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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1264.PDF
I 198 AIR COMMERCE ... YEADON ASKS FOR AID SHOULD the 3j million people in the conurbation of the citiesof Leeds and Bradford have available a network of connectingservices to other centres of population? If so, whose respon- sibility is it to provide them? That of the Government throughthe national airline BEA, or—by encouraging the activities of the independents—the Joint Aerodrome Committee of the two cities? These are the big questions facing the Leeds/Bradford Airportat Yeadon in its year of most ebullient growth. Derequisitioned at the beginning of 1959 and taken over again by its pre-war ownersthe Leeds/Bradford Joint Aerodrome Committee, the airport is now up to date, efficient and quite well equipped. But for its futureto be assured it is too small; the runways are too short for BEA or Aer Lingus' Viscounts; accommodation for passengers is tem-porary and now inadequate; and apron space for parking the number of aircraft which are anticipated next year is very limited.Hangarage, on the other hand, is available in plenty but much of it is too near the runway to meet current ICAO standards andsome of it must soon be dismantled. Yet Yeadon is Britain's fastest growing airport; and althoughit may be argued that this is not surprising when the base line of last year's operations was so small, by 1965 the present rate ofgrowth should bring to Yeadon 150,000-200,000 passengers a year. Because it is Yorkshire's only airport, say its supporters, thisexpansion of traffic is progress that cannot easily be halted. Yet to expand the airport as it is now, to build a new runway and erecta new terminal building would cost a great deal of money. This is the crux of present arguments about the airport's future. Willthe Ministry of Aviation provide a "substantial part" of the sum of about Z\\ million needed to expand Yeadon to a size whereit will be capable of taking Vanguard-sized aircraft? The Joint Committee (the responsibility for the airport is sharedon a 50-50 basis between Leeds and Bradford) will not admit the possibility that support will not be forthcoming. They regardit as the nation's responsibility to see that north-east England is either provided with better services or with the facilities forenabling these services to be operated by independent companies who are prepared to take them on. When the airport resumed operations under its pre-war man-agement again BKS were the only operators. The city councils took the decision then to make Yeadon into a first-class airportfor intra-European traffic and at that early stage high- and low- intensity lighting, runway markings, airfield radar, CRDF andnew fire vehicles and buildings were installed to attract new opera- tors. Three other scheduled-service airlines (Silver City, North-South Airlines and Aer Lingus) now operate besides BKS and passenger and freight traffic are now about double that carriedlast year. A twice-daily BKS service to London Airport is envis- aged, and North-South may operate between Yeadon and Leaves-den; next year 2,000-3,000 passengers a month may be travelling to London. The airport's most urgent immediate need is for a new terminalbuilding and parking apron to handle the additional traffic which should be attracted by the Avro 748s which BKS will operatethrough Leeds/Bradford from next spring. While the present runways (10/28, 3,950ft, and 01/19, 3,500ft) are adequate forturbine aircraft of this or Friendship size the airport authorities suggest that by 1963 "the need for bigger aircraft will have becomean economic necessity" and the numbers of passengers and the FLIGHT, 5 August I960 JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP'OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MATJUN Vlli" 195Q 1960 Eighteen months of operations at Yeadon Airport. While traffic has expanded rapidly, a big seasonal problem has grown up as well amount of freight which will be handled would completely justifyconstruction of a 7,500ft runway and the diversion or submerging of the Leeds - Harrogate road. This is unfortunately a prerequisiteto expansion in the only practical direction, NW/SE. But a new runway would not be built without Government assistance, becausealthough the operational cost of the airport can be met from income, such heavy capital expenditure would plunge the airport'sfinances deeply into the red. Last year, when capital had to be found to install new aids and to modernize the airport there wasa deficit of nearly £50,000 on an income of about £25,000. Yeadon's argument for Government support for its expansionis that there are £ million people in Bradford, i million in Leeds and in the other West Riding towns of Harrogate, Keighley,Huddersfield, York, Goole, Hull and Sheffield a combined popula- tion of nearly 3| million. It is an expanding and prosperousbusiness community with a developing need for air services. The West Riding wants to develop an airport of its own; Manchester,40 miles across the Pennines, is not accepted as a suitable alterna- tive. Newcastle is too far to the north and the only other possiblealternative, Derby, is much too far to the south. Now that suitable aids are installed it is claimed that Yeadon's weather record (lowcloud rather than fog is the restriction) need no longer hamper operations. And although customs are officially available only"on request" the pressure of customs work is such that an officer is daily in attendance practically throughout daylight hours. The airport committee believe that the Ministry are sympatheticto their plea for immediate assistance with a new apron and ter- minal building. A deputation (see Flight, February 26) whichvisited Mr Sandys recently was well received and a detailed plan of development was requested. Nevertheless, this is still a farcry from the full-scale development assistance for which the West Riding are asking and a more positive national policy for Britain'sairports and internal services may have to be formulated before a decision is reached. Perhaps the strongest argument for the expansion of servicesfrom Yeadon was put forward by the Leeds and Bradford Cham- bers of Commerce. A questionnaire dealing with the desirabilityof a London service which was recently circulated to selected local firms brought 100 affirmative replies by return of post. To eachwas appended the single question "When?" A. T. P. These "Flight" photographs, taken last week, show Yeadon Airport as brought up to date by the Leeds/Bradford joint aerodrome committee. Although suitable for the Avro 748, the runways cannot be extended to take larger aircraft and some of the buildings in the photograph on the left are positioned too near to the runway. Plans for future development include a new permanent terminal building and a new 7,500ft runway running NW/SE—horizontally from left to right across the right hand picture
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