Windswept walk exposes airport revamp sham

HAVING just returned to 
Leeds Bradford International Airport (LBA) after having 
been away for some time and having heard in the meantime about the several million pounds spent on upgrading, I was extremely disappointed to find that departing and returning passengers still have to walk 100 yards across an open windswept yard to get to the pick-up and drop-off point from the terminal.

I understand that the several million pounds was spend on 
a glitzy upgrade of the retail 
space where departing passengers can be fleeced by the duty free stores. Now I see why Ryanair are complaining about the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) regulations, that encourages the airport companies to “gold plate” and create “Taj Mahal” facilities on the basis that the more they spend on their terminal, the more they are allowed to charge per customer.

Yet the fee-paying customer at LBA still has to struggle across that 100-yard open yard without any shelter since they shifted it away from the building because of terrorist concerns. But it is interesting that you can still be dropped off under shelter at Manchester Airport.

It would appear that the management or the designers of LBA must have a special close drop-off point of their own and do not have to suffer the exposure to the rain, snow and winds that the little old lady with her big bag or the young mother with bags and a couple of toddlers have to put up with.

I trust that the next time that I have to use the LBA that the company will have at last considered its fee-paying passengers and at last installed a covered walk way to protect them from the elements or is this too much to expect from such a greedy company?