Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield (Finningley)

[jetpipe john]

Well the name of the NEW airport, which nobody on this site sems to be aware of, will be opening early next year, so far only one operator has announced that they will be operating from the ex R.A.F. site, Thompson's.
Surely in order to make this site viable, more operator's will be required to fly to more destination's around the world.
Do any of you people out there know of any rumour's regarding more operators that may be interested in flying from this base?

[almost professional]

all I heard was that Thomson were having cold feet certainly on the IT front

[POL1W]

I believe that Balkan Holidays will be doing one flight per week from Robin Hood in summer 2005. Not sure if it is Varna or Bourgas though.

[johnwalton]

Well if they are there's no mention on their website (Bourgas (http://www.balkanholidays.co.uk/s05/bourgasflights.htm), Varna (http://www.balkanholidays.co.uk/s05/varnaflights.htm)).

[POL1W]

Next Edition of brochure due out soon. It'll be in there.

[Scottie Dog]

I may have misinterpreted your posting, but you seem to intimate that there has been little, if any, discussion on the subject of Finningley in these pages.

If you were to do a search on the subject of Finnungley, you would find 8 or more pages of threads, all relating to Finningley. That to me is quite a bit of discussion.

All the same, it is sometimes good to see a new approach to a subject.

Enjoy Pprune!!

[flystarboy]

Why is it being called Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport???

Is it becasue the local authorities want to make all the catchment area feel they have their own airport?

Or is it becasue they couldnt decide....

But then again London Finningley is stretching it a bit.....

And anyway Robin Hood was from Sherwood Forest in NOTTINGHAMSHIRE!!!! So if any airport should have the R H name it should be East Midlands (now called Nottingham International I believe):ok:

[squibbler]

Oi flystarboy; you're opening up a can of worms!!

Borrowed the following from a Robin Hood website (thank the Lord for Google!) :}



Almost as confusing as when Robin Hood lived is where he lived.

Sherwood Forest, right? Well, the first reference to Robin's home turf is the proverb "Robyn hod in scherewod stod." And one of the earliest ballads, Robin Hood and the Monk, also sings the praises of Sherwood.

But not much later, that proverb shows up as "Robin Hode en Barnesdale stode." And many early ballads, like the Gest, mention Barnsdale as being Robin's base. So, where and what is Barnsdale? Barnsdale was an area of about 5 square miles (possibly as large as 10 or 15 miles as the boundaries are uncertain), six miles north of Doncaster in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was not a royal forest. But the Great North Road ran through Barnsdale, and the location was a known haven of highwaymen. Technically, the road was known as Ermine Street, but locally the stretch near Barnsdale was nicknamed Watling Street, the same as a different road. In the Gest, Robin tells Little John to walk up to Watling Street and the Saylis -- the name of a plantation in that area.

But even the Barnsdale Robin Hood stories have scenes in Nottingham with the infamous sheriff. There's about fifty miles between Nottingham and Barnsdale. Sure, King John made the trip in a day once in 1213, but it's still one heck of a commute.

No one is quite sure why Robin Hood is associated with both Barnsdale and Nottingham. Maybe there was an outlaw in Yorkshire and one in Nottinghamshire and they got mixed together. One theory is that the Robin Hood tales originated in Yorkshire. Then, perhaps there was a separate set of stories about the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham. Maybe a clever ballad writer thought "Hey! What if Robin Hood fought the sheriff? I bet that would be popular!"

And the rest is speculation.


So there you go. Bob Hood was from Barndale (Doncaster), or was he...................:eek:

[JustaFew]

...........willing to do radar in open FIR with the nearest radar head 22 miles away while situated between two AIAAs with at least 3 busy GA airfields close to final approach for no extra money (or none disclosed to current staff) with the possibility of being posted there within 3 years. Or not...............:confused:

[pwalhx]

A colleague was on a local government fact finding thing the other day and was told Dragonair were opening some facility at Robin Hood.

Could this be a precursor to moving freighter out of Manchester to there next year I wonder.

