Air Atlanta will operate their MAGMA operation using B744 into DSA 3x weekly, Sat/Sun/Tue from Nairobi, these flights are supposed to be extra flights on top of what DSA currently has which would equate to 5-6 flights a week. I'll keep tabs of how many operate a week from Monday.
 
Currently the busiest airport in the region.
It would be nice for the airport to get a mainstream operator to fly in, the cargo team have created a flow of ad hoc cargo over the last couple of years however something like what Southend has managed to attract recently would be a good building block on what is currently happening freight wise at DSA obviously the freight has to be there to get the routes and network and EMA not being that far away always will loom large on the horizon but that is the next step for the airport

Any airport at present will be glad of any extra flights and revenue they can get so in these especially tough times these flights are starting at the right time for DSA.

The airport will be on for a record year for cargo this year which will be much welcomed also.
 
DSA now closed 00.00 till 06.00 daily until further notice.
Been that way for about a week now.

I wonder how it affects the airport with some of these freight movements outside the scheduled stuff as we usually see some arrive in the small hours and depart before the current opening time I'd guess with demand for freight aircraft at present it's a bit of a challenge they are having to work round.
 
Been that way for about a week now.

I wonder how it affects the airport with some of these freight movements outside the scheduled stuff as we usually see some arrive in the small hours and depart before the current opening time I'd guess with demand for freight aircraft at present it's a bit of a challenge they are having to work round.
I would imagine these hours were chosen as most regular freight tends to arrive within daylight hours, departing 2 - 4 hours after arrivals. Any one-offs might trigger exceptions, can’t see the airport turning down business at this time.
 
I would imagine these hours were chosen as most regular freight tends to arrive within daylight hours, departing 2 - 4 hours after arrivals. Any one-offs might trigger exceptions, can’t see the airport turning down business at this time.
Certainly won't turn down business, can't remember which flight it was but one arrival a few days ago was supposed to operate quite late taking off about an hour before shutdown and got postponed just thinking it must potentially causing those sort of logistical challenges.
 
Certainly won't turn down business, can't remember which flight it was but one arrival a few days ago was supposed to operate quite late taking off about an hour before shutdown and got postponed just thinking it must potentially causing those sort of logistical challenges.
I see what you’re saying, agreed it must be quite challenging to move things around to suit. In DSA’s favour in that regard is it’s flexibility, the cargo team there can always seem to pull out the stops , while the rest of the airfield services are also able to quickly react to changing circumstances. Probably the best example of that was a few years ago when EMA was having it’s night closures for runway resurfacing and we took in a big proportion of the DHL operation at weekends.
On another note, as Severn is noting in the DSA cargo operations thread, it looks like the Magma / Astral Nairobi flights have now moved on to the new 6 weekly schedule, since last Sunday up to today we’ve had exactly 6. I expect some variations, as happened with the 2/3 weekly schedule previously in operation, but generally this is great news for the cargo side of things at the airport.
 
The airport does have versatility on its side, the EMA stuff was a coup same as the operations in 18 from the US that saw numerous 747s come in the spring/early summer bringing materials to go to a factory in Nottingham after a fire at a US plant put it out of operation can't remember the full story I'm afraid.

Diversity is the key at DSA with all the different operations for sure however at present some companies are restricted on where they go and grow the issue is the site has everything situated at the Northern end of the terminal, a cargo facility at the Southern end of the site (demand permitting of course) would free up another building for either Textron or 2 Excel to use both need more space but have presently little scope to find it as things currently stand add in now the NPAS and Air Ambulance buildings that end of the airport is very congested.

I believe that the layout for cargo operations is not exactly ideal for any mainstream cargo operator such as a DHL to operate from the airport with the current set up.

At present some stands are out of action but cargo can be parked on generally stand 5 but also 1, 16,17 or the engine test bay (sensitive cargo goes here also on stand 1) but then Biz jets are also parking on 16/17 everything is a bit of a mish mash a tidier airfield would possibly create new opportunities.
 
