A busway would also be entirely unviable. All the existing track bed in any of the populations that it would serve (only Stamford Bridge, Pocklington and Market Weighton in reality, the rest of the route is through empty countryside) has already been built on.
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Doncaster Sheffield Airport to reopen?
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Bookies appear to be favouring the Reform candidate (as of yesterday) but I’m not sure where they get their data from. Ros Jones is playing the airport card and knowing Doncaster they’ll only go Labour (with Reform possibly a close second), unless Reform really do manage to make the predicted gains. The only chance of the airport reopening is by having Ros Jones in the seat because of the political alliances with SYMCA. With that said the independent financial scrutiny being undertaken is supposed to not be a foregone conclusion. I therefore wonder, if Jones is re elected is the airport a dead cert to reopen? Coppard could still drop a clanger when the outcome of the independent financial review is concluded ‘in the summer’. Even then, I’m not convinced any airlines have planned for a next year entry into DSA because of the uncertainty surrounding it.
edwin_m
Veteran Member
That strikes me as a high risk strategy for Ros Jones going forward. If the airport doesn't happen then other candidates can blame her (or wider Labour) for failing to deliver it. If it does then they can blame her for creating a money pit.
By the time it becomes obvious that everyone has been sold a dud she’ll be long into retirement. Coppard is the one (being the gatekeeper of the Gainshare) that needs to be careful here, because if he releases the funding in spite of advice to the contrary and then it goes wrong..
Ros Jones doesn’t really have a clue, she keeps trotting out statements where she ‘knows’ it can and will be a success. However I understand her statements are written for her…
This is a problem with short termism in politics. Say what you need to to get voted in. Says nothing for long term strategic decision making which I think needs safeguarding somehow.
Bookies have been a lot more accurate than pollsters in predicting election outcomes over the last couple of decades, however we'll wait and see!
daodao
Established Member
Labour's Ros Jones has retained the Doncaster mayoralty with a narrow majority of just 698 votes over Reform. So the futile attempt to reopen the airport is likely to continue.
Yes, sadly. I’m personally more concerned today with the ground Reform appear to be making. However at just 698 vote majority it suggests the airport is not the priority for the people of Doncaster.
It will now rely on the money being made available and that’s up to Oliver Coppard of SYMCA to decide.
weeklycommuter
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AIUI the Reform and Conservative candidates who came second and third also supported reopening Doncaster Sheffield Airport so if either had won instead there would still have been a Mayor of Doncaster who supports reopening Doncaster Sheffield Airport. The real question is whether SYMCA will make the money available.
Just to nip it in the bud (though I'm sure no-one was going to anyway 
) but any posts about the recent elections in this thread should only be how that might or might not effect the future of this white elephant airport. We have threads in General Discussion for wider chat about the elections themselves and politics in general.
) but any posts about the recent elections in this thread should only be how that might or might not effect the future of this The money would only ever be made available had Ros Jones won, she made a huge deal about this in the last couple of days with almost hourly updates on her social media feeds. I just don’t think it’s as high on the priority list of people in Doncaster it’s being made out to be. It’s nothing more than a plaything for a couple of council execs who have no acumen in business let alone the aviation and airport business.
MAI attended the recent ‘Routes’ conference in Seville and made a point about it being in support of DSA on their LinkedIn pages. There were two reps there. This is misleading, MAI of course will attend because they have a number of airports under their charge, but the Routes conferences are usually to grow existing relationships and not create new ones. I felt it was a bit disingenuous.
I understand they are being paid almost £40,000 per month for their services. This seems pennies when you consider other such ‘partnerships’ so I do wonder how much resource is being allocated to it and how serious they really are about the endeavour.
weeklycommuter
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Despite Labour winning the vote for Mayor Reform won control of Doncaster Council so I assume that means no money from SYMCA to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport. There is after all plenty of evidence that reopening Doncaster Sheffield Airport would not be a good use of taxpayers' money.