[squibbler]

...............a chance in hell this ATCO would be interested in operating traffic in that environment, even if they do decide to pay us extra (most unlikely!). As for postings in 3 years (1st I've heard) well with any luck I'll be long gone from here by then, or will I....................:hmm:

[garethjk22]

OK, firstly, I doubt Thomson are having cold feet about DSA - rumour has it holidays are literally flying off the shelves.

The name. here we go again. The name is Robin Hood Airport for several reasons, 1. Robin Hood, history would suggest came from Barsdale, 5 miles NORTH of Doncaster. 2. The airport sits 4 miles from the Notts border, airports do not serve the exact location of the runway, but a wide catchment area around, half of DSA's catchment covers Sherwood forest. 3. It got everyone talking about it.

Other operators - of course the airport needs other operators, and several more will be announcing soon I'm sure - have patience, the place doesn;t open till next summer.

Dragonair - DSA is a receiving point for Dragonair cargo, and cargo is then trucked to the airports of departure (MAN or STN). It is merely Dragonair extending their catchment area, no hidden agendas.

Robin Hood Airport will dramatically change aviation in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Notts - in an industry which has been through so much turmoil over the past few years - why not embrace such a fantastic opportunity and stop with the relentless cynicism!

Piece said.

[symphonyangel]

I understand Yorkshire and Notts MPs are getting together tomorrow, 20th, to have a discussion re the real Robin Hood history. There seems to be an overwhelming acceptance that the Yorkshire origins are accurate, that Sherwood Forest extended in those days into Yorkshire, indeed there was no Yorkshire/Notts boundary and that he and his men laid siege to places like Conisborough Castle. Not exactly aviation, but answers the question why they went with the name. Anyway Finningley was in Notts till the 70's so what does it matter, the airport seems central enough to all things Robin Hood.

[JustaFew]

.......be pulling my hair out wishing I'd applied to NavCan/NATS/Nepal years ago when I was more flexible/less desperate thinking 'Finningley? Ha! It'll never happen' cos this place aint wot I thought it might be and I'm still here...........:{

[squibbler]

........wondering how much longer will I have any hair to pull out. I'll be flexible for a long as it takes to get out of here (never desperate mind, I'm too cool a cucumber for that :cool: gotta be theright move ) although I don't think Nepal's on the cards (nice scenery though :} ). No chance of me becoming a long time served whinger who's left it too late to go.........................:*


As an aside to this mildly amusing game of "I've started so you finish":

The jungle drums report that currently only Liverpool ATCO's with experience of providing APR in Class G will be press-ganged into training for Finningley Radar. Happily that counts me out but for the poor buggers that take the Kings shilling I believe the unit has secured funds for several reams of CA1261's.

[Hooligan Bill]

squibbler,

I do remember you providing a RIS once, so I think that might count you in.:ok:

[squibbler]

I think someone must have slipped something into my tea on that day :uhoh:

[JustaFew]

.........press-ganged??????........:uhoh:


Where's the escape hatch?

[POL1W]

Thomas Cook are to offer four flights from DSI during S05. Two of their own flights to Turkey and Tunisia, and two shared flights with Thomson/TUI.
As yet no flights by My Travel, but probably not too keen to expand into new territory given their current situation.
Along with Thomsonfly, might we see Hapag LLoyd Express try a flight from DSI as they have done alongside Thomsonfly at Coventry?

[charterguy]

POL1W

IATA code for Finningley has always been DCS. :ok:

DSI is listed as Destin, U.S.A. (IATA DSI / ICAO KDSI)

CG

[Flightmapping]

Pol1W,

Do you know which destinations in Turkey & Tunisia TCX will be serving.

charterguy, were'nt previous posts suggesting the IATA code is DSA? I'll be happy to be corrected.

[flystarboy]

Robin Hood, Robin Hood Riding (or should that be be"flying") through the glen...........

We ALL know a song like that dont we children?????????:bored:

[POL1W]

The TCX destinations in Turkey are Dalaman and Monastir in Tunisia.

