UK Airports under 1 Million pax p/a

[GrahamK]

Indeed, Newcastle is very small. Whats the total if Sunderland is included btw?
And can we call Carlisle a suburb of Newcastle?

[onion]

I think that to get from Sunderland to Newcastle airport it actually takes longer than if you travel from Sunderland to Durham Tees Valley due to having to go round Newcastle to get to the airport.
In terms of population Newcastle is similar to Middlesbourgh in the way that the populations are relatively small compared to what people actually think they are. I know that Middlesbourgh and Darlington are actually almost the same size in terms of population. The difference occurs when poeple start including towns like Thornaby and Billingham into the Middlesbourgh figure. This happens at Newcastle when people conviently forget that places like Gateshead, North and South Shields are all seperate places.
Regarding the figure for Manchester does that include the City of Salford? Is the City of Manchester really as big as people think!!!

[terrywilcox]

uk airports etc

Onion,to be fair there is Manchester City,and Greater Manchester,which are totally different animals. What about London (outside the city). It is made up of many towns and even cities.

As far as conurbations for airports are concerned,Doncaster and South Yorkshire ( Sheffield,Rotherham and Barnsley) are very similar in some ways to London. Having dense areas of population,and all within easy travelling distance of the airport.

The transport infrastructure around Doncaster is,I believe,unique,and lends itself to massive growth.

Added to that,when the Americans find out from where their ancestors actually came (Pilgrim Fathers and Mayflower country,and the home of John Wesley,founder of Methodism)we will not be short of tourists.

Almost forgot,and how could I,Nottingham,source of the Robin Hood mythology,just 40 odd miles down the road.

[Arbottle]

The stats for city population are misleading as they do not take into account conurbations, and some places (Like Doncaster) are towns that have large defined areas with a lot of other towns in them. If you included the towns around Coventry then you can bolster its population up to 700,000 no problem.

Anyone who thinks Manchester is smaller than Sheffield is a fool - Manchester is the centre of a huge conurbation of 2,000,000 people or possibly more. Sheffield's conurbation is much smaller, and Nottingham & Leicester are both joined to large towns that are NOT included as part of their city count.

Nottingham's urban conurbation is much larger than Doncaster's, and so is Leicester's.

[jabird]

"A good indicator of measuring success rate is on the average passenger per flight ratio. Using the CAA figures, DSA is up there with the big boys at an average of 109 per flight, and ahead of the next in the (said topic) list, MME (86)."

DSA and CVT are slightly skewed by just having 737 base operators. BHX has lots of regional jets and turboprops, but I don't think is any lesser an airport because of it. CVT's growth has been stunted (or some could argue boosted) to some extent by the fuss over its terminal, so this should move forward once the new permanent facility is built.

Terry, I'm not sure if this US connection is really going to be that significant - if it was, wouldn't there be large numbers there already? Much as though I want to encourage inbound visitors, I would expect the majority of pax at DSA to be heading out on holiday to sunnier climes.

[MrDearne]

Nottingham's urban conurbation is much larger than Doncaster's

Arbottle

I totally agree, Greater Nottingham (613,000) greatly exceeds Doncaster's population by over 300,000.
As autonomous cities go, Sheffield has in fact a larger population than Manchester, and Doncaster is larger than Nottingham.
Conurbation wise (a network of continuous urban areas), I think there are about 10 autonomous councils that form Greater Manchester, 4 that contribute to Greater Nottingham, 3 contribute to Sheffield and just the one that forms Doncaster. So yes, in that respect Manchester is greatly superior to Sheffield, and Doncaster is pretty much the infant.

Back to the initial point, however, DSA, in a regional context, is served very well in terms of population (Doncaster, Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Chesterfield, Bassetlaw) much the same way NEMA is (Nottingham, Derby, Leicester). If airport pull is determined by local population then DSA has the edge over the others in the list.
However, if that was the case then shouldn't LBA be one of the leading UK airports. Whichever way you look at it, conurbation or autonomous wise, Leeds/Bradford is a hugely populated region.


jabird

BHX has lots of regional jets and turboprops

The above mean nothing to me, I wouldn't know a turboprop if it parked in my garden. I am not an aviation enthusiast, I just enjoy number crunching and want to see DSA and HUY do well.
I would have thought though that the likes of Heathrow, Luton, Manchester, Gatwick, Stanstead see their fair share of regional jets and turboprops, and they are still averaging over 100+ pax per flight.

[Andy_S]

However, if that was the case then shouldn't LBA be one of the leading UK airports. Whichever way you look at it, conurbation or autonomous wise, Leeds/Bradford is a hugely populated region.

The other thing you need to consider, though, is the impact of neighbouring airports. And just over the Pennines is Manchester, which like it or not has become the de-facto hub for Northern England. Once established as the dominant force in it's region, airports like Manchester tend to attract routes and operators on a scale disproportionate to the local population. Like it or not (and obviously LBA's, erm, particularly dedicated supporters won't), the infrastructure and economies of scale at MAN will attract business which in an ideal world might have gone to Yorkshire.

[Dash-7 lover]

Small point but I presume the 'DSA' everyone refers to is Doncaster..... try the IATA code 'DCS'....

[rodan]

Incorrect, I'm afraid. Doncaster Sheffield's IATA code is 'DSA'. It was indeed going to be 'DCS', until someone pointed out the potential confusion with the Dean Cross VOR, which is also designated 'DCS'.

(That's the story I heard, anyway).

[symphonyangel]

Not quite right, it was a three way choice - RHA (for Robin Hood Airport) was already taken, FLY was considered consistent with Finningley and a nice code to have for an airport , but it had been taken by St Finlay in New Zealand, so DSA for Doncaster Sheffield was preferred.

[Leodis]

Roll for all airports......

It would be a sensible approach to think that all airports have a good future. The aviation world is expanding far faster than anyone could have imagined even as little as 15 years ago. The 'natural' airports like Manchester, Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow were one day the only alternative for people to catch a flight. Other airports have caught up over the years such as Birmingham, Luton, Nottingham East Midlands and Newcastle . It would be fair to say that from now and in the years to come airports like Leeds Bradford, Doncaster Sheffield and other either new or up and coming airports will join the big league. This seams the natural progression. Obviously the individual airports catcment area and the airports capacity will play a roll as to how big each airport can grow.