Doncaster Sheffield Airport to reopen?

[pug1]

And today it still fulfils that role, albeit with larger aircraft.

Good, and hopefully the railways continue to grow that side of the business (including delivering passengers to Humberside!).

Crikey, that's a bit of a detour.

Sure, you could improve rail/road access between Sheffield and Manchester, but that's more of a national project. SY cash shouldn't be spent on that really.

Because the government are unlikely to be able to afford to build a road/rail link tunnel under the Peak District pre-2050, even with tolls, and the resultant lack of connectivity will lead to stronger support for local options for international travel.

I agree that the airport is slightly too large for the realistic demand, I hope they find another operator using the runway and airport estate to subsidise it.

Does Humberside have the population catchment to support a low cost or hybrid airline base, without some (albeit modest) transport improvements?

I doubt it would, they seem to be hell bent on supporting it, despite the inconvenient siting.

I had a look, it does quite clearly display a very closed mentality. That doesn't mean SY has to follow that path.

It's quite close to several motorways, very close to several mainline railways and the terrain is flat.
I know it's in a picturesque area, but it is the closest all weather airfield to the centres of population (unless I've missed one further west).

Fair enough. I don't think there's enough flat land for it anyway, so it could never happen.

I know SY money couldn’t be spent on a nationally significant project, but as has been said countless times on here.. you can throw all the money in the world at something but when it comes to DSA it doesn’t stick. The catchment area is small and fragmented when in the shadow of much bigger competitors. They’re basing their growth forecasts on stemming leakage to MAN, this is a fundamentally flawed strategy as evidenced when Peel spent 17 years trying to do exactly the same things and failing.

Ref Leeds East, it actually isn’t. It’s constrained by the ECML on one end and would struggle to get ILS systems that would be needed as the area is prone to low lying fog. It’s also quite far from the mother network and would need huge investment to connect it up to the A1M/A64.. Plus because LBA is privately owned and undergoing a vast regen scheme the investors are highly unlikely to buy into a close and move proposal!

Humberside without DSA has a catchment of around 2 million that are not in direct competition with EMA and LBA, therefore there is a distinct market to serve. It may be smaller but I know that TUI wanted to move aircraft to HUY when DSA closed but understandably the HUY management weren’t too keen on making the necessary investment knowing that there were calls to reopen DSA before it even closed, seems they were correct to be concerned!

I don’t think you can draw conclusions that the video shows a closed mentality at all. It displays a fundamental understanding of how demand worked then and how it works now is no different, it’s just on a different scale. He was quite correct to question the efficacy of opening an airport at Goole/Thorne Waste in the expectation that people from London and the South East would travel up there to catch their flights. The same principle applies to DSA.

 

[Topological]

The national interest project would be to connect the M1 to the M60/A555 and to provide an upgraded rail link between Sheffield and Manchester.

I suspect the South Yorkshire input would be ensuring that more places had effective access to these links (be that small projects to improve road junctions, or to improve connectivity in Sheffield for rail passengers)

I would suggest that such expenditure would be a much more efficient use of funds than DSA.

 

[AlastairFraser]

I know SY money couldn’t be spent on a nationally significant project, but as has been said countless times on here.. you can throw all the money in the world at something but when it comes to DSA it doesn’t stick. The catchment area is small and fragmented when in the shadow of much bigger competitors. They’re basing their growth forecasts on stemming leakage to MAN, this is a fundamentally flawed strategy as evidenced when Peel spent 17 years trying to do exactly the same things and failing.

Of course you can and I don't dispute that DSA might fail. It may will do - but it's still the right of SY taxpayers to spend their money on it if they want to.

It’s constrained by the ECML on one end

You could still extend the currently active runway to 2.5km without issues with the ECML.

would struggle to get ILS systems that would be needed as the area is prone to low lying fog.

That's a fair point. Hopefully technological improvements can help with these types of weather issues.

It’s also quite far from the mother network and would need huge investment to connect it up to the A1M/A64..

It's closer than Yeadon is to a motorway, you're right that you would need significant investment in road links, but if it could replace DSA and LBA as a Yorkshire International, it would make sense.

Plus because LBA is privately owned and undergoing a vast regen scheme the investors are highly unlikely to buy into a close and move proposal!

I agree that this is unlikely to happen, but if you wanted to stop DSA being appealing, you'd need a more centrally located Yorkshire airport and Leeds East/Elvington are both airfields that have existing proximity to rail and/or are within around an hour's drive of a lot of Yorkshire's population (barring Sheffield/Rotherham for Elvington).

