LBA Community – a sustainable business and good neighbour

LBA Community – a sustainable business and good neighbour

On Monday last; June 16th, Vincent Hodder, CEO of LBA and his team presented changes at LBA to the Burley Community. Key areas discussed were:

• Expansion at the airport
• Noise
• CO2

Background.

LBA used to be owned by West Yorkshire Local authorities. In 2017 the airport was acquired by its current owners, having suffered from years of underinvestment. In the coming 5-years, LBA will be investing almost £500 million at the airport. £200 million will be junior debt, the £300 million remainder from Senior debt (bank loans).

Loans will deliver a new terminal building which opened yesterday morning at 3.00am, following the grant of planning permission by Leeds Council. In addition, £50 million is to be spent on runway improvement. This is not an extension to the airfield, rather investment in the surface, and work is planned to commence in 2026.

• Passenger numbers are planned to increase from 4.5 million to 7 million by 2030
• A new rail station; Parkway, is schedule to be delivered by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority. See https://www.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/lba-parkway
• A new hotel is expected to be built close to the airport, planning permission is to be granted.
• The current government supports airport which is expected to contribute to economic growth.

What does this mean for the region?

It was mentioned that LBA will contribute around £940 million annually to the West Yorkshire economy and supports 8,500 jobs, 3,600 of which will be at the airport in 2030. Further detail is available from https://lbfl.co.uk/an-update-following-my-recent-acc-meeting-at-lba/

Noise pollution.

Vincent Hodder candidly admitted that Burley and Menston bear the brunt of aircraft noise, but as the airport grew, new aircraft would be less noisy. Historically, the departure route or SID, was determined by local councils who were the previous owners of the airport. That system remains in place today, with Burley and Menston bearing the Lion’s share of all air traffic movements (ATMs). Burley and Menston account for 71% of all arrivals and 69% of all departures. During the night, we are overflown by 77% of all night-time ATMs.

All noise detail and air traffic movements are recoded elsewhere on this website in the news section, head there for detailed information.

Climate change impacts.

Whether you like it or not, the airport is only responsible for their own scope 1 and scope 2 emissions, these equate to 3,500 tonnes per annual at present, although work to mitigate this sum is being taken by the airport. Scope 3 remains  in the domain of individual aircraft operator.

SAF and Carbon reduction.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel is today an integral part of airside operations. Currently, 2% of all aircraft fuel at LBA is SAF, with that figure set to grow by 2% annually until 2030, when  the level reaches 10% of all fuel.

Whilst passenger number are expected to grow the number of flights is expected to increase, but not to double as many people believe. As aircraft design changes, passenger number carried will also increase. There is evidence to support this statement, as aircraft are upgraded and will invitably carry more passengers. Irrespective of belief, I anticipate a 30% increase in ATMs at the airport.

It is expected that e-fuels will constitute 39% of all aviation fuel, that fuel generated from solar power, water and carbon capture. Currently, the University of Sheffield has a program looking into developments, see Sheffield University paper. It has been stated that 6 tonnes of fuel can be produced daily.

To give readers an idea of how far that will take you, a typical Boeing 737-800, used at LBA, can hold 9.19 tonnes (26,025 litres) of fuel with a range of 2,935 nautical miles (3,378 miles). That’s the equivalent of a round trip to most of Europe, and there are around 34,000 flights from LBA each year.

The impact of CO2 from aviation was also discussed, and the journey to net-zero. This is shown on the chart given below. I’ve yet to investigate how this compared to road traffic, but do have the combined CO2 output from all flights departing LBA annually and comparisons to domestic CO2 use in West Yorkshire.

The analysis of the net-zero journey for flying, presented at the airport is shown below.