What happened to Sheffield City Airport?

[thenorthern]

Looking at a map I notice the now closed Sheffield City Airport in Tinsley area of the city and I was wondering what is currently happening with the site.

I know the the airport was a mad 90s idea and that it closed in 2008 shortly after the opening of the now "failed" Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield.

Since then I have heard rumours that the airport will reopen and that the airport is going to be dug up and.

Does anyone know what the current state of the airport is now?

 

[Aictos]

I googled this earlier last week, best I can make out not being local is the airport is being redeveloped into a business park and the runway will be dug up as a result.

I'm sure more local based members can give more info on it.

 

[BuhSnarf]

Not sure about city airport but Robin Hood airport is still going as far as I know?

 

[Tim R-T-C]

What a waste.

Surely they could use it as a race circuit...!

 

[gazthomas]

How many reports do you need in the East Midlands/North East!

 

[johnnychips]

How many reports do you need in the East Midlands/North East!

I think you'll find the latest, and huge, report was about Gatwick and Heathrow, which are in the South-East.

 

[BananaRepublic]

....it closed in 2008 shortly after the opening of the now "failed" Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield.

Not sure about city airport but Robin Hood airport is still going as far as I know?

Robin Hood Doncaster airport is still going, with quite a number of flights each day, mostly by Low Cost carriers or holiday flights.
Unfortunately it isn't busy enough to be making enough money and has been making an annual loss from day 1.

Sheffield City airport was built in the hope than it would be successful in the short haul, regional city centre to city centre market; but failed to attract airline operators.
There used to be a one or two regular summer Saturday only flights to the Channel Islands, before it closed for good.
Just one or two flights a week for 4 summer months a year, was obviously not going to last.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

IIRC one of the issues with Sheffield City Airport was that the runway is/was too short for most widely used aircraft. That's why they went for the executive/business travel market rather than trying to persuade say Ryanair or Easyjet to run flights to Barcelona or Ibiza. Unfortunately being in Sheffield there was never going to be huge demand for such flights.

 

[northwichcat]

Robin Hood Doncaster airport is still going, with quite a number of flights each day, mostly by Low Cost carriers or holiday flights.

Someone who lives near the Airport (and did before it became an Airport with passenger flights) once told me they made it an Airport just because they could, rather than because the demand was there.

 

[oddiesjack]

Do South Yorkshire Police helicopters still fly from there?

Their base was (and probably still is) at Letsby Avenue by the airport

Don't believe me?

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.3948909,-1.3980011,16z

 

[Haydn1971]

I know the the airport was a mad 90s idea and that it closed in 2008 shortly after the opening of the now "failed" Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield.

Not quite so mad, the land was sold to developers for a nominal sum (£1 rings a bell) in the last few months of the Sheffield Development Corporation with conditions to build the Airport Spine Road (which I helped design) and the airport, with some clause about operating for x number of years - costs were about £8M - effectively the land was sold for £8M - the road was built, development came, expanded and outgrew the income from the airport, this the airport became a liability as it was and is bowing the process of being developed upon.

The airport was the swish anchor for the tech based companies in the area - it worked, the surrounding area has all sorts of high-tech businesses there, including composites, specialist metals and nuclear

 

[WestCoast]

Someone who lives near the Airport (and did before it became an Airport with passenger flights) once told me they made it an Airport just because they could, rather than because the demand was there.

Doncaster-Sheffield was developed into a commercial airport when short-haul air traffic was booming in the early 2000s, opening in 2005. I think Peel were hoping to replicate what they had achieved at Liverpool, the terminal is after all a smaller version of John Lennon. While it doesn't seem to have met the forecasted passenger numbers, it hasn't done badly with a based charter operator (Thomson) offering key holiday routes and Wizz Air operates 11 routes to Central and Eastern Europe. Also, regular scheduled services to Dublin and Isle of Man.

It looks a lot rosier on the commercial front than other regional airports like Durham Tees Valley. However, airports have to be working towards or achieving profitability in this market. The recent closure of Blackpool to large commercial operators highlights this point well.

 

[BananaRepublic]

IIRC one of the issues with Sheffield City Airport was that the runway is/was too short for most widely used aircraft. That's why they went for the executive/business travel market rather than trying to persuade say Ryanair or Easyjet to run flights to Barcelona or Ibiza......