Humberside without DSA has a catchment of around 2 million that are not in direct competition with EMA and LBA, therefore there is a distinct market to serve.

Does it actually have that catchment? It's a good airport, don't get me wrong, but I think it would be difficult to get many people from North Lincs/North East Lincs/Hull/the East Riding to actually travel there. Maybe Ryanair could set up a local Flibco or similar branch to provide cheap transport to the airport, in order to convince north Notts/South Yorkshire people to use it more frequently.

It may be smaller but I know that TUI wanted to move aircraft to HUY when DSA closed but understandably the HUY management weren’t too keen on making the necessary investment knowing that there were calls to reopen DSA before it even closed, seems they were correct to be concerned!

I don't see why the HUY management would reject making the investment to attract TUI - surely there's enough continuous demand for a few extra holiday flights from the roughly 1 million residents of the local authorities I mentioned above.

I don’t think you can draw conclusions that the video shows a closed mentality at all. It displays a fundamental understanding of how demand worked then and how it works now is no different, it’s just on a different scale.

I think demand patterns will change in Yorkshire, but that's just my opinion.

He was quite correct to question the efficacy of opening an airport at Goole/Thorne Waste in the expectation that people from London and the South East would travel up there to catch their flights.

I do think that expecting London and South East passengers to travel up that far is unrealistic, but there's much more local international demand from a much less insular and significantly more wealthy Yorkshire region now than there was in the past.

The same principle applies to DSA.

I will agree to disagree on this one. I think the ECML plans were far flung expectations unlikely to secure the airport's future, but local demand is the cornerstone of any reopening proposal (which may or may not keep it open!).

The national interest project would be to connect the M1 to the M60/A555 and to provide an upgraded rail link between Sheffield and Manchester.

It would be via a Woodhead road/rail tunnel, but, even with tolls, the government will not be able to afford it until 2050 or later.
Electrification and increased line speeds on the Hope Valley should happen in the interim, but that will still require a big chunk of government money, so probably post-2030.

I suspect the South Yorkshire input would be ensuring that more places had effective access to these links (be that small projects to improve road junctions, or to improve connectivity in Sheffield for rail passengers)

If we're honest, a more immediate boost to local connectivity in South Yorks which could use the money today would be an expanded Supertram system with lines in the other boroughs (perhaps Barnsley/Wakefield) + Hillsborough to Stocksbridge as a cheap tram train extension, and lots of transit oriented developments around stops, we can only hope for even Hope Valley electrification post-2030 so local Sheffield rail improvements would have limited utility at the moment with limited capacity around Sheffield on most lines.

Or DSA could use it.

 

[daodao]

@AlastairFraser

Doncaster City councillors recently voted 38-14 in favour of a motion of no confidence in the city's mayor Ros Jones over the foolish plan to try to reopen DSA. Unfortunately, the vote was purely symbolic because of the powers granted to elected mayors. I suspect that most local taxpayers don't support this boondoggle, but Ros Jones scraped back in as the city's mayor at the election a few months ago.

 

[pug1]

@AlastairFraser you can’t put ILS systems so close to a main railway line. Imagine the interference every time a train passes!

Why would Humberside reject them? Because they would need to make investment into the facilities, the chances are they wanted to fly from there paying the same amount they did at DSA, plus with the risk of DSA reopening and once again stealing the business it doesn’t make much sense does it! They do still fly from Humberside and the flights are seeing high load factors (as they were when DSA was open) so the catchment area can support it. It’s just that added competition down the road is unhelpful.

Interested to know why you think the Yorkshire travel patterns will change. You do realise it’s the airlines that drive this don’t you? Peel clearly stated when they closed DSA that the market had evolved in such a way that DSA wasn’t required, this is purely a factor of the airlines going where they feel they’ll fill the aircraft. Humberside exists and has facilities to handle passenger flights, it still serves as an option for people in Doncaster and the Humber region/Lincolnshire. It’s effectively serving the same catchment area that’s uncontested. You won’t surely get a load of people from Sheffield using DSA just because it’s there, they already use Manchester because of the choice on offer there, this wont change.

 

[zwk500]

@AlastairFraser you can’t put ILS systems so close to a main railway line. Imagine the interference every time a train passes!

Does Gatwick not have ILS on 26L?

