Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Re-opening a "challenge" says Simon Calder as climate group blasts lease

Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones yesterday announced that the authority has secured a lease with Peel over the airport which closed in November 2022 – with talks ongoing to find an operator.

But Mr Calder, travel correspondent for The Independent has reported that the re-opening could be challenging – while climate charity Possible has criticised the move.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Calder said: “Written off in 2022 as a hopeless cause and a complete waste of space.

“No, not me: Doncaster Sheffield Airport, where flying ended 16 months ago.

“Yet the South Yorkshire gateway may be resurrected. Doncaster Council has signed a 125-year lease to revive it.”

In a report on the deal he said DSA “could stage a remarkable return to active aviation” and blasted then-Prime Minister Liz Truss who vowed to protect the airport “but took no actual steps to save it.”

He added: “It is not clear which airport operator might be interested in running DSA. Manchester Airports Group, which owns Stansted and East Midlands as well as Manchester, is unlikely to become involved in a project that could dilute its existing business.

“The aviation schedule analyst, Sean Moulton, said the new operator would find it “tough” to bring airlines into a revived Doncaster Sheffield airport and to make it profitable.

“It wasn’t successful under previous ownership, and with airlines appearing to consolidate at larger airports, it’ll be a challenge.”

Doncaster Sheffield has four competing airports within an hour’s drive. It is 28 miles from Humberside, 38 miles from Leeds Bradford, 46 miles from East Midlands and 53 miles from Manchester.

At the time of the closure announcement, Mr Calder, a hugely respected figure in the UK travel industry, said: “Unfortunately, I fear the local authorities may conclude the world can do without Doncaster Sheffield Airport. It’s a shame, it’s an airport I’m very fond of.”

"Airports are all about scale,” he said. “It costs a fortune to keep them running – firefighters, security staff, all sorts of people are required even if you’ve only got one flight a day.

"And so therefore airports which have a hundred flights a day are much more secure.

"It appears that the the UK, particularly Northern England has too much aviation capacity, which of course we saw a few years back when Blackpool Airport in the north west shut down.”

Meanwhile, a climate charity has criticsed the decision.

Leo Murray, co-director of climate charity Possible said: “We can’t reopen airports in a climate crisis.

“The reality is that the only way to bring emissions from aviation in line with our climate targets is by taking fewer flights. The good news is that just 15% of us take 70% of all flights, so we just need those of us who take most flights to fly a bit less.

“Given half of us don’t even fly in any given year, the people of Doncaster would be much better served by investment in local transport links rather than an airport which will blight us all with climate chaos.”