Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Latest blow for owner Peel after Sheffield and Teesside problems

The announcement by operator Peel that is potentially considering closing Doncaster Sheffield Airport will have come as a huge shock to many.
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Politicians, members of the public and unions are all campaigning for the airport to be saved, with more than 20,000 signing petitions in a matter of hours since the bombshell news.

But the company has a long and chequered history with airport operations in the UK, owning a number of bases as part of its vast commercial property empire.

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Sheffield City Airport and Teesside International Airport were among its portfolio – but issues at both are now reminiscent of the problems being faced at Doncaster following financial pressures brought on by the Covid pandemic and departure of Wizz Air.

The short lived Sheffield City Airport.The short lived Sheffield City Airport.
The short lived Sheffield City Airport.

Here we take a look back at Peel’s somewhat turbulent and bumpy ride in the UK airport sector.

With assets of more than £2.3 billion, The Peel Group has interests in some of the UK’s best known buildings.

Headquartered in Manchester, it has stakes in MediaCity UK, the television production empire in the city and was also behind the sprawling shopping complex, The Trafford Centre which opened in 1998.

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It has also invested heavily in airports with Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport as well as Doncaster, Sheffield CIty and Teesside all featuring in its business dealings at one time or another.

Here’s the story of three of those airports.

SHEFFIELD CITY AIRPORT

Situated in the Tinsley area and just off the Parkway leading into Sheffield, the airport opened in a blaze of glory and publicity in 1997.

The short runway airport welcomed airlines such as KLM, Sabena and British Airways with regular passenger services to Belfast, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Jersey and London.

But it opened just as the low-cost airline revolution began in the UK, a change that rapidly made the high-fare short-hop business flights model obsolete.

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Likewise the length of the runway limited the range of aircraft types that could use Sheffield.

Peel, who were shortly to be opening Robin Hood Airport, purchased the site in 2002. By then, the airport terminal interior had already been converted to office accommodation.

It lasted only 11 years and is now a business park.

TEESSIDE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

The aerodrome began life in January 1941 as Royal Air Force Station Middleton St. George but became a civil airport in 1964.

Located between Darlington and Stockton-on-Tees, it originally offered scheduled routes across the UK and Europe and operated throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s with little fanfare.

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However, in 2002 the airport sought a strategic partner to assist with future development and Peel Airports Ltd was selected as the preferred company, taking a 75% stake in the airport, to be increased to 89% after 10 years, with a commitment to invest £20m over the first five years.

Following the departures of bmibaby and Ryanair from the airport, in November 2013, Peel released a master plan titled "Master Plan to 2020 and Beyond", covering the period up to 2050.

Under the master plan, inclusive tour charter flights were axed as unprofitable while a cornerstone of the master plan was a housing estate which aimed to raise up to £30m to be reinvested back into the airport.

This resulted in heavy opposition from the local public who misinterpreted the development as being at the expense of the airport, which had long been the subject of a conspiracy theory claiming the facility was deliberately being run down for closure.

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Then, in December 2018, the Mayor of the Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, announced a £40 million deal had been agreed to buy Peel Airport's 89% majority shareholding in Durham Tees Valley Airport which would bring the airport back into public ownership for the first time since it was sold to Peel in 2003.

Purchasing the airport was Houchen's primary election pledge in his campaign in the 2017 Tees Valley mayoral election.

And in 2019, the plan was unanimously given the go ahead, bringing the airport back under public ownership after 16 years in the private sector.

LIVERPOOL JOHN LENNON

Originally called Speke Airport, the airport was operated by the RAF and known as RAF Speke at the outset of World War II.

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Between 1997 and 2007, the facility was one of Europe's fastest-growing commercial airports, as it saw annual passenger numbers increase from 689,468 to 5.47 million over that period.

In 1990 the airport was privatised, with British Aerospace taking a 76% shareholding in the new company. Subsequently, the airport became a wholly owned subsidiary of Peel Holdings.

In June 2010, Vancouver Airport Services announced that it had reached an agreement with The Peel Group to acquire 65% share in its airports, including Liverpool.

April 2014 saw Peel repurchase the 65% stake it had sold in the airport giving it 100% ownership once more.

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In March 2016, Peel sold a 20% stake in the airport to Liverpool City Council for a reported £12m.

It was renamed after Liverpudlian musician John Lennon of the Beatles in 2001 and is still owned by the Peel Group.