A new airport.... South Yorkshire Airport City?

Doncaster Sheffield Airport Strategic Review Announcement​

Forums4airports discusses the latest press release from Doncaster Sheffield airport where the airport questions the future of the airport. The owners of the airport, the Peel Group have announced they are looking at their options as the group has decided the airport is no longer viable as an operational airport. Here's the press release:

"The Board of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) has begun a review of strategic options for the Airport. This review follows lengthy deliberations by the Board of DSA which has reluctantly concluded that aviation activity on the site may no longer be commercially viable.

DSA’s owner, the Peel Group, as the Airport’s principal funder, has reviewed the conclusions of the Board of DSA and commissioned external independent advice in order to evaluate and test the conclusions drawn, which concurs with the Board’s initial findings.

Since the Peel Group acquired the Airport site in 1999 and converted it into an international commercial airport, which opened in 2005, significant amounts have been invested in the terminal, the airfield and its operations, both in relation to the original conversion and subsequently to improve the facilities and infrastructure on offer to create an award winning airport.

However, despite growth in passenger numbers, DSA has never achieved the critical mass required to become profitable and this fundamental issue of a shortfall in passenger numbers is exacerbated by the announcement on 10 June 2022 of the unilateral withdrawal of the Wizz Air based aircraft, leaving the Airport with only one base carrier, namely TUI.

This challenge has been increased by other changes in the aviation market, the well-publicised impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and increasingly important environmental considerations. It has therefore been concluded that aviation activity may no longer be the use for the site which delivers the maximum economic and environmental benefit to the region. Against this backdrop, DSA and the Peel Group, will initiate a consultation and engagement programme with stakeholders on the future of the site and how best to maximise and capitalise on future economic growth opportunities for Doncaster and the wider Sheffield City Region.

The wider Peel Group is already delivering significant development and business opportunities on its adjoining GatewayEast development including the recent deal for over 400,000 sq ft logistics and advanced manufacturing development on site, creating hundreds of new jobs and delivering further economic investment in the region.

Robert Hough, Chairman of Peel Airports Group, which includes Doncaster Sheffield Airport, said: “It is a critical time for aviation globally. Despite pandemic related travel restrictions slowly drawing to a close, we are still facing ongoing obstacles and dynamic long-term threats to the future of the aviation industry. The actions by Wizz to sacrifice its base at Doncaster to shore up its business opportunities at other bases in the South of England are a significant blow for the Airport.

Now is the right time to review how DSA can best create future growth opportunities for Doncaster and for South Yorkshire. The Peel Group remains committed to delivering economic growth, job opportunities and prosperity for Doncaster and the wider region.”

DSA and the Peel Group pride themselves on being forward-thinking whilst prioritising the welfare of staff and customers alike. As such, no further public comments will be made whilst they undertake this engagement period with all stakeholders.
During the Strategic Review, the Airport will operate as normal. Therefore passengers who are due to travel to the airport, please arrive and check in as normal. If there are any disruptions with your flight, you will be contacted by your airline in good time.
For all press enquiries, please contact Charlotte Leach at [email protected]."

"Not great news for DSA or the region"

Should the government or local council foot the bill and provide a financial subsidy to keep the airport open, thoughts...?

 

Certainly been interesting watching the whole saga pan out. Some things don't seem to add up. On one hand the local authorities say they don't want to be buying the airport and haven't put a bid in yet. But the other hand they say are going to pursue a CPO, which if they win by deffinition means them buying the airport land.

 

Political dancing so they can go back to their constituents and say they tried everything to save the airport.

 

Certainly been interesting watching the whole saga pan out. Some things don't seem to add up. On one hand the local authorities say they don't want to be buying the airport and haven't put a bid in yet. But the other hand they say are going to pursue a CPO, which if they win by deffinition means them buying the airport land.

They say that if they buy the land, they will then find an operator to run it. Good luck with that! By then, there won't be much of an airport left. It will be less 'attractive' to operators if they have to totally re-equip it before they can even start flying ops.

Can't help but think that it's now it never if DSA is to survive, and if Peel don't sell it as a going concern very soon, DSA is gone for good.

