TRADE UNIONISTS joined a campaign today against plans to expand a Yorkshire airport, which they warn will wreck the efforts of a whole city to reduce carbon emissions.

The operators of Leeds-Bradford International Airport in West Yorkshire have applied for planning permission to add a second terminal.

If approved, the expansion will increase passenger numbers from four million a year to seven million.

In response, environment campaigners have staged protests calling on Leeds City Council to refuse the application.

More than 2,000 people have lodged objections to the proposal.

Leeds TUC vice-president Kevin Pattison welcomed a “climate-change emergency declaration” by the council, committing itself to ensure that Leeds becomes carbon-neutral by 2030.

But the union organisation warned in a statement that the increase in flights would generate a rise in greenhouse-gas emissions so vast that it would cancel out the city’s green initiative.

“The carbon budget for Leeds has been carefully planned by Leeds City Council in conjunction with climate specialists at Leeds University and would be entirely cancelled out if this application were to be supported by the council,” Mr Pattison said.

Leeds-Bradford International Airport recently made 25 per cent of its 400-strong workforce redundant due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The TUC warned that any new jobs created as a result of the airport’s expansion “are likely to be mainly low-paid, zero-hours and part-time.”

Leeds is Yorkshire’s biggest city, with a population of about 700,000 people.