 

[mpthomson]

If using taxpayer funds to prop it up has the support of the majority of Doncaster taxpayers, then sure. Unfortunately, this is the downside of democracy, sometimes financially unsound decisions are made using poor quality evidence in support (such as e.g. a recent large painted bus with a promise towards a certain health service ).

How do you improve rail access to Manchester Airport from the S Yorks end by spending ringfenced S Yorks money?
The most useful link for most of S Yorks' population in terms of travel to MAN would be a rail or tram link Stockport to Man Airport, but you can't really use ringfenced South Yorks money for that.
I suppose you could also consider an hourly airport link coach from Doncaster to Man Airport via Rotherham and Sheffield, but it would need to make a big diversion via the M1 and M62 to be reasonably reliable, or gamble on the availability of the poor quality A628/A57 routes across the Peak.

Much of the funding isn't from South Yorkshire/ Doncaster taxpayers, it's from Gainshare funding, which comes from national general taxation.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2025 ==

It's quite close to several motorways, very close to several mainline railways and the terrain is flat.
I know it's in a picturesque area, but it is the closest all weather airfield to the centres of population (unless I've missed one further west).

Fair enough. I don't think there's enough flat land for it anyway, so it could never happen.

Leeds East has exactly the same issues as DSA in terms of catchment, it's in the middle of nowhere with nothing at all to the east or north (other than York, from which access to LBA is easy and mostly light in terms of traffic) of it in terms of population. LBA has significant catchment populations further west, including into North Lancashire and South Cumbria as well as East Lancashire. All that would be lost and replaced by a catchment of arable fields and a few sheep and cows to the east, causing the same demand problems that DSA has always had. Anyone from Hull/ Grimsby would still use Humberside as it's far easier to access. LBA also sits on one of the main arterial A road routes into Bradford, and close to one of the main arterial routes into Leeds (about 2 miles away).

And we've been through this, Leeds East is nowhere near a motorway. It's at least 10 miles from the A1 in road terms without any direct road link, further from any others, down winding and rural B roads with a river crossing in an area very prone to flooding. It's nearly 5 miles from even an A road through small villages with traffic calming measures... And the railway where the station runs to the other side of the village from the airport. If you think LBA is poorly located in terms of transport links, Church Fenton is much worse.

 

[ainsworth74]

I do think that expecting London and South East passengers to travel up that far is unrealistic, but there's much more local international demand from a much less insular and significantly more wealthy Yorkshire region now than there was in the past.

More so in the three years since DSA closed the first time? I'm not entirely sure that the market has changed that fundamentally in three years!

 

[pitdiver]

Pardon my ignorance but the £160 million that's been quoted is that just to reopen or to cover the running costs. Does anybody know what's got to be done before it reopen?
I live halfway between DSA and EMA. If DSA does reopen and IF any of the budget airlines do go there I may use it as according to Google maps it's quicker to get there from where I live than it is to get to EMA.

 

[mpthomson]

More so in the three years since DSA closed the first time? I'm not entirely sure that the market has changed that fundamentally in three years!

There's still little (if any) demand not already covered by other airports. Noone is going to be flying scheduled long haul from a re-opened DSA, it would appear to be hard enough to convince airlines to try short haul bucket and spade flights from there again let alone anything else.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2025 ==

Pardon my ignorance but the £160 million that's been quoted is that just to reopen or to cover the running costs. Does anybody know what's got to be done before it reopen?
I live halfway between DSA and EMA. If DSA does reopen and IF any of the budget airlines do go there I may use it as according to Google maps it's quicker to get there from where I live than it is to get to EMA.

It currently has no airspace, no radar, no runway/taxiway lighting, the taxiways and runways will need an awful lot of work as they haven't been touched for five years, the terminal has no modern security or check in equipment, there are no trained ATC personnel (and there's already a national shortage of these) or up to date kit, there is no trained fire service and no fire kit suitable for a commercial airport even if the people existed. It needs an awful lot of work to get it back to anything like an operational standard and many of these things have long lead times (airspace 12mths at least, radar has been quoted as 18mths). As it stands the main budget players appear to have no interest in it.

£160mn is not a lot of money in reality when you understand that to get a pre-existing runway at Gatwick back into use is budgeted at £2.2bn (accepting that the works required are different).

 

[ainsworth74]

There's still little (if any) demand not already covered by other airports. Noone is going to be flying scheduled long haul from a re-opened DSA, it would appear to be hard enough to convince airlines to try short haul bucket and spade flights from there again let alone anything else.