 

Totally agree its political posturing.

DSAL won't exist next year. As its parent company funding runs out in the new year and the land lease expires the company will be dissolved.
I think these so called talks progressing is just a case of running down the clock.
Theres nothing now to stop Peel to return hired equipment back to suppliers/ other airports that they hired from and selling assests.

 

Totally agree its political posturing.

DSAL won't exist next year. As its parent company funding runs out in the new year and the land lease expires the company will be dissolved.
I think these so called talks progressing is just a case of running down the clock.
Theres nothing now to stop Peel to return hired equipment back to suppliers/ other airports that they hired from and selling assests.

They could excavate the runway if it suits them! Money to be made from flogging the materials for aggregate. That would certainly upset Mayor Jones!

 

They could excavate the runway if it suits them! Money to be made from flogging the materials for aggregate. That would certainly upset Mayor Jones!

Thing is, I don’t think they ‘actively’ want to do that. I know it’s popular to believe that Peel are overtly ruthless, I know they have to be to an extent, but let’s not forget that this is a high profile failure to them too.

If no sale is forthcoming I can see the land growing weeds long before the runway and hard standings are removed. I do think these talks may be ongoing and they are likely to take a long time to come to an agreement one way or the other. Longer it goes on though, the more expensive it becomes!

 

Thing is, I don’t think they ‘actively’ want to do that. I know it’s popular to believe that Peel are overtly ruthless, I know they have to be to an extent, but let’s not forget that this is a high profile failure to them too.

If no sale is forthcoming I can see the land growing weeds long before the runway and hard standings are removed. I do think these talks may be ongoing and they are likely to take a long time to come to an agreement one way or the other. Longer it goes on though, the more expensive it becomes!

I know they probably won't do anything so drastic. Just ponting out though that DSAL and/or Peel Holdings can do as they please now to generate the maximum profit from the airport and reduce their losses - and the Councils intended CPO won't exactly make them happy. They will do whatever is financially best for them especially if they feel the CPO will undermine their ability to maximise those profits. .

 

I know they probably won't do anything so drastic. Just ponting out though that DSAL and/or Peel Holdings can do as they please now to generate the maximum profit from the airport and reduce their losses - and the Councils intended CPO won't exactly make them happy. They will do whatever is financially best for them especially if they feel the CPO will undermine their ability to maximise those profits. .

I think this is correct. The prospect of a CPO being pursued because the land has value based on its suitability as an airport is all the motivation Peel needs to make the land as unsuitable as possible. Make it as unattractive (i.e. expensive to restore) as you can to any future buyer, and the Council’s motivation to pursue a CPO drains away. There are lots of ways to do this without breaking up all the concrete.

 

I think this is correct. The prospect of a CPO being pursued because the land has value based on its suitability as an airport is all the motivation Peel needs to make the land as unsuitable as possible. Make it as unattractive (i.e. expensive to restore) as you can to any future buyer, and the Council’s motivation to pursue a CPO drains away. There are lots of ways to do this without breaking up all the concrete.

And now the saveDSA are posting relentlessly about how the airport is profitable, and therefore they should take the second offer.. Didnt the supposed front runner say they weren’t that interested? You couldn’t make this stuff up.

 

You know what, and this is partly why I have refrained from commenting on this thread for a little while now, but this is all becoming rather tedious and repetitive. And that is still not to take away the severity of the situation where it has resulted in job losses, that isnt good for anyone. But reality is reality - end of

 

And now the saveDSA are posting relentlessly about how the airport is profitable, and therefore they should take the second offer.. Didnt the supposed front runner say they weren’t that interested? You couldn’t make this stuff up.

It's a bit like the main man conducting an orchestra!

Post automatically merged: Dec 8, 2022

I know they probably won't do anything so drastic. Just ponting out though that DSAL and/or Peel Holdings can do as they please now to generate the maximum profit from the airport and reduce their losses - and the Councils intended CPO won't exactly make them happy. They will do whatever is financially best for them especially if they feel the CPO will undermine their ability to maximise those profits. .

