facilities.
All prices are slightly increased, but the level of comfort and service to be provided will be greater than previous.
Currently, 1 in every 13 passengers use one of the lounges.

In total, the three lounges measure a considerable 845m2.

Meanwhile, the area vacated by the existing lounges will then be refitted to include a coffee shop plus the additional seating previously promised for those passengers who do not wish to use the various café or bar facilities.

LBA management are continuing with their purge on anything that can be described as poor customer service and they state it will no longer be tolerated. They are, where possible, taking the services in house and offering better wage and pension packages to attract the required standard of staffing. They are very much aware of regular areas for complaint, such as escalators switched off and intend to continue taking action to ensure that customers notice a high level of customer service across all areas of the airport, from car parking to cleaning, bars to check in. They acknowledge this will take time but they seem very passionate about this and are looking to replicate the standards achieved at NCL, where various awards have been secured for the levels of service.

Parkway Station

This project is gaining support from all relevant parties and there is real optimism that it will happen. Trains on the Leeds to Harrogate line go to every 15 minutes from December 2018, and the new rolling stock for this line (not actually new trains but fully refurbished ex Scotrail rolling stock) are already starting to arrive. It is still hoped that despite the issues surrounding Virgin Trains on the East Coast line, the through trains to Harrogate from Kings Cross via Leeds will commence in May 2019 using trains with 5 coaches. I presume these are the new ones currently being built in Spain. The location of the Parkway Station will be approximately 250m down the track from the footbridge that spans the track near the entrance to the Bramhope Tunnel - towards Horsforth.

Noise Action Plan

A new action plan is being drawn up (the 3rd) for the period 2019-2024. The draft will be submitted to the Airport Consultative Committee in May of this year and then to DEFRA for comment in August. It is due to final publication in January 2019

1 Hour Free Parking zone

This was provided with 50 spaces but due to the growth of LBA and customers finally realising this option has been there for some years, it is now outgrowing itself. LBA management are also aware that it is not currently on the car park shuttle bus route and therefore those using it have to walk, whatever the weather. They are therefore looking to relocate it. The plus is that wherever it goes, it WILL be on the car park bus route and users will not have to walk. The negative is that it is therefore likely to be located further from the terminal and probably somewhere within what is currently the long term car park. There was a lot of discussion on this and LBA management undertook to take comments away and take these into consideration before making a decision on the location. It was also mentioned that (as we now know) MAN has now introduced a £3 drop off charge for 10 minutes (compared to £3 for 30 minutes at LBA).

Whitehouse Lane/Runway Tunnel on A658

There is a continuing issue with people illegally dropping passengers off near the airport, mainly on Whitehouse Lane, despite the double yellow lines, to avoid paying the £3 drop off charge, and despite the free drop off car park. This is causing obstructions and danger on the road and this has been picked up by and highlighted by the CAA in their 9 monthly audit of the airport. It has been noted that tankers, delivery Jet fuel to the fuel farm have been prevented from turning into or out of the fuel farm delivery area by cars unloading people and luggage. This road, and the A658 are the responsibility of Leeds City Council who have now notified LBA (yesterday) that from tomorrow, 30 March, they will be advertising an order to change Whitehouse Lane, and the A658 through to the end of the tunnel (Yeadon side) to a Red Zone. This will mean the conversion of the double yellow lines to double red lines, and make stopping any vehicle (other than a bus at a bus stop or in an emergency) illegal. The order will be advertised for 21 days, and is likely to be sealed in late April, with the re-lining being carried out late April - early May. From early May therefore, any driver stopping on these roads for any reason, and particularly to unload passengers, will face a fine and I presume penalty points. Leeds Council Enforcement Officers will monitor the roads and undertake the enforcement independent of the airport. The changes are intended to rectify issues relating to Safety, Security and CAA Compliance.

 

[LBA8098]

Thank you very much WH. In respect of TUI I believe Antalya and Dubrovnik will be very successful for them. Lets hope for some new LS routes for S19!!

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Great report as usual White Heather. Out of interest which loung will BA business class passengers be using?

