Passenger figures at Leeds Bradford International Airport have doubled in six years to 1.4 million.

The record has been achieved by larger, quieter aircraft on the mainstream routes, such as London Heathrow (operated by British Midland), and Amsterdam (KLM uk), along with new routes such as Brussels (Sabena), and Paris (British Midland).

Other routes have also grown significantly over this period, particularly Aberdeen and Southampton, operated by British Regional Airlines on behalf of British Airways, Belfast, with Jersey European, and Dublin with both Air Lingus and Ryanair.

Meanwhile, the number of complaints regarding noise have reduced from 215 in 1992 to 52 in 1998, despite the first true night flights being allowed to operate from May 1995 onwards.

Airport chairwoman, Councillor Denise Atkinson, said; "Both the airport and our airlines believe that our neighbours should not be inconvenienced by the passenger growth at Leeds Bradford Airport and this fact is taken into consideration in all of our forward planning. We intend to continue our growth with the support of our business partners to give the Yorkshire public a first-class service with an ever-increasing range of destinations for both the business and leisure traveller."

Work on a new £6.7 million arrivals facility starts in April which will give the airport a capacity of about 2.5 million passengers per year by the summer of 2000.

Managing director, Ed Anderson, said: "The board of directors have recently passed plans for this project which will bring the arrivals facilities up the same standard as the superb International Departure Lounge, which has received great acclaim from passengers.

"The board have also asked us to start planning up to the year 2016 to ensure future growth can be handled without affecting passenger comfort and convenience."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.