There is no problem with runway length for 747 operations and indeed, the actual declareed runway distances available have improved slightly since Wardair days because of the threshold on 32 being moved back. The only constraint was that larger aircraft could only backtrack and use 28/10 to access the apron since the north/south taxiway (Delta) could never take larger aircraft like the 747 or 767 due to load-bearing strength and taxiway width.
As a previous poster has said, Wardair pulled out after being merged into Canadi>n and most of their regional UK services went at that time. There were a variety of other carriers who took up the slack – I think Worldways Canada (L1011-100s and DC8-63s) had already disappeared by then, but they operated into LBA – and others including Odyssey International (B757s), Nationair Canada (B757 and DC8-63) and finally Air Transat (B757 + L1011) have all operated Leeds-Toronto since.
Other carriers who have flown 747s into LBA over the years include:
* British Airways, whose 747-100 G-AWND arrived at LBA on 4 November 1984 to open the new runway alongside one of Wardair. It operated two round-Britain pleasure flights from LBA and I was on the second one;
* BA also brought a 747 (G-AWNO) up to LBA for filming of some promotional footage in late 1985 as it was the first aircraft in the new Landor livery;
* Virgin flew a 747 pleasure flight up from LGW in June 1987 (I think);
* United Arab Emirates royal flight has operated the 747SP in and out a couple of times;
* Corsair and Air Atlanta 747s on occasional football charters (Euro 96 for Corsair) and Lourdes charters;
I’m sure there are others that I’ve missed, but these are the ones which instantly spring to mind.
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