A CPO would be by no means as conclusive as some might think. The Council would have to submit a detailed plan as to what they were going to do with the land. Simply to say that at some point in the future they want it to be an airport and are looking for an operator to run it seems unlikely to succeed as Peel would undoubtedly challenge it. If Peel are looking towards a 'High Tech' Park as has been mentioned, projected to provide a large number of jobs I think the Council would be on a hiding to nothing. If the Council had an operator in place already and then requested CPO, that might be more interesting for the Court to balance the merits of each! A Council strategy of denying planning position for anything Peel might submit as advocated on the 'Speak before you think' facebook page might well backfire and result in them facing a Judicial review themselves if the justification for refusal is not squeaky clean/legal. I believe a sale is the only viable option to enable it to re-open.

 

I just wonder what the council tax payers of Doncaster think about all this. The judicial review has already cost the council over £250,000 have lost the court case, money which could have been better spent improving services within the town and now bags more money potentially being spent on a CPO which at the moment seems unlikely to succeed as well. We then have the issue where the airport has never made a profit since the day it opened so yet more council tax money down the drain costing the residents of Doncaster and no doubt South Yorkshire millions. I'd not be happy if I was a resident of the area when councils are stretched for money and yet Doncaster Council seem to be throwing money in a desperate attempt to keep the airport open. Wait for future years council tax bills to drop through the letter box then the residents might sit up and realise what an expensive mess this could be.

 

It's a bit like the main man conducting an orchestra!

Post automatically merged: Dec 8, 2022

A CPO would be by no means as conclusive as some might think. The Council would have to submit a detailed plan as to what they were going to do with the land. Simply to say that at some point in the future they want it to be an airport and are looking for an operator to run it seems unlikely to succeed as Peel would undoubtedly challenge it. If Peel are looking towards a 'High Tech' Park as has been mentioned, projected to provide a large number of jobs I think the Council would be on a hiding to nothing. If the Council had an operator in place already and then requested CPO, that might be more interesting for the Court to balance the merits of each! A Council strategy of denying planning position for anything Peel might submit as advocated on the 'Speak before you think' Facebook page might well backfire and result in them facing a Judicial review themselves if the justification for refusal is not squeaky clean/legal. I believe a sale is the only viable option to enable it to re-open.

I think this and the points outline by dmrogers above might explain why Oliver Coppard has been quiet on the topic recently, and why his SYMCA rejected the offer by Peel of an equity share In the airport back in March (he only told a half truth on that when he called it a loan). They know it’s a loss leader, they also seem to be aware of the limits to their knowledge on how to manage airports into profitability, but I do expect that they are well aware of the challenges DSA has faced in its existence.

What they want is someone to take it over with minimal public funding involved in the process, so they’re coming from a position of clutching at straws and hoping the supposed takeover talks are progressing. They may well be, we do not know that yet, however it has been made apparent today that the remaining security staff who were told would be employed until the 31st December will now have their contracts terminated on Monday at 07:00, at that point the doors effectively close. Peel do appear to have mothballed certain equipment rather than sell it off, but this may only be a matter of time so can not be accurately used as a yardstick as to the success of the ongoing talks or otherwise.

It’s a case of holding tight for upto a couple of months and see where we are then. If by February they haven’t agreed a sale, then the licence will be gone for good and anyone hoping to reopen it would need deep pockets and be whistling for business that by that time will have needed to make solid commitments elsewhere.

 

It’s a case of holding tight for upto a couple of months and see where we are then. If by February they haven’t agreed a sale, then the licence will be gone for good and anyone hoping to reopen it would need deep pockets and be whistling for business that by that time will have needed to make solid commitments elsewhere.

That’s a bit late - in the current ATC employment market, I’d expect that most of the controllers will have new jobs by then. Depending on how many of them are available and willing to be re-employed, it could take many months, even well into 2024, to build the qualified staffing levels back up to a stage where a reliable operation is possible.