There never was an intention to have a long runway or facilities for such flights.
Sheffield was intended to be a city airport, like London City, Plymouth and Belfast Harbour (as originally intended) with the hope of mostly domestic inter city short haul flights, using small regional and commuter airliners.

 

[Western Lord]

With a population of 550,000 and a Metro area population of 1,550,000, I believe that Sheffield is probably the largest city in the world without an airport (I don't count "Robin Hood").

 

[telstarbox]

With a population of 550,000 and a Metro area population of 1,550,000, I believe that Sheffield is probably the largest city in the world without an airport (I don't count "Robin Hood").

I've often thought that in some regards, Sheffield falls between three stools (Manchester, Leeds and Derby/Nottingham) due to its proximity to those cities. Newcastle/Sunderland is a similarly sized Metro area but can sustain an airport because it's further away from other large population centres.

It also misses out on business investment as a London company would usually choose the more established centres of Manchester or Leeds if establishing a 'Northern' office.

 

[BananaRepublic]

With a population of 550,000 and a Metro area population of 1,550,000, I believe that Sheffield is probably the largest city in the world without an airport (I don't count "Robin Hood").

For comparison and amusement, Bristol airport, with a city population less than Sheffield, moved over 6.3 million pax in 2014 and Portland Oregon, with a city population slightly higher than Sheffield, handled 16 million in the same year.

 

[Haydn1971]

It also misses out on business investment as a London company would usually choose the more established centres of Manchester or Leeds if establishing a 'Northern' office.

To be fair, Leeds and Manchester are favourable due to the traditional location of regional government offices in these cities - Manpower Services move to Sheffield was a step in the right direction in the early 80's followed by several other government offices - I'm led to believe that Sheffield was at one point has the largest collection of Civil Servants outside of London, but business still seems locked into the traditional regional centres.

 

[edwin_m]

For comparison and amusement, Bristol airport, with a city population less than Sheffield, moved over 6.3 million pax in 2014 and Portland Oregon, with a city population slightly higher than Sheffield, handled 16 million in the same year.

Sheffield is more analogous to Cardiff than Bristol, having several airports within an hour or so that are more successful and therefore have a better choice of flights. American comparisons aren't really valid given that flying has nigh on 100% of the long distance public transport market for a city like Portland.

 

[BananaRepublic]

I did say the comparison was for amusement Edwin.

 

[Condor7]

There used to be a one or two regular summer Saturday only flights to the Channel Islands, before it closed for good.
Just one or two flights a week for 4 summer months a year, was obviously not going to last.

This was from Jersey and was one flight there and back on a Saturday and Sunday as you rightly point out in the summer months. There was however a twice daily (except Sunday) British Airways flight to Dublin and back, although this was reduced to once a day after a time.

 

[thenorthern]

I think as well Sheffield's location in the centre of Great Britain with rail connections to most parts of the country including at the time Brighton didn't help the airport's prospects for domestic flights.

Given that Sheffield to London only takes 2 hours and Sheffield to Edinburgh takes less than 4 hours it is very hard to compete time wise when you factor in check in times and security, travelling to and from the airports and only a limited number of flights per day. Not to mention that all the flights at Sheffield City were high fare traditional airlines which couldn't realistically compete with the price of train travel even in first class.

 

[BananaRepublic]

....it is very hard to compete time wise when you factor in check in times and security,

Back then (late 1990's), minimum check-in times for domestic flights at similar sized "commuter flight" airports, was between 15 and 20 minutes and there wasn't the same level of security palaver that followed 9/11.
It was also shortly before the time when self check-in and later, online check-in, started to gain traction.
Today, for such flights 90% of check-in is carried out prior to arriving at the airport.

...travelling to and from the airports and only a limited number of flights per day.

Regarding the time required for travelling to and from airports; for many passengers this can be quicker and more convenient than having to travel into or out of the centre of a busy city to reach the main railway station. It all depends on the circumstances of any particular city and the travellers start and end points.

Otherwise I agree with your other points regarding Sheffield City Airport.

 

[northwichcat]

With a population of 550,000 and a Metro area population of 1,550,000, I believe that Sheffield is probably the largest city in the world without an airport (I don't count "Robin Hood").

