Doncaster Sheffield Airport to reopen?

[thejuggler]

Doncaster-Sheffield Airport faces closure as 'no longer commercially viable'

Doncaster Sheffield Airport faces closure, it has been announced, just a month after Wizz Air said it was withdrawing its aircraft.

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

The board of DSA is reviewing options for the site following lengthy deliberations which "reluctantly concluded that aviation activity on the site may no longer be commercially viable."

A statement from Peel L&P said despite significant investment and growth in passenger numbers DSA had "never achieved the critical mass required to become profitable."

It said the shortfall was exacerbated by the announcement in June of Wizz Air's withdrawal from the airport leaving only one base carrier, TUI....

Only used it once in 2006 when BMIbaby (remember them) operated flights. They flew to Valencia and I was sat next to the most nervous flyer ever, on landing she grabbed my hand and squeezed it so tight it left marks!

I did however always think it was too far from any major population density to become very successful, but it has done well with heavy freight flights during Covid.

I knew a commercial agent who was tasked with letting space in the hangars once Finningley closed. Knowing it would be a struggle to get the major agents to visit to look at a load of hangars he opened up the runway and allowed the agents to drive whatever they arrived in as fast as they liked. Most successful viewing day he ever had!

 

[Killingworth]

Doncaster Sheffield Airport -

Voted the UK's Best Airport by Which? magazine three years in a row.

flydsa.co.uk

Peel were pushing for a rail connection off the ECML and/or tram from Sheffield. As long as they could source most of the funding from elsewhere. They did well getting a road link built for them so it should make a good business park, as Sheffield Airport did for them!

We looked at using it from Sheffield but range of destinations, prices and flight times from Manchester, and occasionally East Midlands, always beat anything on offer.

I went to an all afternoon presentation there a few years ago. Very slick and positive but during all that time we saw only one flight
leave or arrive.

It's a shame but there just aren't enough people living near enough for a new airport to thrive when established Leeds/Bradford and Hunberside are also fairly nearby.

 

[rg177]

What's always put me off flying from Doncaster is that most Wizz flights leave at the extremes of the day and of those, most leave after 8pm.

It's useless to me arriving at my destination circa midnight as public transport is unlikely to be running properly by the time I get there.

Ever since Stagecoach binned their X6 service its also a bit of a faff getting to and from Sheffield.

 

[chesterred16]

Peel are property developers, nothing else. I worked on the Mersey docks for a couple of years until recently, and even in an industry as vital to a city as the docks are to Liverpool, the feeling is that they want to run most of it down to build skyscrapers on. The Manchester Ship Canal will be next, it will get truncated at Runcorn and then eventually Stanlow, with trendy 'waterside' apartments built everywhere they can along the closed parts. There aren't many people who work for, or with Peel have much good to say about them.

 

[Killingworth]

What's always put me off flying from Doncaster is that most Wizz flights leave at the extremes of the day and of those, most leave after 8pm.

It's useless to me arriving at my destination circa midnight as public transport is unlikely to be running properly by the time I get there.

Ever since Stagecoach binned their X6 service its also a bit of a faff getting to and from Sheffield.

Same here. Destinations I might liks to go but not flying out to arrive at midnight. Which is why we saw only one flight when being entertained for an afternoon to extol the virtues of the airport.

A freight only runway would probably be unviable with well established alternatives not too far away.

 

[IanXC]

Seems I was ahead of the mark when they were promoting 'diverting the ECML' (!) when I suggested that extending the Leeds to Doncaster stopper and the Hull to Doncaster stopper, along with having the Doncaster to Lincoln service calling was more than enough for a service serving such a market.

 

[Killingworth]

Seems I was ahead of the mark when they were promoting 'diverting the ECML' (!) when I suggested that extending the Leeds to Doncaster stopper and the Hull to Doncaster stopper, along with having the Doncaster to Lincoln service calling was more than enough for a service serving such a market.

Before Covid it was never going to make economic sense to build a new line as proposed. It's model seemed to rely on attracting users from the catchment areas of already well established airports

On the traffic levels seen it wasnt even economic to run a particularly attractive bus service. Even developing connections from the existing Lincoln line looked less than viable. Any station would be a long walk to the terminal and combined with infrequency a poor alternative to car or taxi from door to door.

Peel persuaded many of the benefits of the airport but value for them will be in developing the business park aspect of a large flat site that may also support housing.

 

[AlterEgo]

Hopefully the first in a string of almost useless facilities whose utility could be replicated elsewhere. Close it and build an eco town. Then do it again at about another half dozen necrotic airports. These airports are vast tracts of land each the size of a small town.

 

[thenorthern]

I read somewhere the airport was built was built because they could build it rather than any specific demand.

It was built at a very different time though when it was possible to run a local airport.

