Sheffield Airport again and again and again.

[cesspit]

The airport with no news, seems to have some news.

I have heard from 2 sources that the CAA has given the OK to single engined ops into the airport, and the go ahead is likely to happen in a number of weeks rather than months.

The main objector is the City Council (why I don't know).

But the future of the airport still doesn't look good. The body tasked with some of the re-generation of the city is still talking about plans for the site WHEN (not if) the airport closes after its 10 year period of operation is up. Pie-eyed schemes that they have kicked about is maintaing a heliport on the site. Rather daftly they have visions of all those businessmen swooping in, in their helicopters...do they know the hourly rate for a Jetranger? Guess not! I'll just take the Jag.

Long live SE at EGSY.

[MerchantVenturer]

What is the location relative to the city of Sheffield Airport? What is its runway length and infrastructure and what was its best year in pax terms?

If the airport does close Sheffield must be the biggest city in the UK by some margin not to have an airport. I presume the problem is the existing airports at Manchester and Leeds/Bradford with no scope for another in this area.

[AOG-YYZ]

MV wrote: "Sheffield must be the biggest city in the UK not to have an airport"

Maybe so but I think Liverpool is the only major city in Europe without an air link to it's national capital, or a decent rail link for that matter.

[cesspit]

1211m r/w, single modern terminal building & tower, very good road access, especially to the M1 & the city. NDB remains, ILS, ATC, & CAT 4 fire cover all gone. Just CAT 1 & A/G service.

The airport is a couple of miles east of the city centre.

Sheffield was the largest city in EUROPE not to have an airport.

At one time it was served by KLMuk, British Regional, Aer Arran & Sabena. Some services of rather questionable success, although the KLM service did have very, very good load figures.

Why is the place now as it is?

This has already been covered on this forum, but reasons range from bad luck to poor management to too much competition and so on.

[frb98mf]

I think you may find it's an interesting example of intentional bad management, ifnancial planning and design. This is the story as I've heard from locals, council members etc...

The city council have historically been so staunchly socialist that they spent the 60s, 70s and 80s actively discouraging business from settling in Sheffield, banking instead on manufacturing as the way to help the proletariat. Then with the collapse of steel and coal in the 80s, they were obviously a little stymied. So that's why there was historically no demand for an airport.

Add to that the bizarre beginnings of the airport - the company meant to develop it had a deal that it could exploit the coal-mines underneath, and when it was finished, would put an airport on the surface. Then the day the coal ran out they conveniently went belly-up.

The new company set up did put a runway down - that was 1 metre too short for consideration for larger category planes, and a couple of hundred short of small jet requirements even though there's plenty of space. Then they took advantage of the tax rules around airport business parks to make a killing, then at some point Peel came in, and have not exactly pushed the issue because they're developing Finningley a few miles up the road, which they somewhat optimistically think will be an intercontinental gateway, and hardly want to foster the local competition.

All of which screws the residents of Sheffield, and those businesses that are there or would like to be, and struggle because of the lack of good connections - the rail link to London takes 2 1/2 hours to go 180 miles, whilst London to York on GNER, 250 miles, is 2 hours.

Branson offered to take over the Midland rail line and spend 1.85 billion to upgrade it so Sheffield would be 1 hour away from London, with spur lines to Manchester and Birmingham, then linking to both east and west coast lines at Leeds - this would have saved the huge cost of upgrading a lot of track elsewhere and might have allowed a reduction in domestic flights as has happened in France and Germany. Naturally, the government said no.

[Chillwinston]

Shame that Shefield City Airport has not had the backing of the council and airport operator, the catchment area is considerable and I believe when the Rail strike was ongoing an operator ran a London route (Unsure of which airport?), the route seemed popular, just a shame the key players never developed routes into and out of the airport.

As mentioned by others the airport is situated close to the city centre and the "Meadow Hall" shopping area and has excellent links via the road network.

Hope they finally "Pull there finger out" and make something good of a regional airport with the potential to excel

[MD11FAN]

I recently saw an advert for one of those car supermarkets with the building looking stangely similar to the former terminal building. Can anyone local confirm this?
Regarding future of airport, imho it was doomed from day one..runway was not long enough to handle both holiday flights and a/c capable of flying scheduled routes further than Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam.

Matt

[frb98mf]

Last time I looked, the terminal was still there, doing a roaring trade in mothballs. There are a couple of car supermarkets nearby, constructed by the same people hence probably quite similar.

If they'd have planned the airport with any intention of actually using it (many believe the whole thing was a cynical ploy by the council and the former and/or current owners), they could have put a Supertram link in, goods lines run right by the perimeter joining at either end to the lines into Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster etc, made the runway 200m longer and had a really decent regional airport serving some key European and UK cities plus sunny-side charters.

[WHBM]

I believe when the Rail strike was ongoing an operator ran a London route (Unsure of which airport?)

It was operated by London Executive to London City, with a light twin. Can't remember the type (someone here will remember, though), but I recall a brief item on the TV news at the time. It didn't last.

Was there also not an earlier attempt on this route by BA/British Regional with a Jetstream, which didn't last either?

[LGWAlan]

I alsoe recall a J41 SZD-LCY twice daily service with a BHD slot at lunchtime???

[Legs11]

Sheffield to London City started as 3 a day rotation with a J41 by British Regional. The morning and evening trips proved very popular (if a little expensive 'bout £200 i think), however the lunchtime invariably ran either empty or with only 1 or 2 pax. :O

Because of the loss made at lunchtime and a refusal to only fly 2 rotations - apparently industry looks poorly on such an idea, :rolleyes:, the route was dropped. Belfast continued unaffected, twice a day with Dublin inbetween :cool:.

Then during the rail strike, as mentioned, London Executive ran a B]PA31[/B] schedule which in reality was adhoc :confused: as it only flew when enough bookings were received to make it profitable.

The then MD - Jon Horne (now at Cardiff) - tried numerous ways of encouraging traffic to use SZD, but IMHO was always fighting against a lack of support from the board/owners/backers who I suggest only ever had the land itself (which is available in 4 more years - by the way) at the heart of their interest :} .

The people of South Yorks have been badly mistreated by Tinsley Park PLC, and I only hope that now Finningley has had the go, that Peel will do the decent thing :eek: .

[cesspit]

A local Sheffield rag printed a story on the approval of Finningley Airport, they also approach the manager of Sheffield Airport who said that the development at Doncaster would not affect Sheffield Airport.

He is probably right, Peel's plans seem to have always been to close the airport once its contractual time is up, now that Finningley is go, this will not affect Sheffield Airport's future, as it was always destined to close once Peel moved in.

The sign over the terminal building now reads 'Business Centre'.
That says a lot about the future.

[AOG-YYZ]

If I remember correctly Liverpool once had the same fears about Peel and it's intentions. I believe Liverpool thought that Peel would turn Liverpool Airport into a shopping mall. Hopefully your fears for Sheffield are unfounded.