Aviation: Airport bosses link up to fight Pennine rival

THE heads of Yorkshire's three main airports have vowed to work more closely together and to win back passengers from across the region who use their rival base in Manchester.

The directors of Leeds Bradford, Robin Hood, in South Yorkshire, and Humberside airports are to co-operate to make the political case for not increasing airline taxes. They also want to attract more business and tourist travellers to the region in spite of families, businesses and Government cutting their spending.

Commercial and aviation development director at Leeds Bradford Tony Hallwood said: "We have a new political map. We have our own strengths and the political arena should understand what we are trying to achieve. We need to get our views more widely heard while (political) voices are not always aligned with ours."

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Mr Hallwood, whose airport is set to expand and which last month won a series of new routes from Ryanair, was speaking at a conference hosted by the Airport Operators Association in Leeds yesterday. He said Leeds Bradford provides a boost of about 180m to the region's productivity and urged closer links between Yorkshire airports and the rest of the private sector."

Director of Humberside Airport Tony Lavan said: "We are competitor airports but we share the same adversaries." The airport could see a massive economic boost if the huge planned investment in offshore wind turbines comes to this region.