 

[paully]

Thanks for that White Heather, very comprehensive and useful..just an interesting point re the parking situation..Afaik Whitehouse lane and certainly the A658 are public roads and the present double yellow lines are,already, fully enforceable by means of fixed penalties (non endorseable). That is already law. I can`t see why red paint needs to be bought??..Unless in fact Whitehouse Lane,or the bit that runs through the airport is in fact private land and the present yellows are unenforeable. liverpool has the red lines, on the approach, enforced by a private parking company (huge number of complaints) but that is certainly private land owned by Peel..

Anyone know ??

 

[LsS27]

Whitehouse Lane is a highway maintained at public expense and the road to the airport terminal as a private road.

 

[Len Fish]

By way of clarification the increased Harrogate to Kings Cross direct services from 2019 will be operated by new Azuma bi-mode (diesel/electric) trains currently under construction by Hitachi at their Newton Aycliffe factory.

 

[SNOWMAN]

hi white heather
i am sad to see the tui flight to malaga will not be returning for summer 2019 we have managed to book 2 sets of flights for this year,was told by a friend who works for tui that the main reason it was put on was for the cruise holidays from malaga (if that is true) i wonder if the loss of the flight for 2019 is due to extra flights from donny?thanks for the in depth report from the meeting.
regards
snowman

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

Here is an update from today's LBA Consultative Committee Meeting:

Summer 2019: Jet2 flights are due on sale very shortly and the airline are in the process of loading them into the system. LBA expect a 2nd phase of flights to be uploaded later, which (they hope) will include 2 or 3 routes that are new to Jet2 from LBA.

Interesting and you've got to wonder where next?

• Greece is the obvious one with a hole in the LBA network, Chania in Crete, Skiathos or Preveza/Lefkada.
• A return to Italy to Sardinia or Sicily or both?
• A new city destination?

Be very interesting to see IF they launch new routes where they are too.

I am not sure if it has been reported previously but TUi are dropping their Tenerife winter sun flight from LBA for winter 2018-19. Due to the time it operates, arriving late in Tenerife, it apparently has lost out to alternative flights from Jet2 etc. and was in fact their worst performing route this winter. Sadly, the axe has extended also to summer 2019 as they will not be operating the Tenerife route from LBA, or (and I know at least one member who will be unhappy to know this), to Malaga. That route is also dropped after we have only just got it back. However, there will not be a cut in flights overall and these two routes are being replaced by Antalya (another to Turkey!), and more interestingly, Dubrovnik.

Is it any wonder why the TFS-LBA-TFS was the worst performing. Competition from Ryanair and Jet2 operating at an increased frequency above what they offered the year before with much better flight times probably drove down the yield. I do wonder if we had Monarch on the route at the 3 (or was it 4?!) weekly frequency they proposed for Winter 17/18 if TUI had done the same.

It was much better when they positioned in a 737-800 years ago for 2 nights to operate SSH & TFS.That would of made them much more competitive on that front. I personally would like to say how the TFS based routes are doing in UK.

As for AGP/TFS been dropped in favour of AYT/DBV it comes to me as no surprise. Competition from FR/LS on the Spanish routes probably not returning the desired return on investment and let's be honest Croatia is rising in popularity and Turkey is recovering which must be attractive over the bloodbath down to Spain, Balearics and the Canary islands.

It's also nice to see TUI go somewhere adventurous for a change out of LBA and i hope DBV is a success showing them that the LBA market doesn't just need your stable boring safe cash cows.

hi white heather
i am sad to see the tui flight to malaga will not be returning for summer 2019 we have managed to book 2 sets of flights for this year,was told by a friend who works for tui that the main reason it was put on was for the cruise holidays from malaga (if that is true) i wonder if the loss of the flight for 2019 is due to extra flights from donny?thanks for the in depth report from the meeting.
regards
snowman

I read elsewhere, Snowman, that NAP is going to be one of the cruise ports for TUI for 2019. And isn't DBV a popular cruise port for TUI? I know they send a 787 down to DBV on Thursday's from MAN.

As many will have noticed, Thomas Cook still do not have a base at LBA for summer 2019 and have announced flights for next year that mirror this summer (2 x Dalaman, 2 x Antalya & 1 to Palma). Apparently this is for the same reason as this year. A leased aircraft is not obtainable due to significant shrinkage in the availability of such aircraft. I am not sure but it may be that these are leased for more than one year at a time. We will have to wait and see what they do from 2020. However, flights for this year are apparently selling well and for summer 2019, LBA are reasonably confident that an additional flight will be introduced to Enfidha, Tunisia which Thomas Cook recently re-introduced.