 

[geoffk]

It's a shame but there just aren't enough people living near enough for a new airport to thrive when established Leeds/Bradford and Hunberside are also fairly nearby.

I've used it once to fly Wizzair to Poznan and back. We went by car from West Yorkshire.

Hasn't it changed its name several times?

 

[Peter0124]

Does Manchester Airport take a lot of the demand from Doncaster/Sheffield residents despite being nearly 50 miles away from Donc/Sheffield Airport?

Slightly Off-Topic but Living in Glasgow, I find it annoying that Glasgow and Edinburgh both have separate airports. There really should have been one single airport built in the middle of the two, as a lot of airlines now seem to favour Edinburgh over Glasgow.

 

[snowball]

I read somewhere the airport was built was built because they could build it rather than any specific demand.

It was built at a very different time though when it was possible to run a local airport.

Wasn't it originally a military airfield with a long wide runway that was used for Vulcan bombers?

 

[johntea]

Does Manchester Airport take a lot of the demand from Doncaster/Sheffield residents despite being nearly 50 miles away from Donc/Sheffield Airport?

Slightly Off-Topic but Living in Glasgow, I find it annoying that Glasgow and Edinburgh both have separate airports. There really should have been one single airport built in the middle of the two, as a lot of airlines now seem to favour Edinburgh over Glasgow.

Can be a combination of factors I guess, where you're wanting to fly, price comparison between different airports (I once flew to Orlando for which Manchester would usually the closest option for me but it worked out several hundred quid cheaper in the end to fly from Gatwick!)

Even in the case of Leeds you're looking at 40 minutes to an hour to do the 8 mile run from the rail station to Leeds Bradford airport on the bus but can do the 60 mile trip to Manchester Airport in about an hour and a half on the train!

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Peel are property developers, nothing else. I worked on the Mersey docks for a couple of years until recently, and even in an industry as vital to a city as the docks are to Liverpool, the feeling is that they want to run most of it down to build skyscrapers on. The Manchester Ship Canal will be next, it will get truncated at Runcorn and then eventually Stanlow, with trendy 'waterside' apartments built everywhere they can along the closed parts.

No it won’t. Serious consideration was given to closing the MSC in the ‘80s and it was deemed impractical: the drainage of the north-west is too intimately tied in with it. You’d have to spend so much to close it that it wouldn’t be worth it.

 

[Killingworth]

Wasn't it originally a military airfield with a long wide runway that was used for Vulcan bombers?

It was.

 

[thenorthern]

Doncaster Sheffield Airport opened at an odd time though just before the financial crash and just before the 2006 transatlantic bomb plot (the one that made it so you could no longer carry liquids on planes).

Since then it's been very difficult to successfully run a small regional airport. In fact I can think of at least 10 regional airports that have either stopped offering scheduled flights since Doncaster Airport opened.

Wasn't it originally a military airfield with a long wide runway that was used for Vulcan bombers?

It was indeed.

 

[Killingworth]

Does Manchester Airport take a lot of the demand from Doncaster/Sheffield residents despite being nearly 50 miles away from Donc/Sheffield Airport?

Slightly Off-Topic but Living in Glasgow, I find it annoying that Glasgow and Edinburgh both have separate airports. There really should have been one single airport built in the middle of the two, as a lot of airlines now seem to favour Edinburgh over Glasgow.

Manchester offers a much bigger range of destinations with more frequent flights and it benefits from good road, rail and tram connections. Consistently in the top 4 airports in the UK by passenger numbers it is the natural first choice for most in the north. It has it's failings and as Sheffield residents we look at other options. Over the years East Midlands, Heathrow, Gatwick and Newcastle have had our custom but Manchester usually wins on flights, times, price and relative convenience.

We nearly booked to Jersey from Sheffield before it closed. We were considering a DSA Wizzair flight to Vilnius before Covid but a viable airport needs a lot more than that.

 

[Iskra]

I used Doncaster airport a long time ago to travel to Sanford, Florida and it was a very pleasant airport experience, mainly because there were few other passengers! I'm supposed to be flying out of Doncaster once again this October (might just still be open at that point) for a cruise and public transport to get there from Sheffield in time for the flight was extremely poor, so we are driving.

It's an airport serving a relatively sparse population, with poor transport to the larger urban areas it should be getting traffic from, competing against a number of nearby well-established airports with better transport. Wizz air pulling out seems to be the final nail in the coffin. I just hope it clings on for my flight as it was timed better than those of the same airline from Manchester or Leeds. Doncaster did well to get through the pandemic at all to be fair. While a pretty poor airport experience, Manchester beats it hands down in terms of getting there and the number of available destinations. Will anyone miss Doncaster Airport? Probably not. Hopefully any staff can be redeployed to prop up the flagging aviation industry elsewhere.