Definition of a city is ambiguous. The City of London is one of the smallest cities in the UK with 8,000 residents, but if you include City of Westminister and other 'London boroughs' then it makes London's population a whopping 8.6 million.

 

[Deerfold]

With a population of 550,000 and a Metro area population of 1,550,000, I believe that Sheffield is probably the largest city in the world without an airport (I don't count "Robin Hood").

With the population level you're quoting being bigger than that of South Yorkshire how are you excluding Robin Hood airport?

There never was an intention to have a long runway or facilities for such flights.
Sheffield was intended to be a city airport, like London City, Plymouth and Belfast Harbour (as originally intended) with the hope of mostly domestic inter city short haul flights, using small regional and commuter airliners.

You appear to have argued with 61653 HTAFC and then made exactly the same points.

 

[BananaRepublic]

You appear to have argued with 61653 HTAFC and then made exactly the same points.

Not really.
I read 61653 HTAFC's point to say the short runway was an issue, thereby restricting the operators to pursue a particular restricted market segment.
My response was that the limited runway length was not such an issue, but as planned at the outset. The chosen market didn't materialise.
That's a supple but important distinction.

 

[WestCoast]

I agree with much of what has been said. The city airport model only tends to work under a certain set of circumstances in today's market.

There's London City which serves a higher yielding business travel market (plus a bit of premium leisure travel more recently). This suits a niche operation with smaller aircraft for airlines who can serve the market (suitable aircraft/high frequencies). Or Belfast City, where the alternatives to air with one or two exceptions are much slower, plus the airport can now serve larger aircraft heading to Spain etc.

 

[Deerfold]

Not really.
I read 61653 HTAFC's point to say the short runway was an issue, thereby restricting the operators to pursue a particular restricted market segment.
My response was that the limited runway length was not such an issue, but as planned at the outset. The chosen market didn't materialise.
That's a supple but important distinction.

It's an issue for anyone wanting to do anything different with it, but was as planned at the time.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Robin Hood Doncaster airport is still going, with quite a number of flights each day...... Unfortunately it isn't busy enough to be making enough money and has been making an annual loss from day 1.

So in summary, Robin Hood is taking money out of the pockets of the rich ( the owners ) on a daily basis....?



*heads for coat rack*

 

[thenorthern]

Given that Sheffield City Airport was built shortly after the Supertram was completed were there every any plans to expand the Supertram there?

I wouldn't be surprised if there were.

 

[Haydn1971]

Given that Sheffield City Airport was built shortly after the Supertram was completed were there every any plans to expand the Supertram there? I wouldn't be surprised if there were.

No there wasn't - the airport came about as a bit of a whim of the Sheffield Development Corporation in the early 90's to sex up the otherwise drab brownfield site for developers.

There was an aspiration to take a tram route up to Wickersley, I don't think that funding was ever secured for it, not a route finalised, but the residents along the A631 were up in arms about the idea - I can't for the life of me recall when this was - late 90's probably.

Back "in the day", planning and funding processes were very long, the trams had been shut down by the 1960's and were seen as a second rate means of getting people around - to be fair, in the UK they were old tech, effectively a bus on rails, which offered limited route flexibility and the trackbed would have been poor by today's standards. I'm too young to have any first hand experience. Sheffield originally had plans for an urban motorway (search "Sheffield Urban Motorway") in the late 1960's when the city was its own entity within West Riding. By 1974, South Yorkshire County had taken charge of planning and highways, the oil crisis had hit, the politics were very left wing and the urban motorway was canned in favour of a people mover much like Heathrow T5 - this kinda evolved into a modern tramway and by 1986 a route was fixed and laid before parliament.

I'm not familiar with the Manchester or Leeds proposal history timeline, but the race was on to get the first modern tramway operational in the UK, Manchester bypassed the planning nightmare that Sheffield had by using old railway lines - effectively a tram-train that didn't mix with trains and in doing so won the race by a few months. I've often thought that without the mix of oil crisis, left wing politics in South Yorkshire and the in fighting between Sheffield and the county (Barnsley) the modern tramway wouldn't exist in its current form, with tram-train style systems like Manchester, Newcastle and the class 14x winning through.