Leeds Bradford Airport

[SpeedbirdSquawker]

I was just wondering if they use shuttle buses or tunnels to the aircraft?

I flew out of Manchester T3 a few days ago.
It was filthy and crowded with literally nowhere to sit, there were people sleeping in corners.
One of the worst airport experiences I have had - and I flew to Russia pre glasnost!

Likely to be tunnel if it’s a more expensive airline, eg KLM etc, likely to be walk/bus if Jet2 or Ryanair. Walk or bus depends on gate.

I agree. I find T3 at Manchester anxiety-inducing. It's dark, tiny for so many people and stressful.

If you are used to flying from Manchester then LB will be a breeze. Very small airport. Never seems to be queues, also if you tell them of your anxieties they will allow you to the front of the queue to board. Have a great time.

The fast track security is worth buying before travelling. Cost us around £6. Manchester airport is so depressing.

Going off thread slightly but from pp, is it specifically T3 at MAN that’s
dirty, busy, grim and depressing
and
filthy and crowded with literally nowhere to sit, there were people sleeping in corners
because we’ve been using the new T2 for the last few years and don’t recognise any of those descriptions.

We fly from Manchester a few times a year but not usually T3.
The rest of the airport is fine, it’s just T3 that is so grim

I think it was T3 where I was queuing for over an hour to get through security a few months ago and only made my flight because it was delayed by about half an hour. The security staff seemed to be picking out a very high percentage for the second search and being deliberately very slow about it.

The one time we went through T2 that wasn't great either. Queues, queues, queues and half the food menu wasn't available and what was supposed to be a treaty relaxed start to a holiday with a nice pub meal was an expensive disappointment as it cost us over £60 (a couple of years ago so before the price rises) for my third choice off the menu and a couple of drinks each. I didn't really enjoy it and wish I hadn't bothered and had a Burger King or Boots meal deal instead.

Manchester airport is one of the worst airports. OP you’ll love LB it’s chilled and more friendlier. Enjoy your trip.

Liverpool pretty awful these days but still better than Manchester

love Leeds and use it if I can. As small easy with connections you can get pretty much anywhere in the world.

Sorry but I really wouldn't describe it as chilled. Last time we were there we had to wait 20 mins to get in somewhere for something to eat and drink. There's simply not enough space for the number of passengers who use it.

@tiredofthisshit21

Sounds like Bristol, keep increasing the number of flights but seats in the terminal haven't kept pace, and more importantly toilets, literally only 3 working ladies loos airside when I flew last, 30 mins queue

I find LBA overly busy and too small for the volume of passengers.

That has always been my experience as well.

never seems to be queues

That has never been my experience.

I think Manchester has removed a lot of seating in recent years to make room for more retail outlets.

As we live in South Yorkshire we tend to fly from LBA or Manchester, but have flown from Humberside, which really is tiny, and East Midlands, which was really quiet on the day we flew out.

I have flown in and out of Leeds Bradford loads.

It's all well organised. I don't think I've ever used a sky bridge there.

I have either walked to/from the plane or got on a bus.

I have never had an issue though.

You can make it less stressful by buying a fast track security pass. Then you will not be queuing for as long.

Depending on where you are sitting on the plane you can board from the front or the back.

If you struggle with an overhead locker then don't worry as the flight attendants would help you with that.

I think the bottom line is that LBA is fine at quiet times but it doesn’t take much to overload it!

We flew from there last summer. Our neighbours had a few weeks earlier and had a nightmare and told us we absolutely MUST get fast track security passes, but we had left it too late and there were none available. Arrived at the airport with fear and trepidation, everything was fine, we barely had to wait 5 minutes.

I think the bottom line is that LBA is fine at quiet times but it doesn’t take much to overload it!

Yes. I agree. I have only ever flown from there during school holidays, which thankfully we no longer have to do, and it was always very busy. It is also very busy on a Friday afternoon with hen/stag parties weekend travellers.

We didn't even fly in school holidays and it was rammed at LBA!

We've never had a problem travelling from LBA, security has always been very quick. It's coming back that's the problem - the immigration desks can't seem to cope with more than one plane arriving at the same time.

The approach can also be a bit worrying if it's windy whoever thought it was a good idea to build an airport there, I'll never know.

The stags and hens on a Friday are a bit of an eye opener, I'll agree. We had a memorable flight to Mallorca once where a few of them were spoken to quite severely by the crew as they were so rowdy, singing, shouting, running up and down the plane. It was shortly after that that Jet2 introduced it's 'onboard together' policy, which banned the sale of alcohol on certain flights and gave very clear expectations about conduct on board - I think they'd had to divert a few flights to offload rowdy passengers, which is obviously expensive and disruptive.

Agree with Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester order of preference.

I was a big fan of Doncaster too, and love Humberside.

So sad that Doncaster was closed. It was never given a chance.

True, several different companies tried but could never make it viable.
I don’t really know why, maybe if they had managed to attract one of the budget airlines?

LBA is definitely more chilled than Manchester which is always rammed full of rude staff especially security who treat disabled people like shit on their shoe. Wouldn’t fly from there if someone paid me.

To be honest most airports in other countries beat ours hands down. Shows what a shit show this country is.

True, whenever I fly back from an EU country after a holiday I realise how awful UK airports are