It's simply trying a different talent pool than their usual net being cast. It's something I do for my own company when the usual spots don't find something I'm looking for.

No need to look into it too much, if you watch when new bases are announced THEN ads go out for base crew. Egg before the chicken.

FlyBe's Donny-based flight crew are great. It actually makes a difference if, as a passenger, you are from the same area as the crew.

New for S19 is Endifha (Tunisia) with TUI.

Good to see all these routes return to DSA and back on sale. Of course with the new addition of Hurghada now going year round.

Any idea why a Ryanair aircraft was doing circuits over DSA today. Pilot training?

This happens reasonably frequently with Ryanair, EasyJet and Flybe. I suppose it is convenient with the long, wide runway and most flights concentrated in the morning and evening.

Thanks for that. Although I live fairly close (20 miles away) I'm not on the flight path and wasn't aware of these flights.

Do we have any reasons why pax numbers were lower this January and February compared to last year? Did we have less flights operated? Just curious. The winter program is low, on some Wednesdays, only 4 flights per day.

Exactly that. BE had a single aircraft based at DSA this past winter compared to two in the past. AGP, PMI, FAO were completely stopped for the winter season.

:D

Another epic fail from Timmy Doncaster Sheffield Airport

Good to see Wizz replacing the routes lost with another, Debrecen, Hungary. Granted for the winter season but its better than nothing. Did they operate Budapest from DSA at any stage? So popular at the moment as a destination, I'm sure it would have high pax from DSA.

My bug with DSA is route retention, Berlin for example going with Flybe, such a shame.

No, Wizz have never operated from Doncaster to Budapest. Debrecen seems an unusual choice as there seem - I might be wrong - to be less Hungarian residents in Yorkshire and the adjacent counties than from other eastern European countries; and routes from Kosice in Slovakia and Lublin in Poland are to be axed.

There is in fact a relatively substantial Hungarian population in the Doncaster and surrounding areas. I believe it to pre-date the increase of the Polish nationals moving to the UK of more recent times. I presume Wizzair will have completed sufficient enough market research to at least see it fit for them to give the route a go.

As for the Lublin and Kosice routes being "axed", a reminder that they were discontinued due to Wizzair closing down those bases.

Sorry if my post appeared to be negative - it wasn't. I don't know about Lublin, but there is a relatively substantial population in Doncaster and its surrounds from eastern Slovakia, so I would have thought the route from Kosice would be popular (yes I know about yields v loading) and I thought maybe Wizz could have done a W-flight pattern to serve it. Still, if they've fallen out with Kosice airport...I tried finding out about Hungarian-born people in Yorkshire and got a great headache trying to penetrate census figures. All I managed was that there are about 30 000 Hungarian-born people in England who live outside London and the south-east, which is a lot less than other eastern European nationalities. I just wonder why they chose to serve DSA from Debrecen rather than Budapest - maybe no competition. Good luck to it!

DSA offers flights to Bucharest, but not Budapest.

Debrechen isn't too far from Budapest, the airport has decent road connections, and it's under two hours by road to Budapest. If you're wanting to go to Budapest, Debrechen would be an option if the price was right

Sounds like the bait-and-switch tactics Ryanair used to make...

As already observed (#159) Flybe's W18 programme for DSA looks very thin. They started with 2 E95s in S16. In S18 it is down to 2 E75s. Their plan is to base an (underutilised) E75(?) in W18 but to me it looks like that most of these routes can be served with aircraft based somewhere else (as they do in EMA, NWI and LCY).

Winter 18 will no doubt be as sparse as Winter 17. That's my concern for the airport. With TUI operating 1 or 2 flights per day and Flybe offering 2 maybe 3 flights. People still travel out of Summer season, its always so annoying having to go Leeds or Manchester to get anywhere.

I am surprised Ryan Air haven't jumped on these routes from DSA as there is a demand for none package holiday flights out of Summer Seasons.

Tenerife South (Previously Operated)
Las Palmas
Arrecife
Alicante (Previously Operated)
Faro (Previously Operated -I think)
Malaga

City Break routes

Pisa (Previously Operated)
Rome
Budapest
Berlin

Flybe problem is they are too expensive, For example This year it worked out cheaper for me to go on the train to Manchester and get an Easyjet flight to Berlin and in September its again cheaper for me to get the train to Manchester and fly to Dublin. I really want to fly from DSA but I refuse to pay silly money. When speaking to family and friends they are often saying the same.

Same here, I'm flying into MAN and out of EMA in a couple of weeks. I'd love to use DSA all the time but sometimes you just can't argue with the prices.

Incidentally, stage 2 of the link road was due to open in April wasn't it? It still isn't open unless I missed something.

Carillon collapsing is what happened. It was taken over by Tarmac and is pretty much complete and will be open within the next few weeks. Then that will be both stages of the M18 link complete through to the airport front door.

Incidentally, well done to the airport cargo team. In addition to the regular scheduled heavies there has been a lot of ad hoc heavies recently (5 today alone) for specialist contracts (F1, bands, auto). It's doing no-ones reputation any harm with the success.

Sure, prices are important factors. In addition the proximity to various other airports is what causes here the competitive environment. And this might be what makes the difference compared to other regional airports where flybe is more successful.

Would you consider flying more often from DSA once the new link road is open?

