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...?

 

All the while delaying and delaying, subsequently then needing even more money to reopen and get things up to scratch

I think the risk on borrowing against an entire future funding pot for one project is the most concerning part of this. If it was private sector led with some subsidy from the MCA then it would be palatable, but it looks at the moment like the whole thing relies on the full £138million. That is a lot of money to pump into something that’s already cost its owner £250million. I know, Gainshare can only be sent on projects that generate economic growth, but there are a lot of sunk costs in this project that won’t be retrievable should it fail.

I wonder whether Peel will be involved in this more than just to be the landlord, maybe if there is a genuinely solid case brought to them by the procurement process then they may change their minds on the viability of the business and its place within the Gateway East development? My guess is that the Council and MCA have said no money for Gateway East unless they agree to reopen the airport by whatever means as it forms part of the ‘local plan’.

Think we do need to know who the front runners are, which we will know in Spring apparently. But York Aviation due to their extensive network will be able to gauge appetite and they still haven’t changed stance on it.

 

The mechanic has doubled down on his comments about York Aviation, now they are colluding with LBA, and the guy who works there that used to work at DSA is a Peel shill! Seriously, these people are utter morons. The BBC as part of their commitment to balance have spoken to numerous people about the situation and some of those people might just have a different opinion. Doesn’t mean they are in the pockets of snyone. The fact that there is someone working for them that used to work at DSA gives them some actual working knowledge of the issues DSA faced and will continue to face, the person in question also worked for Virgin and TUI in similar roles.

Note that York Aviation wrote a comprehensive dismissal of the application to reopen Manston, that’s noting to do with Peel, they just didn’t believe the numbers stacked up to scrutiny, their evidence was ignored but now it seems it’s gone to appeal on the grounds of not being needed! Perhaps the same will happen with DSA.

Just read those comments on the #SaveDSA Facebook group and would suggest that they and some of the follow on comments from his followers are open for liable. They call in to question York Aviation independence, the credentials of people working for them and the that they are actively trying to undermine the commercial case for DSA in order to support one of their other clients…..
Consultancy business is based up independent and factual analysis and the credentials of their employees. I’d suggest he should chose his words more carefully in future or he could find himself facing a hefty legal bill!
Lastly it is highly likely that the same consultancy will be advising the same parties who are potentially looking to invest in DSA…..

 

Just read those comments and would suggest that they and some of the follow on comments from his followers are open for liable. They call in to question York Aviation independence, the credentials of people working for them and the that they are actively trying to undermine the commercial case for DSA in order to support one of their other clients…..
Consultancy business is based up independent and factual analysis and the credentials of their employees. I’d suggest he should chose his words more carefully in future or he could find himself facing a hefty legal bill!
Lastly it is highly likely that the same consultancy will be advising the same parties who are potentially looking to invest in DSA…..

Looks like Northpoint, the consultancy firm appointed by CDC to complete a review of DSA viability, have been challenged about their questionable methodology in the past;

https://www.thanet.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AviaSolutions-Analysis-of-Manston-Airport-Report-by-Azimuth-Northpoint-2017a.pdf

 

I suspect that the comments from York Aviation will have sewn seeds of doubt among some. It will be interesting now to see if those seeds grow into something bigger. Even the very pro DSA BBC have questioned the use of £138m on the airport in light of York Aviation's comments. Spend that money and there'll be heads rolling in future if it all fails , especially in view of the 'all eggs in the DSA basket' approach and given the warnings from York Aviation. They are consultants that are well respected and it's inadvisable to dismiss their comments. I have no doubt that CDC's Mayor and the Mayor of South Yorkshire might well do just that.

Was it was the report from Northpoint too that suggested the ridiculously high GDP contribution to the South Yorkshire economy in 10 years (2m pax) which far exceeds that generated by LBA in 10 years with 7m pax?