Oh absolutely agreed! I just found it amusing the suggestion that the market might have shifted in three years at all.

 

[mpthomson]

Oh absolutely agreed! I just found it amusing the suggestion that the market might have shifted in three years at all.

Forum needs a 'like' button!

 

[Tetchytyke]

£160mn is not a lot of money in reality when you understand that to get a pre-existing runway at Gatwick back into use is budgeted at £2.2bn (accepting that the works required are different).

It's essentially a whole new construction at Gatwick, though. The issue at Gatwick is that the second runway isn't far enough away from the main runway, so they can't both be used together. So they're moving the second runway further out.

More so in the three years since DSA closed the first time? I'm not entirely sure that the market has changed that fundamentally in three years!

DSA's issue has always been location. Not only is it out in the sticks, it is at completely the wrong side of the South Yorkshire conurbation compared to where the population is. For most people in South Yorkshire it will be at least a 45 minute drive to get there.

Once you've had to get into your car and drive for 45 minutes then lots of different airports all come into play and you can shop around for the best price/choice of destination/flight times etc.

There clearly is demand in South Yorkshire, the issue really is whether DSA is capable of fulfilling it. I'm not convinced it is, purely because of DSA's location. It's a shame Sheffield City didn't have a bigger footprint; that airport was in the right location but it was useless because the A320 and B737 jets couldn't use it.

Some people keep going on about East Leeds as being a better location for an airport than LBA, but the same issue applies there. It's simply too far out of the West Yorkshire conurbation for it to ever be a realistic option.

LBA has its own access issues but LBA's access issues are largely because it is right in the middle of the urban area. This means slow 30mph roads to get to it but it also means that lots of people live very close to it.

 

[mpthomson]

It's essentially a whole new construction at Gatwick, though. The issue at Gatwick is that the second runway isn't far enough away from the main runway, so they can't both be used together. So they're moving the second runway further out.


DSA's issue has always been location. Not only is it out in the sticks, it is at completely the wrong side of the South Yorkshire conurbation compared to where the population is. For most people in South Yorkshire it will be at least a 45 minute drive to get there.

Once you've had to get into your car and drive for 45 minutes then lots of different airports all come into play and you can shop around for the best price/choice of destination/flight times etc.

There clearly is demand in South Yorkshire, the issue really is whether DSA is capable of fulfilling it. I'm not convinced it is, purely because of DSA's location. It's a shame Sheffield City didn't have a bigger footprint; that airport was in the right location but it was useless because the A320 and B737 jets couldn't use it.

Some people keep going on about East Leeds as being a better location for an airport than LBA, but the same issue applies there. It's simply too far out of the West Yorkshire conurbation for it to ever be a realistic option.

LBA has its own access issues but LBA's access issues are largely because it is right in the middle of the urban area. This means slow 30mph roads to get to it but it also means that lots of people live very close to it.

DSA's catchment population is 2.2mn compared to about 8mn for LBA, which neatly encapsulates the difference. As above LBA also serves people from South Cumbria, North and East Lancs and a big chunk of North Yorkshire as well as West Yorks.

 

[Tetchytyke]

DSA's catchment population is 2.2mn compared to about 8mn for LBA, which neatly encapsulates the difference.

I'm somewhat sceptical of that figure for LBA, if I'm being completely honest. It sounds a bit inflated.

LBA is convenient for people to the north of the airport, from the A1 to Pool (A59, A658) they are fast roads. I could do it by road from Durham in 90 minutes. It could take me 45-60 minutes to get to Newcastle. It's a similar story from Teesside.

But I can't see a world in which people from places like Kendal or Burnley would choose LBA over either Manchester or Liverpool. The roads across the Pennines aren't good at all. It's similar for people from the south-west of West Yorkshire (Huddersfield, etc). I have family in north Halifax and LBA was always annoying to get to because it involved getting across Bradford on 30mph roads. From Huddersfield, Manchester would be the obvious choice.

But yes, DSA's main catchment area is South Yorkshire yet it simply isn't convenient for most of that area.

 

[pug1]

Does Gatwick not have ILS on 26L?

