THE chief executive of Leeds-Bradford Airport has said he hopes new hygiene measures will make passengers confident to fly again as the coronavirus pandemic abates.

Hywel Rees said face masks, 2-metre social distancing, a "spotlessly clean" terminal, permanently staffed toilets, ultra-violet cleansing overnight, one-way systems and more will reassure the public that they will be safe.

Other measures that could be introduced include temperature testing and a temporary structure that can triage travellers if needed.

He said it was "important to give passengers confidence" ahead of the first Ryanair flight leaving for Alicante on Sunday.

"LBA will be very strict. We won't deviate from the Government guidelines," he added.

After Ryanair, Easter Airways start flying on June 29, KLM on July 4 and Jet2 on July 15.

Mr Rees, who has only been in the role for 12 eventful months, said he was confident that air travel will bounce back quickly from the pandemic, saying that he talks to airlines a lot and they are reporting much higher seat occupancy than predicted.

But he hopes that Government rules on quarantine could be reformed to help that.

"People are desperate to fly and the appetite is there," he said.

"I think it will be 2-3 years to get back to where we were. That's a reasonable expectation. The world still has to keep turning."

But he said the current "very destructive" downturn in travel would not affect the plans for a new terminal which would be a more passenger and eco-friendly building and would have an initial capacity which matched the present terminal.

If the plans are approved by Leeds City Council the airport expects the new terminal to be ready in spring 2023 when passenger numbers could be back to the present capacity of 7 million.

He said the development was more of a modernisation of the current facilities, some of which date back to 1965, rather than an expansion with the new expensive structure up to the highest BREEAM environmental standards.

"It's a good statement of intent," he said promising that public transport would be the preferred method of reaching the airport with "proper" cycling facilities introduced.

He pledged that a new dedicated night bus service would enable workers to reach the airport from Bradford and a coaching service from the city's Interchange station would make it easier for passengers.

A new railway station on the Harrogate line - featuring an LNER Azuma service to London - is still on the cards and that once that had been built he did not want any more focus on car parking.

"I want passengers to come on public transport," he pledged.

The planning application for the new terminal has attracted criticism at a time when the Government has set targets for cuts in carbon dioxide emissions but Mr Rees said the plans had been the subject of "misunderstandings" with some of the commentary on them "deliberately unhelpful".

He said modern aircraft are 80% more efficient that ones from the 1950s and he had been having promising talks about electrification with an engine manufacturer as firms respond to customer demand.

The airport says its noise mitigation commitments would bring about some of the most stringent measures in use at any UK airport, update noise limits put in place 25 years ago and greatly reduce the number of night time aircraft movements allowed under the existing restrictions.

As part of the planning application, LBA is committing to reducing the impact of noise with a new noise insulation scheme offering a grant of up to £5,000 per dwelling for those forecast to be exposed to the highest levels of day and night time noise. It says this is one of the highest value schemes of any UK airport.

Commenting on the number of objections the planning application has received he said: "I didn't expect an easy ride.

"It is challenging to inform people in the right way."

He said the key message he wanted to get over was that it was a much-needed modernisation rather than an expansion of the airport.

He said it was disappointing for the region that British Airways had suspended flights from LBA to Heathrow but, as it was only a suspension, he hope the airline would return.

In the future he is aiming for more connections to business hubs such as German cities, Madrid, Italy, Copenhagen and, ideally, a Middle Eastern route, saying that 9.3% of the country's population lives within an hour of the airport.

He also would like more capacity on the airport's core routes like Dublin saying that although technology has helped during the Covid-19 crisis, people still like to have face-to-face contact with business partners and loved ones and people will still want to go abroad because of the British weather.