Will be nice to see a TCX base but i think we are all happy with TCX presence. I think NBE will totally depend on the recovery of the market this summer but it will be nice to see that addition to LBA network.

Wonder if we'll see more cash cow PMI from TCX for S19? I know they have a few PMI based aircraft so could use them into LBA. But then again they are to use as a cheaper alternative to leasing in aircraft, of course my opinion, around the Thomas cook group network.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thanks for that White Heather, very comprehensive and useful..just an interesting point re the parking situation..Afaik Whitehouse lane and certainly the A658 are public roads and the present double yellow lines are,already, fully enforceable by means of fixed penalties (non endorseable). That is already law. I can`t see why red paint needs to be bought??..Unless in fact Whitehouse Lane,or the bit that runs through the airport is in fact private land and the present yellows are unenforeable. liverpool has the red lines, on the approach, enforced by a private parking company (huge number of complaints) but that is certainly private land owned by Peel..

Anyone know ??

Thank you for the detailed resumee of the latest consultative committee meeting, White Heather.

Many local authorities have taken over from the police the responsibiity for street parking enforcement action. It appears from White Heather's post that Leeds City Council is one. Local authorities are able to do this following a change in the law a number of years ago. In some local authority areas the police are still nominally responsible but because of staffing level cuts it's a low priority.

Local authorities act under the civil law when enforcing street parking regulations unlike those local authority areas where the police still have responsibility and use the criminal law. The advantage to local authorities is that the money they levy from the infractions (technically they are charges not fines because it's the civil law) goes into their coffers after operational and other expenses are deducted. With the police the fines go to the central exchequer and don't usually benefit the local area directly.

With double yellow lines it's still legally possible stop to load or unload unless there are yellow markings on the kerb that indicate a prohibition, or to drop off passengers. With double red lines, as White Heather points out, it's an absolute ban on stopping except for emergencies.

Stationary vehicle-type offences (ie parking) don't normally attract endorsements (penalty points) on driving licences unless they involve some potential element of danger to the public such as leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position or stopping within the limits of a pedestrian crossing, offences that the police would deal with (assuming they've got the staff).

 

[lbaspotter]

Thanks for the update Heather.

So TUi still up to the old tricks at LBA, launch a new route to Malaga and axe it after 1 summer. I'm sure the did same with Faro last year. Shame to see Tenerife go but Ryanair (3x weekly) and Jet2 (6x weekly) using LBA based aircraft with better flight times has hammered them.
Good to hear they are to keep the based aircraft busy with new routes to Dubrovnik and Antalya.
It seems Turkey is on the up again especially now we have the big 3 TOM, TCX & EXS operating there again.

Shame we still not going to get a based TCX machine next summer. Hopefully they have have some scope to add an extra capacity to Palma and hopefully get Tunisia back on our departure boards. Let's hope Jet don't jump on that bandwagon first.
I have read elsewhere that a couple of Tunisia's based Airlines (eg Tunisair & Nouvelair) have being seeking work from the major UK based tour operators (TUi & TCX) to help grow tourism.

Also positive news to hear that our home based Airline Jet2 has plans toaunch new routes. Wonder if they will cut others so to operate these or if this will be even further growth. Possibly 14x based aircaft?

 

[White Heather]

Thanks for all the comments and I am glad you found it all informative. With regard to Jet2, it will be interesting to see if the 'new routes' (assuming they are announced) are completely new destinations to Jet2, or just new from LBA - routes that already exist from Manchester for example. LBA did say 'new routes from LBA' which can be interpreted either way.

 

[White Heather]

Great report as usual White Heather. Out of interest which loung will BA business class passengers be using?

LBA Yorkie, the presentation was given by the new manager of all three lounges and she did say that the airport were still in discussions with the various airlines such as BA, KLM, Eastern, Flybe etc. with regard to which lounge they would be giving their passengers access to and these are not yet confirmed. She did indicate however that it may well be possible to 'upgrade' the lounge allocated by the airline if the passenger so desires.