UK

½

Leeds-Bradford is another airport that lives in the shadow of its nearby neighbour Manchester, with a consequent lack of movements. Things can be very slow here, albeit fairly steady, but it can produce the occasional 'goodie' if you're lucky enough to be here at the right time.
Most movements are UK domestic flights, with a few European regionals, and charters in the holiday season. Leeds-Bradford has recently become quite a centre for biz-jet operations in the north of England, however, with locally-based company Multiflight having a major facility here, and a fair number of overseas visitors using the airport, too. Finally, there are usually a couple of Concorde charter flights a year here, which are very popular with the local population.
As with many primarily domestic airports, a large number of the movements are business-related, meaning that weekdays tend to be quite a bit 'busier' than weekends (although 'busy' is a relative term here!).

Unfortunately, decent places for photography are few and far between here - you can forget the terminal for a start. However, there is one particularly outstanding spot that goes some way to compensating for the otherwise uninspiring opportunities to be found (and is the reason why it gets a 3-camera rating).

a) If you turn left out of the terminal and follow the road around the airport perimeter, you will get to the southside airport entrance. This is where the flying clubs and Multiflight are located. Good photos are possible of the various based aircraft here, as well as runway shots - you should be able to find a spot just across from the usual lift-off point. Good throughout the day, and you'll need a range of lenses, from 300mm for the runway shots down to a wide-angle for some of the based stuff.
Note that a recent report suggests that this whole area may now be out of bounds to anyone without legitimate business there (eg. enthusiasts), so this information may be out of date.

N900CB Cessna 421	N221GA Cessna 550	G-TJHI Cessna 500	G-OBMX BMA Boeing 737	G-BOAF British Airways Concorde

b) Instead of turning into the southside airport entrance, continue further along the main road until you reach some traffic lights by the Yeadon Stoops hotel. Turn left here and follow the road up a small hill, from where you will be able to get to the perimeter fence. Continue walking to the right along the footpath (rather overgrown in places), and you will eventually reach one of the best photo spots you are likely to find anywhere. You are just across from the touchdown point for Runway 32 here, and looking down slightly on the runway, allowing superb landing, take-off and taxiing shots.
To make it even better, the sun is behind you almost all day, from about mid-morning onwards. A 135-300mm lens should cover most possibilities from here. It's just a pity there aren't a few more aircraft!

G-UKFI Air UK Fokker 100	OO-DJW Sabena RJ85	G-JEDA JEA DHC-8	F-GSLZ Falcon 10	G-RJXA BMA ERJ-145

c) If Runway 14 is in use there is another spot which would seem to offer good photographic opportunities here as well. However I've never been here, so I can't comment on it personally - see the links below for more details and sample photos.

(See also Coney Park)

Last visited on 5 October 1999	Top of page

Maps

Click on the icons below to see various maps and images relating to Leeds-Bradford airport. Note that these are all external links to other sites, and will open in a new window.

Official CAA Leeds-Bradford airport map Courtesy of: NATS Ltd. Note that you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader (v4.0 or later) installed in order to view this. Click here to download this from the Adobe site if you need it.		OS street map of the Leeds-Bradford airport area Courtesy of: Streetmap.co.uk		General map of the Leeds-Bradford area Courtesy of: maps.expedia.com

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