An article in the Yorkshire Post today suggest that an SYMCA spokesperson has confirmed that the business case is being scrutinised by an ‘independent aviation consultant’ currently. This could be the start of the end as it might be a management if expectations exercise. I’m not entirely sure how it works at the moment, as the previous administration apparently voted unanimously in favour of reopening the airport will it stick or will it still be subject to scrutiny if the new councillors coming through?
thejuggler
Established Member
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Donny is an unusual set up.
Council, but elected local mayor not a leader and part of SYMCA which is all South Yorkshire councils, so the political games will be interesting now Reform represent one of the four SYMCA Councils (and contribute to its budget), but they don't get to choose the council leader.
Killingworth
Established Member
You're right!
Elected Labour Mayor of Doncaster with Reform council, within South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, SYMCA, with elected Labour Mayor who has to juggle limited funds between 4 constituent authorities, all jealous of the others.
Rotherham and Barnsley are Labour strongholds, or certainly were in 2024. Sheffield has become marginal between Labour, Lib Dems and Greens, currently under no overall control.
Any funding for the airport that might be spent elsewhere will be very carefully looked at in all 4 authorities.
There’s been a joint statement by the politicians trying to reopen DSA today following an article on the Yorkshire Post social media last night along the lines of ‘Great News, airspace decision not called in by Secretary of State’.
Just to put it into context text, these self same people were calling for it TO BE CALLED IN little over a year ago due to fears that the CAA would use best practice and continue closing the airspace. As it happens the CAA decided that it didn’t meet call-in criteria back in 2023 so have seemingly held off in good faith whilst reducing the airspace to Class G.
What happens now will be determined by how much traffic is likely to be generated at DSA. Strong rumours that LBA will be an easyjet base in the not too distant future which rules them out if true, they will then join Ryanair and Jet2 who have both said they are not interested in operating from a reopened DSA. If there is not enough tangible interest from airlines then I find it unlikely that the same swathes of CAS that was provided in the past would be made available again now and it would require a redesign of the airspace taking into account all stakeholders and airspace users, some of whom I understand have already raised objections based on historical lacklustre performance.
Seems that they’re trying to get the airport opened on a ‘just cos’ basis, it’s truly bizarre and a monumental waste of tax payers money. Who knows though, maybe they’ve got an ace card up their sleeve, but more the chance that they’re being naive and don’t understand or appreciate the competitive nature of the industry.
Just to put it into context text, these self same people were calling for it TO BE CALLED IN little over a year ago due to fears that the CAA would use best practice and continue closing the airspace. As it happens the CAA decided that it didn’t meet call-in criteria back in 2023 so have seemingly held off in good faith whilst reducing the airspace to Class G.
What happens now will be determined by how much traffic is likely to be generated at DSA. Strong rumours that LBA will be an easyjet base in the not too distant future which rules them out if true, they will then join Ryanair and Jet2 who have both said they are not interested in operating from a reopened DSA. If there is not enough tangible interest from airlines then I find it unlikely that the same swathes of CAS that was provided in the past would be made available again now and it would require a redesign of the airspace taking into account all stakeholders and airspace users, some of whom I understand have already raised objections based on historical lacklustre performance.
Seems that they’re trying to get the airport opened on a ‘just cos’ basis, it’s truly bizarre and a monumental waste of tax payers money. Who knows though, maybe they’ve got an ace card up their sleeve, but more the chance that they’re being naive and don’t understand or appreciate the competitive nature of the industry.
Killingworth
Established Member
Easyjet just announced they're reopening their base at Newcastle in March 2026. They still fly to 8 destinations but closed their base during the Covid period.
Any airline starting flights from, let alone setting up a base at, DSA is taking a big financial risk.
Any airline starting flights from, let alone setting up a base at, DSA is taking a big financial risk.
The NCL base reopening has been a long time coming. The question mark over DSA is whether their talks (which in certain areas happening) result in easyJet deciding to open a base at DSA as opposed to LBA where I know discussions are ongoing and there has been small scale introduction of routes from non based aircraft much like what they did at BHX pre base agreement.