 

[chesterred16]

No it won’t. Serious consideration was given to closing the MSC in the ‘80s and it was deemed impractical: the drainage of the north-west is too intimately tied in with it. You’d have to spend so much to close it that it wouldn’t be worth it.

Closing it to traffic is different to filling it in, which I never suggested would happen. Peel will walk away from it at some point though, and it will leave the local / water authorities to maintain the drainage.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I used Doncaster airport a long time ago to travel to Sanford, Florida and it was a very pleasant airport experience, mainly because there were few other passengers! I'm supposed to be flying out of Doncaster once again this October (might just still be open at that point) for a cruise and public transport to get there from Sheffield in time for the flight was extremely poor, so we are driving.

It's an airport serving a relatively sparse population, with poor transport to the larger urban areas it should be getting traffic from, competing against a number of nearby well-established airports with better transport. Wizz air pulling out seems to be the final nail in the coffin. I just hope it clings on for my flight as it was timed better than those of the same airline from Manchester or Leeds. Doncaster did well to get through the pandemic at all to be fair. While a pretty poor airport experience, Manchester beats it hands down in terms of getting there and the number of available destinations. Will anyione miss Doncaster Airport? Probably not. Hopefully any staff can be redeployed to prop up the flagging aviation industry elsewhere.

I've never visited Doncaster Sheffield Airport (well, not since attending an airshow as a kid back when it was RAF Finningley) but my understanding is that it's a more modern facility than Leeds-Bradford (as to be expected, given that it's newer) with more space for potential expansion. On the other hand it was always going to struggle given the timing of opening, and being a relative newcomer with most nearby competing facilities being well established by that point.

 

[Iskra]

Politicians now kicking up a fuss due to the amount of taxpayer money that has gone into it. There is a suggestion of a new operator, possibly the council? But, it still doesn't solve the issues of lack of flights/interest from airlines and passengers.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport: South Yorkshire leaders say site is crucial

Political leaders suggest a new operator could "unlock" Doncaster Sheffield Airport's potential.

www.bbc.co.uk

Doncaster Sheffield Airport: South Yorkshire leaders say site is crucial​

• • Published
    18 hours ago

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Image caption,
The airport handles more than a million passengers annually and flies to 50 destinations
Threatened Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) could be run by a new operator in an effort to keep it open, South Yorkshire politicians have suggested.
The site's future has been plunged into doubt after its owners said it "may no longer be commercially viable" after failing to attract enough passengers.
The leaders of South Yorkshire's four councils and the regional mayor have hit out at that analysis.
They're calling for owners Peel Group to save the airport.

IMAGE SOURCE,OLIVER COPPARD
Image caption,
South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard has signed a joint statement with other political leaders calling for the airport to be saved
A joint statement highlighting the importance of DSA was signed by South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard, Barnsley Council leader Sir Steve Houghton, mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones, Rotherham Council leader Chris Read and Sheffield Council leader Terry Fox.
It said millions of pounds had already been invested in the site by the region's councils, mayoral authority and local enterprise partnership, including loans totalling £8m.

'Unlock potential'​

The leaders said they were "disappointed" with Peel Group's communication with them over the plans.
They added: "We now need them to both match our level of ambition for the site and engage with us to bring about the boost in passenger numbers we all want to see.
"We will be speaking directly to the group's board and senior leadership team as a matter of urgency and we are committed to working with them to ensure the future of DSA, or finding an alternative private sector operator who can unlock its potential."

IMAGE SOURCE,LDRS
Image caption,
Doncaster MP Ed Miliband said the airport is an important part of the region's economic plans
Doncaster Labour MP Ed Miliband called the possible closure plans "absolutely shocking".
The Labour politician told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "The airport is a really important part of our economic plans.
"My sympathy is for the workers, hundreds of workers, who rely on employment there and we know the tough times people are going through."

Image caption,
Passengers have been told to arrive and check-in as normal
In a statement on Wednesday announcing a six-week review into the airport's future, DSA and the Peel Group said it had "never achieved the critical mass required to become profitable".
It called a shortfall in passenger numbers a "fundamental issue", and also cited the decrease in the number of Wizz Air flights operating from the site.
Robert Hough, chair of Peel Group's airports, said the business was still facing "ongoing obstacles and dynamic long-term threats".

 

[Tetchytyke]

John Whittaker lives here in tax exile and he didn't get his £30M mansion by spending his own money on anything.

He ran Durham Tees Valley into the ground and then still walked away with a fortune when the Tory mayor nationalised it. Clearly he's looking at the same trick with Doncaster/Sheffield.

It's not that isolated, it's about 60-90 mins in the car from West Yorkshire and Derby/Nottingham. Question is whether there's enough traffic for three airports in that area. There probably is, especially for those of us who'd drive further to avoid Manchester Airport.