Link road phase 2 is (without checking) only about a mile long and will only save an additional 2-3 minutes at a guess compared to the current route - but it is important as the existing route can get clogged with local traffic. I doubt the completion of phase 2 will, in itself, cause more people to use DSA but you can bet that it will be well publicised.

When phase one opened they said that Sheffield city centre (Park Square) was just 25 minutes away, which is correct if you drive at the speed limit and don't hit traffic on the Parkway. It follows that when phase 2 opens an extra couple of minutes should be lopped off that journey time. Not sure about driving from Donny, but the traffic is normally fairly heavy in the town that side of the M18

How do you know there is "demand"? If there was enough demand why were certain routes that you listed dropped? BTW, the airline is called Ryanair.

I don't,I was just making conversation in the group. Also, if there is a spelling mistake of an Airline, its not intentional so no need to flag up trying to put someone down. Thank you

Quite rudeness on this site is quite shocking tbh.
I wonder if people would have the nerve to speak to someone like that in person .
Id say not imho.
I understood what you meant , modern auto correct can change as you hit post .
It's a known glitch in Firefox and other Browsers especially on Android.

You clearly stated "there IS demand" - for which you have now admitted you have no evidence. If you were just making conversation perhaps you should have worded it as "there COULD be demand". Call me old-fashioned (well, actually, I am old fashioned) but there is too much these days of opinions being presented as fact - particularly on-line.

I flew out on the following Flybe departure to AGP last year when I couldn't get flights from MAN, LPL, LBA or EMA due to all being either fully booked or mega high prices. The surprise was, not only was it very cheap but it was only about one third full. It seems that demand is not that high.

Mon 17 Jul 2017 BE4427Doncaster Sheffield to Malaga15:3019:30

There are some deals, but cheapest DSA-ALC for Jun/Jul this year £140 return with BE, competing with lowest fares LBA £109, EMA £71 all chasing same catchment. There is demand but at half the price most Yorkshire folk will travel 45 minutes down the road to EMA

For leisure routes this sounds very plausible. But even for domestic/european destinations the share of time sensitive business passengers does not seem to be high enough to make higher frequencies or more routes viable.

May I ask with humble respect but are you an expert on demand on the Doncaster area?.
Do you live around there , speak t time talking to locals ?.
Only I know own I have , and many destinations are in demand as some I think but an not sure are or were served .
The point is when served They were very well used , considering poor timings .
Doncaster has had airlines in but does not seem to be able to get together a schedule, that would create ' official ' demand .
But I can swear on the Bible , I've spoken to many before I had to give up work , often working in offices all around the Airport .
It's a favourite local topic, " I wish I could fly to here or there " .
And I've had people complain about anywhere from Athens to Sydney .
The latter I explained is virtually a never category . ( In my humble opinion ).
But the fact is if there was no demand there would not be an airport .
So nitpicking the OP on his choice of exact words , when this is supposed to be a friendly forum , a mix of expert and enthusiast alike , then, the odd slip of the tounge so to speak is just that .
I just feel people get jumped on for suggesting anything on here .
The best case in point was the veciferious flaming of people who would say that one day Flybe , would base an aircraft or two .
It was met with ridicule and posts like this.
I never noted posts apologising when Flybe did just that!.
Budapest is often asked for , Doncaster and region has a strong Hungarian population.
As for the med , I find it odd that there is no demand for more med flights especially through the winter.
Ps I mean no offense , just seems unfair to nitpick someone taking the time to post their opinion , fact or no fact .
Perhaps now as your an expert you can list exactly what routes are in demand and back it up with figures please ?

EasyJet RABA HubLAB conference
 

Any more info on what was said by Easyjet execs at RABA NubLAB? I could see EasyJet moving in if Flybe moved out, but haven't Flybe got a propriatory agreement with DSA?

Phase 2 of the link road opened today, sorry no news story as yet

EDIT Presser here - http://flydsa.co.uk/latest-news/grea...road-completed

According to the press release they have constructed a cycle path to the airport

Frustration
 

When is DSA going to get serious about attracting new/old carriers.
Landed at LBA yesterday with several families from DSA catchment, all saying wish we could fly from DSA.
Makes you wonder what the business development people are actually doing, other than sucking up to TUI and BE who are obviously on some kind of big payback, but stifing any kind of new growth, and are most probably being entertained to maintain their presence. Time for a shake up and implementation of some aspirational ambition from Peel to move forward not just with the incumbents but Easy, Ryanair and KLM. You’ve got a great Airport, now you have great access with the new extended link road, but give people some reason to use it, instead of of it being a road to nowhere ( or a very restricted somewhere).

Who says they aren't? Who could seriously come in?

The likes of EasyJet and Ryanair aren't going to come in anytime soon. Maybe Vueling to Barcelona, Thomas Cook to part base or base, Blue Air to copy the LPL format, Norwegian to go over the pond with a 737 or even the long wanted KLM connection.

Other than that it is hard to see anyone wanting to dilute other bases. With the cargo gains maybe that is the way forward for now.

As a DSA local I'd hate to see Ryanair or Easyjet there, they scare everyone else off. Any of the others listed above would be great, especially transatlantic ops.

Air travel is a retail commodity,the more products (destinations) & brands (airline choice) you sell and are available (seats, frequency),the more custom you will get,limit brands and you will reduce product offered, and availability and therefore limit the footfall - unless what you sell is unique and cheap.

But how do you get the brands to make their products available when supply is limited?