 

And this all then boils back down to how many airlines, suppliers, staff et al are going to risk possibly being in the same situation again in a what could be a relatively short period. Suppose it could depend on whether heart rules head or head rules heart. I know we are all loyal to our local airport but equally we all also have mouths to feed

 

Ive recently been reading the saveDSA Facebook page and you have to laugh the type of people who are commenting / barking false information, ive seen one woman comment saying she has to drive 9 hours to EDI but wishes she could of flown if DSA was still open.. as far as i recall EDI has never been served from DSA and if Flybe did it, that stopped 2019.. another post stating the will NEVER go on holiday again if it isn't from DSA, she cant bare LBA, EMA MAN ETC ok great so who's the real loser? its you.. the airlines will still be filling their flights moved to different airports its not them missing out. I can already see that MAN & LPL are snow closed and posters are already saying DSA would be open WHY we need DSA to take some diversions etc. its so tiresome.

 

Ive recently been reading the saveDSA Facebook page and you have to laugh the type of people who are commenting / barking false information, ive seen one woman comment saying she has to drive 9 hours to EDI but wishes she could of flown if DSA was still open.. as far as i recall EDI has never been served from DSA and if Flybe did it, that stopped 2019.. another post stating the will NEVER go on holiday again if it isn't from DSA, she cant bare LBA, EMA MAN ETC ok great so who's the real loser? its you.. the airlines will still be filling their flights moved to different airports its not them missing out. I can already see that MAN & LPL are snow closed and posters are already saying DSA would be open WHY we need DSA to take some diversions etc. its so tiresome.

The issue there is the fundamental lack of understanding of airline operations as much as anything else. Airlines will divert to airports where they already have established bases if they can, it’s why diversions were relatively rare when DSA was open.. The weather issues have been around for 17 years, they haven’t suddenly emerged since DSA closed, and things are still happening as they were. It’s just a silly argument much like the argument that the military need ti keep it open ‘as a reserve’, meanwhile they are closing current airfields as surplus to requirements.

This is 20 years old Peel spin still having an effect. They were told it would be the Heathrow of the North purely due to the fairly long (but not the longest in England, U.K., Europe, World! As has been witnessed on social media), and this mindset still exists now.

It’s all myth making.

 

Yep agreed pug with everything you said, like ive said before - you cant argue with stupid. only a few people on them pages actually talk sense. Ive seen a few posts saying Jet2 should buy it then all the problems will be fixed.. why on earth would an airline buy an airport they have zero interest even operating a route from.. its tedious. Only thing I'm struggling to understand is that Peel are a private business surely the CANT be forced to keep a business open that's loosing money? wouldn't happen to say a shop in Doncaster? if they want to close and turn their own property into something more useful, then why shouldn't they be able to?

 

It's ironic that here at LBA we have a bunch of people who spend their lives trying to shut LBA down, whilst 35 miles down the road there's another bunch trying to keep open a dead duck of an airport.

 

Yep agreed pug with everything you said, like ive said before - you cant argue with stupid. only a few people on them pages actually talk sense. Ive seen a few posts saying Jet2 should buy it then all the problems will be fixed.. why on earth would an airline buy an airport they have zero interest even operating a route from.. its tedious. Only thing I'm struggling to understand is that Peel are a private business surely the CANT be forced to keep a business open that's loosing money? wouldn't happen to say a shop in Doncaster? if they want to close and turn their own property into something more useful, then why shouldn't they be able to?

The trend over the last 30 years for airports to be taken over by private sector investors seems to have passed them all by. It’s now the exception tather than the rule that an airport is owned and operated by a local authority, MAG is, however that is an arms length PLC and they will return profits to the shareholders (ultimately the Manchester tax payer), and Teesside which as we know is costing a fortune to keep running. There may be a couple of others.

Jet2 are aware of DSA’s existence contrary to popular belief, and will have had a handling agreement with DSA. Yet despite this they rarely diverted into there. The same can be said for Ryanair and easyJet and KLM. Yet these operators either never committed, or did so and found support lacking. The rumours about Virgin are utter nonsense but get mentioned a lot as fact on some social media outlets.

It’s a sad state of affairs, but you can’t reason with pork.