Leeds Bradford Airport: £100m terminal redesign provides 'massive step forward' on cutting emissions, says CEO

It is part of broader efforts for LBA to reach net zero for emissions it directly controls by 2030. However, flights into and out of the airport do not count towards that figure and critics have said the terminal building is only involved in around 2 per cent of the emissions associated with the airport.

But one of the intended changes as part of the redevelopment is the removal of gas heating from the terminal – a move LBA says will save around 685 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. That represents more than half of the airport’s 1,042 tonnes of emissions recorded in 2022.

LBA has already cut emissions by two-thirds since 2018 – largely as a result of the purchase of renewable green electricity. Airport bosses had previously hoped to build an entirely new £150m terminal but cancelled those proposals last year following years of wrangling.

Mr Hodder said returning to previously-approved proposals for expanding the airport terminal provides similar benefits at a cheaper price.

"We’re able to deliver fundamentally all the benefits we would have had from the new terminal,” he said. "There are only two things we miss. Being a 1960s building, we can’t do anything about the ceiling height. The vertical dimension is somewhat more restricted than it would have been in a new terminal construction.

"But we have tried in the design to allow for more horizontal space so it still creates that feeling of a much more spacious terminal than we have now.

"The second thing is this building won’t be a BREEAM-rated ‘Excellent’ facility as the new one would have been but that’s purely because we have to build in compliance with the 2019 planning approval.

"Despite that it will still be a massive step forwards in terms of the environmental footprint of the airport.

"It will have brand new energy efficient lighting, it will have all-electric heating systems which allows us to completely remove gas from the airport terminal for heating and hot water. That removes what remains at the moment our largest single source of carbon within our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.”

He said designers have improved the original expansion plans by including wider changes to the existing building to improve the customer experience for passengers.

"The piece of work we have done is remapping all the customer journeys through the terminal from one end to another, making it a much more logical journey,” he said.

"While it is a great improvement for all passengers, it is particularly a big step forward for passengers with reduced mobility. We have removed all the change in level issues that the existing terminal has for passengers with reduced mobility.

"The arrivals journey from the foot of the aircraft stairs to the car park will be a no step journey with everything on the ground floor.

"The relocation of the arrivals facility to the centre of where the aircraft actually operate from instead of being where it is today at the other end of the terminal just makes it so muhc more convienient for everybody.”