I'd like Northern or Transdev to offer services from on my street outside my door, but they don't. Airports are incredibly expensive things to run, and airlines will only use ones that have the infrastructure and demand through them because aircraft are incredibly expensive things to run.
Looking back its really hard to understand just what the developers hoped would happen. Sheffield City opened at the wrong time, in the wrong place and for the wrong market. Doncaster opened hoping to take over Sheffield's market and scoop up some of the emerging low cost market but were already lagging behind Manchester and Leeds Bradford. Maybe if they had tempted Jet2 to them it could have been more successful, but once they had their base established at LBA it really was all over bar the shouting.
I think to understand Peels determination you have to consider the industry trends at the time.
Deregulation in Europe gave rise to what were then called ‘low-cost airlines’. In the U.K. this was borne out by the creation of easyjet and the development of Ryanair from a small outfit flying banderantes to a major player operating Boeing 737’s. What they did in those early days was revolutionary in that they decided that operating from long established major airports came at a cost which was then passed on ultimately to the customer. Therefore, easyjet launched from Luton (then a small airport in comparison to today) and to serve the heavily populated North West they entered into agreement with then owners of Liverpool British Aerospace. With the success of easyjet at Liverpool accelerating growth from less that 0.5mppa to something like 2mppa in such a short space of time, the airport needed investment that was not available to BAe so they sold it to Peel. Peel then invested massive amounts in a new terminal and this was followed by the arrival of a Ryanair base too.
This change in focus from airlines paying airports lots of money to operate from them, to paying very little hut delivering volume from which other revenue streams could be explored was picked up by various regional airport operators and therefore the rise of the low-cost airline in the U.K. regions began to take off. There were however reluctant operators, airports like Manchester that had already developed critical mass in the traditional way was understandably reluctant to embrace this new fad. However, airlines like easyjet and Ryanair were opening bases at places like Newcastle, Bristol, Edinburgh etc and these airports were seeing phenomenal growth as a result.
By the mid to late 90’s Finningley was up for sale, what was to become MAG had assessed the site as a possible airport and determined that it was in fact not a viable proposition, they instead purchased the majority stake in Humberside and then went on to acquire East Midlands and Bournemouth from National Express instead. However; Peel, buoyed on by their successful formula at Liverpool, purchased the Finningley site from the MOD with the intention of redeveloping the site into an airport (there were plans mooted by the Government to transfer ownership to MoJ for development into a prison). They also purchased Teesside in 2003.
Sheffield City opened in 1997 and had KLM, Sabena, BA Regional and Aer Arran amongst others flying various regional and short international connections. However, with the downturn following 9/11 and the trend moving towards high volume low cost flights which the facilities at Sheffield City couldn’t handle, the authorities agreed to sell this to Peel (who were pursuing their Finningley plans) who were told that if they could prove a lack of viability they could inherit the land for £1.00. This they of course duly did. DSA plans went to public enquiry, eventually were a success and the airport opened in 2005 with ThomsonFly being the launch customer. They had managed to attract BMIBaby to Teesside on equally excellent terms.
Then it went wrong…
In the intervening years (2000 - 2005), airports like Manchester and Leeds had widened up to the low cost boom and decided to change their business models to accommodate that growth. Jet2 started at LBA in 2002, they then opened at base at Manchester and were followed by easyjet and Ryanair. This and the consolidation in the traditional IT Charter industry following increased competition from low-cost airlines meant that the market for newcomers was squeezed. Bmibaby pulled out of Teesside due to poor performance, the now opened DSA found that, despite getting an anchor tennant in Thomsonfly and later some success with Wizzair, the major players largely shunned them in favour of the more established airports with much bigger markets.
In essence what I’m saying is that the market that DSA was built for, and that Teesside was bought by Peel for, basically does not exist! These were well-intentioned projects that came about in a time of great uncertainty brought on by unprecedented growth that most experienced airport operators at that time thought would be a flash in the pan, and that ultimately failed because the airports they were supposed to offer an alternative to had wisened up and opened the floodgates.
This is the fact of the matter, people suggesting that Peel had somehow harboured ulterior motives and proved themselves out of the market are so wide of the mark it’s unreal. Perhaps the truth is just too unpalatable?