 

[Killingworth]

John Whittaker lives here in tax exile and he didn't get his £30M mansion by spending his own money on anything.

He ran Durham Tees Valley into the ground and then still walked away with a fortune when the Tory mayor nationalised it. Clearly he's looking at the same trick with Doncaster/Sheffield.

It's not that isolated, it's about 60-90 mins in the car from West Yorkshire and Derby/Nottingham. Question is whether there's enough traffic for three airports in that area. There probably is, especially for those of us who'd drive further to avoid Manchester Airport.

Not to mention buying Sheffield City Airport for £1 and developing it as a business park.

But how many flights does an airport need to offer to achieve critical mass? Manchester takes custom away from Liverpool (Peel involved again) Leeds/Bradford, East Midlands, Humberside and Newcastle in the north due to its number of destinations and frequency of flights. Actual travel time to the airport is a relatively short period to consider against the time taken to board a flight - that is, of course, where DSA should win. But only with more flights.

What we have yet to hear are the full reasons for the sudden withdrawal of Wizz Air. There has to be more to that than has been made public.

 

[Tetchytyke]

What we have yet to hear are the full reasons for the sudden withdrawal of Wizz Air.

I imagine it is likely to be a disagreement over landing/handling fees and the like. WizzAir will want to be incentivised into flying from DSA, and Peel Holdings will want the local taxpayer to fund those incentives.

 

[telstarbox]

Unlike Manchester and Liverpool there's probably less inward tourism demand to South Yorks, and some of the inward demand from Eastern European workers will have reduced following Brexit.

 

[Killingworth]

Unlike Manchester and Liverpool there's probably less inward tourism demand to South Yorks, and some of the inward demand from Eastern European workers will have reduced following Brexit.

I'd say a lot of Eastern European demand will have been lost, very much an issue for Wizz Air.

 

[AlterEgo]

Unlike Manchester and Liverpool there's probably less inward tourism demand to South Yorks, and some of the inward demand from Eastern European workers will have reduced following Brexit.

Wizz Air also lost about half a billion euro over the past year because of their insane strategy of trying any old route.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Wizz Air also lost about half a billion euro over the past year because of their insane strategy of trying any old route.

It worked for Ryanair in the mid 2000s, but they were doing it between places like Stansted-Poitiers, where they could pick up a lot of ancillary revenue onboard as well as getting very good deals from the airports/local authorities.

Wizzair on the other hand have been trying ridiculous routes where they're not going to get any ancillary revenue, although some of their routes are exceptionally weird and wonderful. I've just found a Vilnius-Yerevan connection, which makes absolutely no sense given the enormous detour that it has to take. There's even a flight from Dammam in Saudi Arabia to Vienna!

 

[roversfan2001]

Wizz Air also lost about half a billion euro over the past year because of their insane strategy of trying any old route.

As said above, that model worked extremely well for Ryanair. Wizz Air do appear to have completely ripped the pants off it though. Maybe there just isn't room for two massive LCCs* in Europe?

*I'm classing EasyJet as a step above Wizz and Ryanair, though they're obviously still an LCC.

 

[Mojo]

Peel Group have confirmed they are to start winding down passenger services at Doncaster/Sheffield Airport from the end of next Month.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport to close despite financial lifeline offer

Doncaster Sheffield Airport owner Peel says the wind-down will begin on 31 October.

www.bbc.co.uk

Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) is to close after its owner said "no tangible proposals" had been received regarding its future ownership.
Peel Group said the closure was due to a "fundamental lack of financial viability".
On Friday, South Yorkshire's political leaders offered public money to keep DSA operating into 2023.
But Peel Group said services at the airport, which employs 800 workers, would wind down from 31 October.
Robert Hough, chairman of Peel Airports, said he recognised news of the closure would come as "a great disappointment to many".
"The intractable problem remains the fundamental and insufficient lack of current or prospective revenue streams, together with the airport's high operating costs," he said.
Regional mayor Oliver Coppard said on Friday the offer was not just about giving potential investors a "sensible amount of time to put their proposals together", but was "also about protecting more than 800 jobs and providing certainty to customers, operators and the airport community".
Mr Hough said he was grateful to the airport's staff who he said had always been DSA's "greatest asset".

He said the immediate priority would be to "continue engaging closely with them over the next few weeks".​

"We will do everything we can to minimise the impact of these proposals and work closely with local authorities and agencies to support our employees through what we know will be an extremely difficult period," he said.
Peel Group said the offer of public money to fund DSA's operating losses until 2023 would have provided free cashflow to sustain losses which might have occurred while the Peel Group and South Yorkshire partners jointly explored the future potential of DSA.
But a spokesperson said, in the absence of any "actual proposals to address the lack of viability of DSA", Peel's board had concluded "it cannot responsibly accept public money for this highly uncertain process against the backdrop of an unviable, loss-making operating business".