Surface access to the airport, near Yeadon, is often cited as a reason that Yorkshire travellers cross the Pennines to use Manchester Airport instead - something Parkin referred to as “a habit we need to shift”.

Speaking at a regional tourism event organised by Marketing Leeds, Parkin said a rail spur from the Leeds to Harrogate line to the airport and on to Bradford would offer ‘added value’ to the wider region, adding that the cost would be “not billions, but tens of millions”.

“There is real momentum behind that project. There is a lot of political, regional and business support for putting in a spur off the Harrogate line to also go through Shipley and Bradford, connecting all of our towns together,” he said.

“It is do-able from an engineering standpoint and it creates much more value out of the existing rail infrastructure.

“I would be very disappointed if we didn’t have that on the agenda and built within the next decade.”

Parkin said Leeds Bradford planned to increase annual passenger traffic from three to five million, but to achieve this it needed the support of “major industry players” such as Ryanair, which has two aircraft based at the airport.

Source: Insider

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