 

I suspect that the comments from York Aviation will have sewn seeds of doubt among some. It will be interesting now to see if those seeds grow into something bigger. Even the very pro DSA BBC have questioned the use of £138m on the airport in light of York Aviation's comments. Spend that money and there'll be heads rolling in future if it all fails , especially in view of the 'all eggs in the DSA basket' approach and given the warnings from York Aviation. They are consultants that are well respected and it's inadvisable to dismiss their comments. I have no doubt that CDC's Mayor and the Mayor of South Yorkshire will do just that.

I suppose it was the report from Northpoint too that suggested the ridiculously high GDP contribution to the South Yorkshire economy in 10 years (2m pax) which far exceeds that generated by LBA in 10 years with 7m pax?

I agree. Just to add that York Aviation have done a lot of work for DfT including some work for Levelling up the North with detailed passenger spread across the north of England. Unsurprisingly Manchester and surrounding areas (Cheshire) had the largest propensity to fly, followed by Leeds City Region, then Liverpool. South Yorkshire was close to the bottom, as was Hull and Humber (though they admitted that Derbyshire was not included for SY, and Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire didn’t form part of Hull and Humber which is problematic), but still.. I suggest that is where they draw some conclusions from.

In the link I posted, Northpoint tried to draw comparisons with airports like Hamilton (Toronto) Fort Worth (Texas) and Liege. There is simply no comparison with the U.K. market. I fully believe when Vantage purchased the Peel Airport arm they didn’t fully appreciate the hyper competitive nature of privatised U.K. airports in the North of England. So I would not be at all surprised if they used a similar method to approach the DSA feasibility study which renders it null and void.

What must be considered when looking at passenger projections is how many airlines are likely to look at a small U.K. regional airport, and how many of those fly from competitors. In the U.K. you have Ryanair, Jet2, TUI and easyjet for volume, KLM for regional hub connectivity and maybe Vueling or Wizz for Spain and Eastern Europe respectively.

Ryanair have a large base at EMA, and a smaller but not insignificant one at LBA.

Jet2 large base at LBA and smaller one at EMA.

easyjet have no base on the M1 corridor north of Luton. But they have never really seemed too fussed with the Yorkshire market, will be in the crosshairs for LBA following the growth plan, so already serve LBA from BFS.

TUI do have a base at EMA but were quite happy to serve DSA for Yorkshire.

KLM, serve LBA and HUY, did have a brief foray into EMA but it didn’t last long. No evidence to suggest they would consider DSA, particularly after failing to establish at bigger airports like EMA and LPL.

Vueling and Wizz, all fine and probably could be attracted to DSA but unlikely to generate volume.

Freight operators;

DHL are entrenched at EMA with a huge integrator facility. New integrator facility built which I believe is used by UPS, FedEx, MNG and Maersk. I think ASL serve the Amazon market through Leipzig. Also have West Atlantic on the Royal Mail contract (itself having a purpose built facility). So, there is perhaps limited scope for growth in cargo but it will always play a very distant second to EMA which is only a few minutes flying time away. Certainly Peel were in discussions with FedEx and Amazon (Prime Air) for a number of years but couldn’t justify investing in purpose built facilities to handle them, particularly with significant local competition.

Of course, if you’re going to draw comparisons with Hamilton Toronto (a large urban are with fewer airports in a high land mass country) and look at DSA in isolation you will be able to draw more favourable conclusions. York Aviation are absolutely spot on.

Other airports from which to draw comparisons:

Southend had a significant investment program around 12 years ago which saw easyjet and later Ryanair base aircraft. They pulled all based units during Covid and only easyjet will operate a handful of flights this year with Aeriitalia and BH air a very small number but nothing like it’s 2mppa peak.

Coventry never seems to get a mention because it’s technically still open, but it’s a shell of what it was. Similarity with DSA is that it was another base for Thomsonfly and Hapag Lloyd Express (I think Wizz too at some point) all operated low cost flights out of Coventry. Operator decided to close passenger flights after consistent rejections for a new terminal, but also it couldn’t afford to keep handling passenger services. West Atlantic also relocated everything to EMA. Its future is uncertain, only services the GA community now.

