According to the company’s CEO, Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) could offer flights to the Middle East and North America within three years.

As part of its updated “Vision 2030” strategy, the LBA wants to further develop long-haul flights.

Passenger numbers are expected to rise from just over four million per year in 2023 to seven million per year in 2030.

The airport said the masterplan would create 5,500 direct and indirect jobs and contribute almost £1 billion to the regional economy, but environmental campaigners criticised it.

Airport CEO Vincent Hodder said targets included New York, Boston and Chicago in the US, and Jeddah, Oman and Dubai in the Middle East.

“We are already in discussions with airlines from North America and the Middle East about how we can work together to make these things happen in the next two to three years,” he said.

“I would be disappointed if we didn’t have flights to North America and the Middle East by 2027.”

The proposed expansion plans will be funded by £200 million of private investment and include a 38 percent increase in terminal space and ten new aircraft stands.

However, climate activists warned that three million additional passengers per year would lead to a huge increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

Nick Hodgkinson of the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA) said: “We cannot allow massive increases in climate-damaging emissions and air pollution and noise that damage the health of people living in the flight path.”

“There is simply no alternative to the large-scale use of fossil fuels to put aircraft in the air.”

Mr Hodder agreed that there would be an increase in aircraft emissions in the short term.

However, he added: “It is important to remember that the aviation industry has committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This is a temporary increase that will decrease over time.”

For the period after 2030, the LBA has outlined plans for a new, purpose-built replacement terminal, the construction of a new hotel within walking distance of the airport and potential growth in the specialty air cargo sector.

The airport’s strategy was widely welcomed by West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin, who said: “It sets out clearly how the airport will improve Yorkshire’s connectivity to the rest of the world.”

“This significant private investment will benefit local communities and the wider Yorkshire region and act as a catalyst for significant long-term economic growth.”

She said the commitment to net zero carbon emissions for the airport’s ground operations was a “great first step”.

“There is still a lot of work to be done across the industry to decarbonise aviation as a whole,” she said.

Leeds City Council has said that once the airport exceeds the four and a half million passenger per year mark, it will contact the airport to obtain planning permission to expand to five million passengers.

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