Drivers quizzed in airport traffic survey (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Drivers quizzed in airport traffic survey

4:46am Friday 16th May 2008 in

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A Bradford business leader has welcomed moves to check traffic flows on roads leading to Leeds-Bradford International Airport to see what improvements are needed to cope with airport expansion.

Sandy Needham, chief executive of Bradford Chamber of Commerce, which represents 1,100 businesses, has also called on airport chiefs to introduce more frequent flights on routes used by business travellers.

She welcomed the traffic surveys being carried out by Leeds City Council on roads in the Horsforth, Aireborough, Otley and Pool areas.

But she also urged planners to look at wider options, such as reopening local rail stations, including Low Moor, Apperley Bridge and Manningham, and called for a £25 million rail link to the airport to go ahead.

She said: "In transport planning £25m is not a lot of money. Business flyers do not always travel to the airport from their workplaces, but rather from home.

"Many Bradford businesspeople live in Ilkley, Harrogate, York and are not only concerned about good road links but also other forms of transport."

The traffic surveys, which will continue until May 22, will collect information about journey details, car-sharing and car park use.

Motorists will either take part in short roadside interviews or be asked to complete and return questionnaires.

The information will then be used to predict how the traffic flows may change as a result of alterations to the surrounding road network.

Leeds Council said the surveys may cause some minor delays.

Leeds-Bradford airport is benefiting from the rising number of travellers using regional airports which the Civil Aviation Authority estimates at 42 per cent of the 241 million passengers who pass through the UK's airports each year.

Tony Hallwood, LBIA's commercial and aviation director, said that the expansion was due to regional airports being seen as viable alternatives to major hubs such as London Heathrow He said: "As regional airports introduce more destinations and more choice, there is now less need for people to trawl down to London to connect to flights worldwide."

Mr Hallwood recently attended a conference in Portugal to investigate the possibility of expanding the number of destinations served by LBIA.

But an environmental pressure group has called for LBIA's expansion plans to be curtailed claiming businesses plan to reduce air travel.

A survey for WWF says most UK businesses hope to cut business flights in the next decade and encourage green alternatives.

They intend to make more use of video conferencing to cut travel, reduce costs and limit their carbon footprint.

WWF's One Planet Future campaign is asking businesses to Cut 1 in 5' flights.

If all European companies were to cut their business travel by 20 per cent and use video conferencing instead, it would save 22m tonnes of CO2 each year, the equivalent of taking one third of the UK's cars off the road.