Blackpool, a nice little airport that was turned over for housing after the owner realised that handling passenger flights was unviable due to costs. Jet2 flew from there til the end and by all accounts didn’t want to leave! But sadly they were told to leave, fortunately the airport was saved but there will never be a passenger handling facility there any more, with the land the terminal sat on turned over to be redeveloped into something else.

There are undoubtedly more to mention, but indeed Southend is a cautionary tale of what can go wrong when you rely on just two airlines for your passenger volume. Any budding operator will be noting this.

 

I've just been reading back through the thread and I notice there are a number of quotes from groups and council members. Some of these quotes (not made by our members) but from elsewhere are borderline slanderous. We have had a number of problems recently with quoting and members not necessarily understanding what should and shouldn't be sited with a follow-back link. Everyone has the ability to edit their posts, if you could read through your previous posts and where you have quoted somebody, especially with a comment which could be regarded as slanderous, it would be advisable to add a source to your quotes to protect you. This especially applies to quotes where company or people's full names are used.

 

To quote @White Heather

Massive subsidy = massive losses..
It beggars belief they would go straight back down the same path that failed last time, particularly when the aviation industry is more challenging now than it was when DSA first opened.

Probably best abandoning the other thread as we’ve probably determined by now it was mischief making.

When DSA opened there was a growing market based around low cost operators all trying something new and inevitably that resulted in growth of regional airports. Most successful being LPL (going from Humberside level of size to a major player) but then the airports that had the critical 1mppa in the 90’s are now handling way above that, so your BRS, LBA, NCL, EMA. HUY and MME punched above their weight when it came to IT charter, then EXT, BOH, NWI grew on the back of LCC development (Flybe, Ryanair, TUI).

2007/8 killed a lot of business. Excel, Goldtrail, Cyprus Airways and Eurocypria followed as did airlines like Futura, Iberworld. Mytravel, First Choice, Monarch and Thomas Cook all gone. Flybe gone. Those operators and their business had been fed into the remaining players who are cost conscious and see no benefit in flying from small airports and charging a premium for doing so. TUI are the only operator keen to still keep some local options.

Example; in 2005 HUY had something like 30 weekly charter flights, this summer it will have around 3. Blackpool went to the wall because it wasn’t cost effective to have all the facilities to cope with handling the operations of Jet2 with only 2 based aircraft. It’s much more efficient to put the aircraft into a smaller number of large airports and funnel demand through there. The whole thing has come full circle and the losers are the marginal airports as outlined in the York Aviation statement.

So, for DSA to be a success it will have to steal business from LBA and carve itself out as the departure point for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. That is why it’s unlikely to work long term short of a paradigm shift in the way airlines currently work.

 

It would also need to steal flights and passengers from EMA and HUY. They and LBA would all have the potential to suffer but we've already seen that people won't travel if the same options are available more locally. Instead of focussing on LBA, a reopened DSA needs to concentrate on getting the passengers from Sheffield that previously still largely ignored DSA in favour of more choice at MAN, EMA and LBA.

 

It would also need to steal flights and passengers from EMA and HUY. They and LBA would all have the potential to suffer but we've already seen that people won't travel if the same options are available more locally. Instead of focussing on LBA, a reopened DSA needs to concentrate on getting the passengers from Sheffield that previously still largely ignored DSA in favour of more choice at MAN, EMA and LBA.

Sheffield doesn’t generate that many passengers for its size compared to other city regions that’s another reason it wasn’t as attractive. Thats a feature of the economic situation in South Yorkshire and is nothing to do with provision of local air services. It’s why I always believed Sheffield City should have been kept as a small GA/Business airfield as the outbound holiday traffic brings very little net benefit to the economy but being able to fly a business jet into the heart of the city region?

