February Airport meeting

With track-keeping now under good control, there were few matters of direct relevance to Menston for your representatives to become excited about.  However, the following items may be of interest:

• An increase of 200 spaces for parking is planned. This is considered to be adequate to cope with anticipated expansion of airport usage;
• The controversial taxi contract between LBIA and Arrow has 2 years to run. Arrow has exclusive access to the area immediately in front of the terminal building, but other taxis can enter the Pick Up and Drop Area by arrangement and given the prices charged by Arrow, Menston residents may find it more acceptable to call one of the local taxi firms to pick them up from the airport rather than use Arrow;
• Full-body Scanners are in trial operation at Heathrow, Birmingham and Manchester airports. LBIA will await the outcome of these trials but meanwhile: a) the 30 metre exclusion zone (no traffic/no covered walkways) in front of the terminal is a permanent feature, thanks to the car-bomb attempt at Glasgow Airport, b) random shoe searches will continue, c) the small plastic bags for toiletries & medicines will continue in use, d) given that the ongoing threat to passengers and aircraft is primarily from Islamic terror groups, readers may find it surprising that no 'personal profiling' takes place of passengers for reasons of equality of treatment;
• Some new accommodation is being constructed internally for the expansion of Ryanair services.

Passenger numbers at LBIA have been down during 2009 by around 8% (said to be less serious a decline than many other airports).  There is cautious optimism that numbers will be back up to 2008 levels by the end of the 2010-11 financial year.

The Minutes of the Airport Consultative Committee are posted on the LBIA website, but your representatives drew LBIA's attention to the fact that those Minutes are up to 8 months out-of-date. This is because the Minutes of the November meeting are not approved until the February meeting, so the latest APPROVED minutes on the LBIA website were those of the July 2009 meeting. The Chairman of the Consultative Committee has agreed to consider putting DRAFT Minutes on the website, so that vistitors to the website can have more up to date information.  (Note: this is not yet a policy decision.)

Please feel free to contact Alan Elsegood on 01943 873 497 if further information is required on the above subjects.