Agreed, especially while we have our Virgin & Wizz guests stored, the present level of freight can be comfortably handled on stand 5. However, if other contracts were to be won, and the levels significantly increased it just might push the airport to bring forward the master plan proposals for a new freight facility to the west of the runway at its southern end.
that would certainly free up hangar 1 for other commercial operations, together with stand 16 & 17.
I suppose there’s no harm in dreaming while we’re in lockdown anyway!
 
Latest masterplan

http://flydsa.co.uk/masterplan

Its an interesting one re a cargo South apron on the new masterplan

Agreed, especially while we have our Virgin & Wizz guests stored, the present level of freight can be comfortably handled on stand 5. However, if other contracts were to be won, and the levels significantly increased it just might push the airport to bring forward the master plan proposals for a new freight facility to the west of the runway at its southern end.
that would certainly free up hangar 1 for other commercial operations, together with stand 16 & 17.
I suppose there’s no harm in dreaming while we’re in lockdown anyway!


I may be missing something however there seems some major flaws in the layout of the drawing, the old masterplan had cargo on the other side of the airfield which would surely be a better solution. That area is now earmarked for car parking although I expect that is just a pipe dream like most of these masterplans that are produced the reality is rather different to the plan. Passenger numbers and cargo carried along with the trainline I would expect DSA may pull the rest of the masterplan off business units and housing will certainly be built.

I am no expert and others on here may be able to help, however any apron and cargo building built on that area of land near the terminal would surely be impossible as things currently stand. Behind the current taxiway little room is available before the perimeter fence so where would the building or apron go in regards to safe operating distances and separation that is another issue to consider they can't go backwards because that would interfere with the planned business park and trainline a business park that will get built at some stage, page 16 of the masterplan shows a photo of the airfield at present and the space restrictions in that area of the airfield, I would be interested to see how they would pull it off.

Short term the present cargo facility does its job and like you say DSA is a long way off needing anything different to the current set up with current freight levels as they are however I guess somewhere in the airports thinking is that maybe 20 years down the line EMA reaches capacity cargo and DSA becomes the logical place to go, we've seen with the F1 cars coming back from races to DSA instead of EMA on a Monday night depending on what part of the race has been held and the latest announcement of a doubling of the Nairobi freighter flights the airport is geared up to be a bigger freight player than it currently is however a better layout to the current one would certainly enhances the airports chances of getting more cargo flights to South Yorkshire it is really a chicken and egg scenario now if Peel could get one of those grants they like for a new cargo facility.
 
Hi Rob, in the original masterplan, as you say, the cargo area was shown in the south-east corner where there is car parking showing now. There also now appears to be a small ‘GA South’ area now showing there.
However, the latest plan for that area is for the Solar Farm to be built roughly where the car parking is shown, so I suppose the master plan is going to need updating - again!
As regards the current position of the proposed cargo area, it does look a bit tight in the grand scheme of things, and if the railway link does get built I could even see it having to run in a tunnel to accommodate all the other business park proposals.
As usual with Peel we just have to watch as developments start to take shape and I do think that they will build whatever needs building first with further development being phased in afterwards.
for now, capacity in hangar 1 and on the airfield suits the current level of freight and could probably cope with a reasonable increase, so what we’re talking of is years away, unless they do continue to pick up business.
 
15 years since the airport opened today certainly been some ups and downs in that time.

Also on the airport website a Wizz Air flight from Bucharest is showing for the 4th of May.

Happy Birthday Doncaster Sheffield Airport!

That's great news Wizz are returning on the 4th of May. Whether that fits in with the governments rules on non essential travel is perhaps a question to be asking but it's great the airline is optimistic and looking to restart flights sooner rather than later..
 
Reason for the arrival of the Virgin aircraft is apparently due to Heathrow putting the fees up on Monday for aircraft parked there.
 
Is it more in hope than expectation is could be a very dangerous game starting flights too early
The WHO say there is no point stopping flights. A pandemic will spread regardless. I think we tend to see ourselves as being put at more risk from foreign travellers but with the UK spike being one of the highest, we are more a threat to other countries than they are to us.
 

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