Originally Posted by
ATNotts
I can perfectly well understand the civic pride argument for getting DSA back up and running as a commercial airport but I really struggle to understand what is the overall benefit to Doncaster and the wider area.
No 'jobs are being saved', they would only be being 'created', and I suspect more jobs could be created by turning the site over to logistics, industrial and general commercial use, with perhaps a GA airfield attached.
The former DSA never made money, and likely never would have and unless I am missing something isn't going to.
Couldn't the time of elected representatives and local bureaucrats be better spent on the wider population and their wellbeing?
An airport serving only outbound holiday makers and ad/hoc freight which East Midlands isn’t too interested in does not have a wider economic benefit. I would argue that Humberside probably has a bigger economic impact as it connects the region to the global network via AMS.
I think I mentioned in a previous post that by comparison the Doncaster North business park contributes three times more to annual GVA than DSA is estimated to have done when it was open.
If the airport could be a success then fine, but to suggest Peel had actively deterred business on the whole is wrong and disingenuous but seems to pervade the argument from the groups trying to ‘save’ it. Peel wanted nothing more than it to be successful, they wanted to stop the MAN hegemony of the North and saw DSA as their flagship which would, along with LPL, beat MAG with a big stick.
Serious error of judgement and nothing more. Civic pride aside, unless they have a solid business plan they would be foolish to go down the route of a CPO. It also doesn’t exactly send out a good signal to investors. I don’t agree necessarily with their MO, but Peel have been willing to invest where plethora of others have not.