@Seasider

Probably best to keen the conversation going on here. You mention parallels with Flybe 2.0 and DSA 2.0, there are possibly some tenuous links, like how Flybe 2.0 were restarted to cater to a market that no longer exists. In that sense then yes I suppose you can draw parallels, but DSA’s market never really did exist to the extent required to make it established and sustainable whereas Flybe once was a great airline.

 

I agree with Pug in saying that Sheffield City should have been kept to allow business jets etc to serve the city of Sheffield. Holiday traffic would continue to use EMA and MAN and to some extent LBA. For a reopened DSA to maybe succeed high speed rail links to Leeds and Sheffield would be essential, also links to Hull, York and Doncaster right into a station at the terminal. This would require massive investment. Even then it would be unlikely to generate the numbers required. Manchester would still be a very attractive alternative.
It is not going to happen. Nor a DSA mark 2.

 

I agree with Pug in saying that Sheffield City should have been kept to allow business jets etc to serve the city of Sheffield. Holiday traffic would continue to use EMA and MAN and to some extent LBA. For a reopened DSA to maybe succeed high speed rail links to Leeds and Sheffield would be essential, also links to Hull, York and Doncaster right into a station at the terminal. This would require massive investment. Even then it would be unlikely to generate the numbers required. Manchester would still be a very attractive alternative.
It is not going to happen. Nor a DSA mark 2.

They talk about advanced aviation manufacturing but don’t explain why they need an airport to do this. As evidenced by Boeing occupying part of what was the runway at Sheffield City! Gateway East or an extension of that on the site of DSA could be used for advanced manufacturing purposes if they want to follow that route, without the need to go down the costly route of reopening and subsidising a failed venture.

What I believe is happening is that actually Peel realise there isn’t that much appetite for advanced manufacturing or tech industry on the site, so the only alternative would be to turn the site over as a housing development. What they’ll probably do for the moment is lease it to the council which will provide a guaranteed income and shore up support for Gateway East. Eventually, when/if the new venture fails again, come 2035 they can apply for a change of use and it will become a much needed new town development. I don’t see LBA or EMA going anywhere, so I fail to see how it will play out differently. They talk about Ryanair, but they have the third largest U.K. base next door at EMA with 9 aircraft currently based there. They decided to pull their few flights into DSA when they opened a base at LBA. It’s the airlines speaking with their feet and it’s the fundamental issue with the airport at DSA.

 

It would also need to steal flights and passengers from EMA and HUY. They and LBA would all have the potential to suffer but we've already seen that people won't travel if the same options are available more locally. Instead of focussing on LBA, a reopened DSA needs to concentrate on getting the passengers from Sheffield that previously still largely ignored DSA in favour of more choice at MAN, EMA and LBA.

I agree with Pug in saying that Sheffield City should have been kept to allow business jets etc to serve the city of Sheffield. Holiday traffic would continue to use EMA and MAN and to some extent LBA. For a reopened DSA to maybe succeed high speed rail links to Leeds and Sheffield would be essential, also links to Hull, York and Doncaster right into a station at the terminal. This would require massive investment. Even then it would be unlikely to generate the numbers required. Manchester would still be a very attractive alternative.
It is not going to happen. Nor a DSA mark 2.

Whilst I agree that direct rail links would provide some additional traffic I'm sure you're right that it would unlikely generate large numbers especially if the model of a re-opened airport was the same as before. I doubt many additional folk will want to travel distances to catch a holiday flight from DSA - they will just fly from their local airport if it's on offer there as in the past. A different model with lots of long haul flights - maybe - but that's a pipe dream.

 

Whilst I agree that direct rail links would provide some additional traffic I'm sure you're right that it would unlikely generate large numbers especially if the model of a re-opened airport was the same as before. I doubt many additional folk will want to travel distances to catch a holiday flight from DSA - they will just fly from their local airport if it's on offer there as in the past. A different model with lots of long haul flights - maybe - but that's a pipe dream.

