READING (Letters, December 12) about the second runway at Manchester Airport, which, to me, is in Cheshire as it takes two hours to get there, and then seeing an advertisement by Liverpool Airport calling itself the North West's airfield, I am angry.

Does no one realise that Lancashire and come to that, much of Cumbria, have to rely on Blackpool airport which cannot be enlarged due to the houses around?

Yes, we've only one airport for the lot of us and Samlesbury airfield is standing there doing nothing.

Your correspondent Eddie Duxbury and I often remark on the wasted space there.

Last year, (LET, December 6, 1999), your 'Looking Back' featured an aircraft being loaded there with copies of your old "Last Sports" carrying full reports of Burnley's FA Cup Final match to their fans in London in 1947.

It was on sale in several spots around London that evening.

It wasn't the first time your newspaper did this -- you did it in 1928 when Rovers won the cup.

Also, four more planes took fans down to the game in 1947 and the RAF granted them permission to land at Hendon.

However, nowadays, all that flies from Samlesbury are those powered gliders.

It is ludicrous that such a large area has only one airport in this day and age, and that we have to take longer to get to it than it takes to fly from it to Lourdes for instance.

And Samlesbury Aerodrome, as it's still known, does less work than when the RAF had it and later the PI Lighting fighter flew from there!

GORDON PADGETT, Bridgewater Court, Bath Street, Blackburn.