Yes but the aiming point (which is how the ILS is calibrated in line with the PAPI) is well over 1 KM away from the railway line. The suggestion appeared to be to extend the main runway at Leeds East, the ECML is already 1km away from the aiming point RWY 24 at Leeds East so any further extension could preclude the effectiveness of a full CAT3 landing system. Realistically in a world where Leeds East is used as Yorkshires primary airport (other posts have explained why it’s absolutely not a good location anyway) then the only way to extend the runway would be to extend the 24 end which would bring it within very close proximity to the ECML which I understand is a high speed part of the line.

 

[mpthomson]

I'm somewhat sceptical of that figure for LBA, if I'm being completely honest. It sounds a bit inflated.

LBA is convenient for people to the north of the airport, from the A1 to Pool (A59, A658) they are fast roads. I could do it by road from Durham in 90 minutes. It could take me 45-60 minutes to get to Newcastle. It's a similar story from Teesside.

But I can't see a world in which people from places like Kendal or Burnley would choose LBA over either Manchester or Liverpool. The roads across the Pennines aren't good at all. It's similar for people from the south-west of West Yorkshire (Huddersfield, etc). I have family in north Halifax and LBA was always annoying to get to because it involved getting across Bradford on 30mph roads. From Huddersfield, Manchester would be the obvious choice.

But yes, DSA's main catchment area is South Yorkshire yet it simply isn't convenient for most of that area.

I lived near Kendal for years, we always used LBA as did most people locally.

 

[BrianW]

I'm not entirely sure that the market has changed that fundamentally in three years!

Nor, does it seem,the pigheaded parochialism of the People's Republic of South Yorkshire.

Where are the pits now, or the steel works? What is Sheffield for, or Doncaster- which at least has 5tph to London

This is 2025, not 1975; that was half a century ago.

 

[pug1]

I'm somewhat sceptical of that figure for LBA, if I'm being completely honest. It sounds a bit inflated.

LBA is convenient for people to the north of the airport, from the A1 to Pool (A59, A658) they are fast roads. I could do it by road from Durham in 90 minutes. It could take me 45-60 minutes to get to Newcastle. It's a similar story from Teesside.

But I can't see a world in which people from places like Kendal or Burnley would choose LBA over either Manchester or Liverpool. The roads across the Pennines aren't good at all. It's similar for people from the south-west of West Yorkshire (Huddersfield, etc). I have family in north Halifax and LBA was always annoying to get to because it involved getting across Bradford on 30mph roads. From Huddersfield, Manchester would be the obvious choice.

But yes, DSA's main catchment area is South Yorkshire yet it simply isn't convenient for most of that area.

Think it’s easier to look at core catchment areas. Given travel patterns you could say all airports on the M62 corridor serve the same catchment area and that’s obviously patently false.

Leeds/Bradford or the West Yorkshire conurbation is the largest in Yorkshire and if you include the wealthy parts of North Yorkshire like Harrogate which is very close to LBA you’re looking at around 2.5 million people. That’s attractive to airlines.

In the case of DSA which purports to serve South Yorkshire then its catchment area is rough 1.4 million.

Look to the south and East Midlands has an immediate population taking into account Nottingham Derby and Leicester of around 2.2 million, but because it’s on the M1 it has reach as far down as Northampton and up to Sheffield which you could also call a core market within an hours drive.

With that in mind which airports are you as an airline likely to choose?

 

[Tetchytyke]

I lived near Kendal for years, we always used LBA as did most people locally.

Rather you than me! The thought of the A65 would finish me off after a flight, especially in the summer months. Last time I drove that way it took me over two hours from LBA to Lancaster. I'd much rather use Liverpool if I was in that part of the world.

With that in mind which airports are you as an airline likely to choose?

Airline choices aren't always either/or, as we see with Jet2 opening a base at Liverpool despite already having a large base at Manchester. There's no reason why an airport in South Yorkshire couldn't co-exist with an airport in West Yorkshire. Liverpool (Merseyside being about 1.4m people, but with much more inbound tourism than West or South Yorkshire) and Manchester co-exist successfully despite their catchment areas, for the most part, completely overlapping.

That's not to say I don't think DSA is anything other than a basket case. It's in completely the wrong location for the market it is trying to serve.

 

[pug1]

Rather you than me! The thought of the A65 would finish me off after a flight, especially in the summer months. Last time I drove that way it took me over two hours from LBA to Lancaster. I'd much rather use Liverpool if I was in that part of the world.