The ECML rail link is a problem on two fronts. One is that it assumes the airport would grow on the back of it, but it’s already demonstrated that airport rail links do not generate a growth in air services. It was proposed on the premise that it would relieve pressure on the London airports, but the reason Heathrow is full is because airlines want to fly to Heathrow. Stansted, Luton both have room and are looking to break into the long haul market but barely any operators are interested, they are much closer to the market with dedicated rail links already in place, so why would Doncaster be a more competitive position? Doncaster certainly is not Heathrow!

Also why would any rail operator want to add time on the journeys along the ECML by adding more stops that are unlikely to have many passengers using them, particularly after the cancellation of HS2 beyond Birmingham?

 

The ECML rail link is a problem on two fronts. One is that it assumes the airport would grow on the back of it, but it’s already demonstrated that airport rail links do not generate a growth in air services. It was proposed on the premise that it would relieve pressure on the London airports, but the reason Heathrow is full is because airlines want to fly to Heathrow. Stansted, Luton both have room and are looking to break into the long haul market but barely any operators are interested, they are much closer to the market with dedicated rail links already in place, so why would Doncaster be a more competitive position? Doncaster certainly is not Heathrow!

Also why would any rail operator want to add time on the journeys along the ECML by adding more stops that are unlikely to have many passengers using them, particularly after the cancellation of HS2 beyond Birmingham?

The cost of the ECML was estimated at £300m back in 2020, with inflation in the building trade since then it would now be around £400m! Given the DfT said it didn’t offer value to the tax payer then, it certainly wouldn’t now…as for talk of DSA ever been a replacement for airports in the SE Since 2020 Stansted has been successful in gaining agreement to expand from 35m pxs pa to 43m and both Gatwick and Luton have plans for significant expansion. Nobody in the right minds would contemplate travelling 150m from/to the SE to take a flight, rail fares alone would make the option prohibitively expensive….

 

The cost of the ECML was estimated at £300m back in 2020, with inflation in the building trade since then it would now be around £400m! Given the DfT said it didn’t offer value to the tax payer then, it certainly wouldn’t now…as for talk of DSA ever been a replacement for airports in the SE Since 2020 Stansted has been successful in gaining agreement to expand from 35m pxs pa to 43m and both Gatwick and Luton have plans for significant expansion. Nobody in the right minds would contemplate travelling 150m from/to the SE to take a flight, rail fares alone would make the option prohibitively expensive….

Nothing to do with reopening DSA provides value for money! Yet the politicians seem determined to waste many millions anyway..

 

I do wish someone would post on here with good solid reasons for DSA. From what I read on here, anyone who challenges the Pro DSA forums is rubbished or removed.
This is a serious request, as I am sure that Pro DSA supporters do read this forum.

 

Nothing to do with reopening DSA provides value for money! Yet the politicians seem determined to waste many millions anyway..

I think the Politicians see it as a status symbol for their cities to have an airport.

 

I think the Politicians see it as a status symbol for their cities to have an airport.

Except here in Leeds it would seem where they make a habit of objecting to anything and everything LBA tries to do. Our Mayor didn't lift a finger to support LBA when it applied to build a new world class terminal. Yet the South Yorkshire Mayor is sanctioning the spending of Doncaster's entire £138m allocation on reopening a dead duck of an airport.

The Mayor of Doncaster seems to have let the newly acquired city status go to her head and is proving you are correct. She seems prepared to sacrifice the entire budget chasing her dream airport.

 

I think the Politicians see it as a status symbol for their cities to have an airport.

but at what cost?

 

Another scream on the #SaveDSA FB page, regarding the TUI 787 with its door ripped off, someone posted and was utter serious said it would of never happened at DSA. oh how you have to laugh at these utter morons. the same that states DSA was never effected by weather during a storm and it should be open to help LHR/BHX/LBA out with diversions.. don't make me laugh. the group are desperate and laughable.

lets open DSA spend millions of public money for it to fail again and shut in a year.. great. oh no silly me Jet2 are buying it hahha, give up