Just stumbled on this :
https://simpleflying.com/doncaster-sheffield-airport-petition/
Doncaster could close in October, due to lack of revenue.
Seems a bit abrupt, doesn’t it ?
Jujupilote wrote:
Just stumbled on this :
https://simpleflying.com/doncaster-sheffield-airport-petition/Doncaster could close in October, due to lack of revenue.
Seems a bit abrupt, doesn’t it ?
Been there in July – it looked half-empty. The feeling was that there was the same amount of staff as passengers…
I think they’ve lost a few flights plus covid.
The “Vulcan in the Sky” people are there too and looking for a new home. This would set a pretty bad example for such an airport. Again, the infrastructure thought is not there…. does a country road have to generate revenue? Clearly, you don’t need all of the fancy stuff to run it as “just” an aerodrome with the renters and so on.
A lot of people said that parking the Vulcan at Doncaster was a bad idea, and it turns out they were right.
How long will its swathe of controlled airspace remain, I wonder?
It could be a good GA facility with the staff numbers set appropriately (e.g. with perhaps 3 full time staff).
The owners are the Peel Group, a massive investor in property and infrastructure like Ports, urban regeneration such as Media City and Glasgow Harbour, and millions of square feet of property investments.
The land at Finningley is too valuable to be left as a flying club airfield.
There used to be a big Cessna service centre there but it closed a couple of years ago.
Neil wrote:
The land at Finningley is too valuable to be left as a flying club airfield.
That can be argued about any GA airfield, except ones in really remote areas. Unfortunately with airfields not being treated as infrastructure, an airfield that could have been useful for GA up to and including jets (reasonably close to the city it serves) is just going to go away.
I’m well aware of Peel Holdings. I can see the Peel Holdings boss’s house from my back garden. He is (or was, I’ve not seen it recently) a big GA user, flying a very large Sikorsky helicopter from his house.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-63033676
“Doncaster Sheffield Airport to close despite financial lifeline offer”
“Peel Group said services at the airport, which employs 800 workers, would wind down from 31 October”
“The intractable problem remains the fundamental and insufficient lack of current or prospective revenue streams, together with the airport’s high operating costs”
The Big Q is how they managed to accrete 800 employees…
Peter wrote:
The Big Q is how they managed to accrete 800 employees…
Did you notice the other day at LICR security employees, handlers, marshalers, refuellers, firemen, customs officers, a dozen of police officers, check-ins, desks, cleaning people plus who knows hoy many in administration. I counted at least 40 people moving around at ground floor of the airport with 2 to 4 commercial flight a day in the middle of nowhere.