Airline choices aren't always either/or, as we see with Jet2 opening a base at Liverpool despite already having a large base at Manchester. There's no reason why an airport in South Yorkshire couldn't co-exist with an airport in West Yorkshire. Liverpool (Merseyside being about 1.4m people, but with much more inbound tourism than West or South Yorkshire) and Manchester co-exist successfully despite their catchment areas, for the most part, completely overlapping.

That's not to say I don't think DSA is anything other than a basket case. It's in completely the wrong location for the market it is trying to serve.

I can almost guarantee it that Jet2 do not see DSA the same as LPL/MAN. The North West is the largest (by quite some margin) aviation market in the U.K. outside of the South East. Stands to reason then that LPL and MAN can coexist. The LPL base was years in the making by the way, it wasn’t just a last minute decision. Don’t forget that Jet2 once had a base at BLK which complimented Manchester.

Sheffield and Liverpool are worlds apart in terms of propensity to fly unfortunately.

 

[BrianW]

I can almost guarantee it that Jet2 do not see DSA the same as LPL/MAN. The North West is the largest (by quite some margin) aviation market in the U.K. outside of the South East. Stands to reason then that LPL and MAN can coexist. The LPL base was years in the making by the way, it wasn’t just a last minute decision. Don’t forget that Jet2 once had a base at BLK which complimented Manchester.

Sheffield and Liverpool are worlds apart in terms of propensity to fly unfortunately.

Blackpool- gateway to the North West?

 

[pug1]

Blackpool- gateway to the North West?

Gateway to the Costa Blanca in the case of Jet2 actually. Jet2 are all about outbound holiday markers not inbound tourism.

 

[Killingworth]

It would be via a Woodhead road/rail tunnel, but, even with tolls, the government will not be able to afford it until 2050 or later.
Electrification and increased line speeds on the Hope Valley should happen in the interim, but that will still require a big chunk of government money, so probably post-2030.

If we're honest, a more immediate boost to local connectivity in South Yorks which could use the money today would be an expanded Supertram system with lines in the other boroughs (perhaps Barnsley/Wakefield) + Hillsborough to Stocksbridge as a cheap tram train extension, and lots of transit oriented developments around stops, we can only hope for even Hope Valley electrification post-2030 so local Sheffield rail improvements would have limited utility at the moment with limited capacity around Sheffield on most lines.

Or DSA could use it.

Increased line speeds on the Hope Valley were in the original plans for the recently completed work. The local geology is too unstable to do it at reasonable cost. Note the way the old A6187 road under Mam Tor collapsed and the evident slippages along both the Hope and Edale valleys. It can be done, but value for money tests failed. Resignalling may be able to cut a few minutes, and maybe creating a passenger overtaking loop at Earles Sidings or adding bi-directional sections, but this is a subject for another thread.

Certainly post 2030 for full electrification, post 2040 in all probability. Battery electric bi-modes are more likely.

It's around Sheffield and into Manchester from Stockport that's the biggest difficulty.

Heathrow is probably the second most used airport from Sheffield - range and number of flights.

 

[YorkRailFan]

Fundamentally, it's tribalism. A lot of people in the Doncaster area dislike the Leeds area (I won't go too much into what some parts of Yorkshire think of Bradford!), and if a local airport with a few flights is all they want (and funding can be leveraged to pay for it), let them!

Regarding "tribalism", yes, lots of people in Yorkshire don't like Leeds or Bradford but the numbers show that people are willing to put that aside to hop on a flight abroad. Doncaster does not need an airport because of so-called tribalism.

Regarding connecting South Yorkshire to Manchester, ideally you'd have a body like Transport for the North funding schemes to allow better access and have the respect Combined Authorities in the area contribute the appropriate amount for these projects. A better use case of taxpayer money for those in South Yorkshire.

For how many people in South Yorkshire is this airport their main priorities? Issues like housing, cost of living, etc, will be far more apparent for those in South Yorkshire and probably be viewed as better use cases for their taxpayer money.

LBA is constrained for expansion due to its location, but its location is well-suited to those traveling across the North to get there. The main thing LBA leaves to be desired is a suitable rail link. It acts as a suitable alternative to Manchester for short-haul leisure flights. Leeds East and DSA both have terrible locations for travel. LBA has a core market base, unlike DSA.

 

[pug1]

Regarding "tribalism", yes, lots of people in Yorkshire don't like Leeds or Bradford but the numbers show that people are willing to put that aside to hop on a flight abroad. Doncaster does not need an airport because of so-called tribalism.