If easyJet do decide to commit to LBA then DSA can forget it. Ryanair have already indicated that there’s not much scope for anything at DSA in the shadow of LBA (their previous ops from DSA evidenced this), Jet2 have apparently indicated that they too are not interested. If easyJet follow the same principle then I really cannot see how there is any room for DSA as a commercial entity and the councillors, mayors and regional business community are deluded.
I do note that Dan Fell, the CEO of Doncaster Chamber of Commerce, has been quite vocal about the latest news regarding the SoS decision to not call in the ACP to remove the controlled airspace. Him, Ros Jones and Oliver Coppard and the people petitioning to reopen the airport had been pushing for SoS call in to prevent the CAA completely dismantling the airspace. They have failed to do this, the CAA have confirmed it will be removed in the coming months. These self same people are now publicly claiming this as a win. A truly bizarre use of spin.
Any airspace applicator will be subject to the same scrutiny as any other, and there are more ahead of the queue. It will take years not months to re-establish controlled airspace and the CAA have clearly indicated they will not get that same level as before.
One must also question, in the midst of the regional and national regeneration forums that have been attended recently to promote DSA, why MAI have not been in attendance?
Whilst I agree it's a barmy plan to reopen, controlled airspace is not a prerequisite to commercial airport operations. Norwich operated for many years without it and many airports in the US do.
It’s not a pre-requisite no. However in the U.K. there are now only a couple of airports that currently handle regular CAT without some form of CAS. These are NQY and HUY (any maybe DND). EXT is currently undergoing an ACP have Class D.
Airline risk mitigation has got keen on avoiding operating in uncontrolled airspace over the last 20 years hence the push to implement it by various airports that previously would never have been granted it. Even HUY at times has temporary Class D NOTAM. In fact I think between HUY and DSA it should have been HUY having class D because of the nature of the traffic! In Europe most airports have some form of controlled airspace so the U.K. is quite unique with its Class G.
The point is that we were told by these people that one of the fundamental requirements outlined by the ‘operators’ they had spoken to was being able to retain the airspace. They have failed to do this but are selling it as some kind of win. Meanwhile the CAA have confirmed that the previous airspace was not fit for purpose, there was too much of it, and they’d look again at it based on the role a reopened airport might play. This might include no CAT at all given the local stakeholder (airspace user) resistance to it. This will be unattractive to any prospective airlines, let’s face it the airport is already a tough sell due to market weakness and competition so to add more barriers just makes these discussions harder!
Surely it's already too late for that? I'm not an expert in opening airports but I feel like you'd need to be seeing activity at the airport itself now (recruitment of staff, recommissioning equipment, etc etc) if you were to have it ready for flights in spring 2026 which is less than twelve months away?
Depends who the airline is, what they intend to operate, how many slots they have that suddenly become available, how many aircraft currently unallocated. It’s not impossible for flights to start in spring 2026 but as time keeps passing it’s becoming increasingly unlikely.
If easyJet and LBA were to secure a long term base agreement then you’ll suddenly see very little airline appetite to serve the airport in sufficient scale to make it financially viable, y’know, like last time! So it might come down to whether there is tangible airline interest as to whether the airport reopens to passengers as was before or whether it becomes an ‘aviation hub’ that doesn’t serve the local passenger market.
Cloud Strife
Established Member
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It depends. The LCCs are much more flexible than the legacy carriers, so they could easily fly there without much notice if the financial deal was right, although the summer schedules tend to be more packed than the winter ones. But with a reopening, I'd rather expect them to open for Winter 2026, so that they could advertise a Spring 2027 schedule while the airport is open. Most/all of the LLCs would be happy to fly a few rotations to/from Central Eastern Europe to the airport if the deal was right, which in practice means giving them everything for free.
The real problem is in the summer, as I can't imagine any of the LLCs using their capacity to fly to DSA. On the other hand, they might be able to pick up some charter business in summer with the right deal.
Just as way of a reminder, when the previous owners operated it they were known to subsidise airlines to generate growth, so not only were they charging very little but they were offering to underwrite any losses to de-risk as much as possible. This very rarely resulted in long term sustainable growth.
