Airport celebrates flights birthday

Before 1976, most flights at the airport were

scheduled passenger flights and freight flights. The few holiday flights were occasional trips, often to northern Europe.

But in April 1976, Thomson Holidays announced it was to start flying holidaymakers out of Yeadon to the increasingly-fashionable Spanish resorts, and by May the same year, most travel agents in the area had taken hundreds of bookings for the holidays.

The first Thomson-chartered Britannia Airways Boeing 737 took off from Yeadon bound for Palma in November.

Managing director Ed Anderson said: "It was very important at the time to get the airport established in the chartered market. It was very significant in the

airport's history. It's of great credit to Thomson that they are still with us today. Of course it was a particularly bold move at the time by Thomson, because it was before the runway was extended."

At the time, Yeadon Airport, as it was then called, boasted just 48,000 passengers between the months of January and March. In comparison, more than double that number passed through the airport last February alone, and more than 300,000 visited the airport from January to March 2000.

At the forefront of passenger aviation in 1976 was the 130-seat Boeing 737 jet airliner, and the Thomson package holiday flights made these commonplace in the skies above Yeadon - although some of the more patriotic community members were disappointed at the time that the firm had not chosen to use British-built airliners.

The jets had to make do with a short runway until 1984. Those who remember the first Thomson-chartered flight in 1976 say not only the baggage, but individual passengers were weighed to calculate how much runway was needed to get the jet airborne.

Holiday companies everywhere at this time were capitalising on the demand for package holidays from growing numbers of people seeking the sun, and airport bosses believed the extension of the runway was crucial to attract more jet flights.

Majorca and Benidorm were the most popular destinations for Yeadon's first package holidaymakers.

A four-day package holiday in Majorca, flying from Yeadon, cost from £42 for four days, to £106 for two weeks. Prices for Benidorm ranged from £39 for three days to £128 for two weeks.

Otley travel agent Tony Waye, of Waye and Son, on Kirkgate, remembers the launch of chartered flights at the airport, and how the experience of passenger flight has changed.

He said: "It was definitely more basic then. Flights did not include meals, you had to pay for those separately." Mr Waye said although he saw the traditional Spanish holiday resorts remaining popular, today's holidaymakers were more adventurous - and the airport might have to consider introducing transatlantic and other long-haul flights if it was to continue expanding.

Mr Anderson admits the airport itself has changed a great deal since 1976.

"Everything has changed beyond recognition. The runway itself has changed, as has the terminal building. We probably have about eight times as many passengers today," he said.

The arrival of the runway extension was not popular with everyone in the area, particularly those residents caught on the flightpath.

A Horsforth couple lodged a compensation claim against the airport in 1984, claiming the runway extension had knocked £11,000 off the value of their bungalow.

A tribunal ruled in 1998 that the airport should pay up thousands of pounds to one of the residents.

The airport today monitors noise levels in surrounding villages, and those which lie on the approach or take-off flight path.

Mr Anderson said the introduction of charter flights did much to help the airport 'take off', although other developments hade helped the airport to grow, and he felt more success was to come.

He said: "The runway extension itself, permission to operate at night, and then more recently, the terminal development, have also been significant."