Charterguy - Re three letter for Robin Hood DCS or maybe it is DSA as has been quoted previously. I'll go along with whatever, whenever the time comes. It was EGXI/FYY when I was there last!.

[garethjk22]

The 3 letter code for Robin Hood is DEFINATELY DSA

Now, before you all say the IATA website says it's DCS .... read the caviat which says the website is not updated. THe code was changed in April (I know, I changed it).


Thomas Cook are indeed featuring DSA in S05 2nd editions, MIR will be operated by TCX and DLM by a third party. With holiday sales selling at an alarmingly high rate, I would expect them to be hugely successful for Thomas Cook.

This is only the start for DSA ....

[LBAir]

Its good to here all the signs are good for next summers start up. Well done for attracting Thomas Cook, I just hope that this is going to be extra capacity for Yorkshire rather than at the expence of other servises from HUY and LBA. Come on tour opperators MANCHESTER has had it too easy for too long, give us YORKSHIRE folk a real choice, or here I come JET2 or THOMSONFLY from LBA / DSA.

from YORKSHIRE :ok: the place to be is the city of Leeds.

[Pilot Pete]

Could DSA eventually have a detrimental effect on LBA? I have never operated out of DSA, but just looking at a local area chart, runway chart, wx chart and any other chart you can imagine, DSA certainly looks like it would win a pilot's vote between the two, especially in something bigger than a 737.

Any thoughts?

PP

[Mooncrest]

LBAir,

I too wish the tour operators would get their collective backsides into gear regarding Leeds Bradford. However, I can't help feeling they've now left it too late. Same old Spanish spots year in, year out, no more Canada, no Slovenia and Croatia and hardly any Greece ! The only glimmer of change is next summer's
Zakynthos flight with Britannia. Jet2 must surely be pinching a significant amount of Spanish business from the TOs and they don't appear to be responding by deploying their aircraft to Greece and the former Yugoslav destinations. They just carry on regardless. Makes you wonder doesn't it ?

To add insult to injury, I noticed a while back most of the travel agents on my local high street were advertising late availabilities, city breaks etc. One of them showed nine departures from Manchester, two from East Midlands, oh, and one from Leeds Bradford ! I wrote to the then Head of Marketing at LBA pointing this out and asking for some sort of explanation. Needless to say I didn't receive a reply. I drew the unfortunate conclusion that if those who are tasked with selling this business haven't a clue then what chance has anyone else got ? :confused:

[POL1W]

You ask "Could DSA eventually have a detrimental effect on LBA?"
On the whole, no, but there will obviously be occasions when a flight from LBA is full, or more than likely the destination is not on offer from LBA, when someone from the Leeds-Bradford areas would have to use DSA. Same as having to use MAN because the TO's show no imagination in their range of flights from LBA. Whether DSA in time, will get some good destinations remains to be seen. My fear is that the TO's will just play around with bucket and spade destinations like LBA, so as not to take pax away from their better destinations at MAN.
As for a pilots point of view, DSA would win hands down every time with me , nice long flat runway, (but still not into wind though)!
However, the people decide where to fly from because the flights are there, cheap and lots of them and not because the airport is better for "us pilots" to operate from. So I can't see 2.5 million people moving their flight options to DSA from LBA on that argument.
DSA will generate its own catchment area. The people of South Yorkshire/Lincs will show a kind of partisan support for Robin Hood, because it is their airport, in their back yard and they will not have to put up with the over the hill trek to MAN or the drive to NEMA any more.
That's my thoughts anyway!

[LBAir]

Whilst on the DSA thread, what's happened to all those so-called big international flights we had been led to believe DSA would be quick to snap up? (no disrespect to our fellow Yorkshiremen:confused: )

from YORKSHIRE:ok: the place to be is the city of Leeds??

[KAT TOO]

50 MILES IN ONE DAY!!

Bloody hell you'd be ard pressed to do that on a friday on parts of the MI

Donny will be OK it will take at least five years to get going, look how long LCY took!

Lets face it no one in their right mind would drive to LGW or STN these days if you had a choice, christ driving round Leeds these days can get you banned in an hour if your not very carefull:{