Word of caution - if the airport reopens it simply will not have access to the financial resources of the previous incarnation. So unless there had been a significant change in direction (I.e easyJet see a potential) then it will be exceptionally difficult to make any ground where the last lot failed to do so.
YorkRailFan
Established Member
Many LCCs have nearby bases to DSA though. Ryanair and Jet2 have existing bases at LBA, Easyjet is at Manchester with rumors of a base at LBA and Wizz has sizeable presences at Manchester and LBA.
Each of the LCCs I mentioned have existing bases that cover Yorkshire, Manchester and parts of the East Midlands quite well. It's far safer for a LCC to expand from one of their established bases, than open up a base at DSA.
I agree with most of that, Ryanair and Jet2 have both been quite open to issuing concern to CDC and SYMCA over this, with Ryanair doing it quite publicly and clearly stating that a reopened DSA would be a ‘tough sell because it’s close to LBA’.
The only slight glimmer of hope is that currently easyJet haven’t publicly committed to a base at LBA. It’s widely rumoured to be in the pipeline amongst staff at easyJet, but the one thing Doncaster could offer is a completely clean slate. The council’s project manager has let slip that easyJet are a target when he cautioned that time is of the essence as they need to ‘agree terms with airlines like easyjet before they become entrenched at other local airports’. So from a passenger perspective if DSA is going to open them I’d expect a bit of a behind the scenes battle to secure an easyJet base.
Easyjet did outstation one aircraft at DSA back in 2010 as part of a wider Peel deal as easyJet were starting to grow at MAN to the expense of LPL. The base lasted all of 5 months before they announced a complete withdrawal of all services citing lack of sufficient bookings. Interestingly immediately after this they announced their first flights from LBA to GVA, but it took almost ten years for them to then announce flights to Belfast, they have since started flying to a couple more Spanish destinations. The growth at LBA mirrors what they did at BHX prior to announcing a base there, so there’s a clear statement of intent.
I think if easyjet do decide to base at LBA then DSA should not be permitted to reopen as a passenger airport, it’ll be far too expensive and there’ll be little chance of growing the offering sustainably. TUI might go back, but at the same time they might not! It’s not exactly rich pickings though which is why I feel the project is foolhardy.
Killingworth
Established Member
Are Easyjet likely to base at LBA? As far as I can see they list only 5 routes from there at present. I can't see it likely that they'd open a new base at DSA without testing the market first - and that would probably involve diverting flights from LBA and scuppering their chance of becoming a hub in the process.
They list 8 routes from Newcastle without a current base, although that is about to be re-opened next March. That was announced only a fortnight ago so any announcement about DSA or LBA for flights effective in Spring 2026 could be close.
They have a trend these days of slow build up of routes at non-base airports prior to taking the plunge. They’ve for years had very little presence in Yorkshire, they have called it an attractive market and the M1/A1 corridor now has very little presence from them between Newcastle and Luton. LBA has been quite constrained in terms of space for overnight parking of aircraft, they have started building new stand which will ultimately increase the number by 33%, they are doing this with a new based airline in mind.
They could of course just go to Doncaster but like you say they need tj test the market first. They did do this in 2010 and got burned. Dont know if anything’s changed. I don’t think 2026 is likely in any case, it would be 2027/28 as they’ll be focussing on getting NCL up and running, although could be wrong.
YorkRailFan
Established Member
LBA is the safest bet for Easyjet. Even if they didn't open a base at LBA, they could start flights from DSA but its unlikely that they would open a base there immediately. This is a risk for DSA, as if Easyjet decides to leave DSA as they did in 2010, DSA is left with nothing whilst Easyjet can instead grow at LBA. DSA is completely at the mercy of Easyjet in that scenario.
I agree, so actually the basis for opening the airport is flawed. I get the competition aspect but it’s one too many airports and Doncaster isn’t the most convenient for enough people. It’s a shame because Humberside was on a growth trajectory (in relative terms) prior to DSA opening, that could quite easily have provided a convenient departure point for people of Doncaster and that part of South Yorkshire. When you think about it they both serve the same market.