Regarding connecting South Yorkshire to Manchester, ideally you'd have a body like Transport for the North funding schemes to allow better access and have the respect Combined Authorities in the area contribute the appropriate amount for these projects. A better use case of taxpayer money for those in South Yorkshire.

For how many people in South Yorkshire is this airport their main priorities? Issues like housing, cost of living, etc, will be far more apparent for those in South Yorkshire and probably be viewed as better use cases for their taxpayer money.

LBA is constrained for expansion due to its location, but its location is well-suited to those traveling across the North to get there. The main thing LBA leaves to be desired is a suitable rail link. It acts as a suitable alternative to Manchester for short-haul leisure flights. Leeds East and DSA both have terrible locations for travel. LBA has a core market base, unlike DSA.

I’d be surprised if it’s much of an issue outside of a core vocal minority in Doncaster.

People liked using the airport, people liked working there. Yet they claim it was badly managed. An award winning airport that is loved by staff and passengers alike does not scream mismanagement does it.

 

[Killingworth]

For how many people in South Yorkshire is this airport their main priorities? Issues like housing, cost of living, etc, will be far more apparent for those in South Yorkshire and probably be viewed as better use cases for their taxpayer money.

LBA is constrained for expansion due to its location, but its location is well-suited to those traveling across the North to get there. The main thing LBA leaves to be desired is a suitable rail link. It acts as a suitable alternative to Manchester for short-haul leisure flights. Leeds East and DSA both have terrible locations for travel. LBA has a core market base, unlike DSA.

This is a Rail Forum so it's self defining that members will tend to favour rail solutions.

Surprising though it may seem a significant proportion of our fellow citizens rarely think of anything other than a personal vehicle to travel anywhere, their second choice a cab/taxi. Thomas the Tank Engine passed them by, trainspotters in anoraks are their perception of rail enthusiasts. In the London commuting area with more frequent trains that perception is different but it's certainly the one I encounter in the north.

Expenditure on HS2 is looked on with horror. More to come on Northern Power House Rail is heading the same way. Having watched it take 30 years to finally achieve some modest improvements to the Hope Valley line with no improvements to passenger services (at a supposed cost of £140m but probably nearer £200m*) I can understand the feeling of many that railways get too much of the cake. Value for money is not a given.

Which makes the enthusiasm for subsidising air travel by reviving a failed holiday airport over better housing and welfare a curious choice of priorities. But that's human nature.

* That project created hundreds of jobs over 2-3 years, almost every mile travelled by every worker from around the country by road.

 

[mpthomson]

Rather you than me! The thought of the A65 would finish me off after a flight, especially in the summer months. Last time I drove that way it took me over two hours from LBA to Lancaster. I'd much rather use Liverpool if I was in that part of the world.


Airline choices aren't always either/or, as we see with Jet2 opening a base at Liverpool despite already having a large base at Manchester. There's no reason why an airport in South Yorkshire couldn't co-exist with an airport in West Yorkshire. Liverpool (Merseyside being about 1.4m people, but with much more inbound tourism than West or South Yorkshire) and Manchester co-exist successfully despite their catchment areas, for the most part, completely overlapping.

That's not to say I don't think DSA is anything other than a basket case. It's in completely the wrong location for the market it is trying to serve.

LPL takes in large chunks of north Wales that MAN doesn't.

 

[IanXC]

Why would Humberside reject them? Because they would need to make investment into the facilities, the chances are they wanted to fly from there paying the same amount they did at DSA, plus with the risk of DSA reopening and once again stealing the business it doesn’t make much sense does it! They do still fly from Humberside and the flights are seeing high load factors (as they were when DSA was open) so the catchment area can support it. It’s just that added competition down the road is unhelpful.

I suppose there is an interesting side question of whether, if DSA is finally put to bed, Humberside see a case for some modest investment to attract more passenger flights.

 

[pug1]

I suppose there is an interesting side question of whether, if DSA is finally put to bed, Humberside see a case for some modest investment to attract more passenger flights.

I think that would be the sensible solution. I’m convinced that in a scenario where DSA didn’t reopen then a buyout by a regional airport operator like RCA would be a possibility. The airport is profitable and with some very modest investment relative to the cost of reopening DSA, there could be an attractive airport for people in the Humberside, Lincolnshire and Doncaster area. It’s got around 2million people within a 60 minute drive, vast majority of those are actually within 45 minutes. It’s far enough away from the competition to offer a USP and it wouldn’t need millions of passengers using it just to break even.