Sheffield City Airport

[huggybear]

I was speaking to a friend of a friend at work yesterday who said that he knew of a recent startup that had tried to talk to Sheffield City airport with regards to starting a few shuttle services from the airport but never received an answer.

Would it be fair to say that the airport is now just playing the waiting game to close whilst DSA takes all the traffic? Surely the two airports serve totally different markets?

[nickmanl]

A recent start up?

Don't be too surprised if its Fly Alpha 1. If they could get slots into a London airport maybe Sheffield - London would work, but I cannot ever see Sheffield - Cambridge/Oxford working.

They are the only recent start up whose aircraft would be able to land on Sheffield, unless CityStar at Aberdeen are thinking about it?

[Charley]

Since huggybear started another thread at a very similar time asking about how CityStar are getting on in Aberdeen, I suspect that it might be nickmanl's latter suggestion that is more accurate.

[7006 fan]

There is an 'archive' article on the Sheffield Star webpage (I say archive it is dated 5th May) the city council are calling for an investigation into the proposed sale of Sheffield City Airport for a quid so it may be developed as prime real estate!
Who owns Sheffield City Airport, I give you three guesses!!!
:suspect:

http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/viewarticle2.aspx?ArticleID=1018145&SectionID=58&Search=sheffield%20airport&Searchtype=any&SearchSection=58&DateFrom=052005&DateTo=052005&Page=1&ReturnPage=Results.aspx

[INKJET]

It was never meant to be an airport, they built it so close to the M1 and a council estate at the other end that it was always going to be too short to take the growth market (LoCo), if i recall, at the time Sheffield was the largest City in Europe that did not have its own airport and the peoples republic of South Yorkshire and friends (Kinnock) thought that what Sheffield needed after the hard Thatcher years was a symbol of regeneration ie a big high profile dolop of EU cash.

The savy Sheffield developers thought hey up w'il have some of that lad, knowing that it would make a good developement site so close to the M1, well it would once half billion tons of pit spoil had been removed and a few mile of service roads, water, power had been supplied, but that would have cost way to much, unless that is you could get some other daft buggers to do it for you and more importantly pay for it. thats where EU comes in

So insde a year Sheffield will have its name on the airport maps of Europe (provided the display is long enough to spell out Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport) and Sheffield will have a reet good industrial estate next t' chuffin M1

Cheers

Burt

[terrywilcox]

7006fan sticking his knife into Peel Holdings,and,DSA. Peel Holdings own 50% of Sheffield City Airport as he well knows. Trouble for 7006fan,is that they bought the airport AFTER the crazy contract had been done. viz.PEEL HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CONTRACT,although they may be beneficiaries of it.
Incidentally it was not a spoil heap that was removed,but a seam of coal. There was no EU money involved,and perhaps if there had been,there would have been closer scrutiny of the contract. There is more,but I will not bore you to death.

If you think I am being hard on 7006fan,please see his comments on Doncaster Finningley thread.

[7006 fan]

thanks for that Terry, i thought it was 100% council owned. One lives and learns.
So really what we have is a Rover situation. Don't buy it as a functioning unit but wait 'til it goes down the pan then buy the rights for naff all! ouch. Don't get me wrong, I take my hat off to Peel. They are dong precisely what any predatory company would do and I am in full favour of it. It is the sort of business I like, providing one takes the rough with the smooth.
It is 100% capitalism.

[symphonyangel]

Not exactly. Peel were approached in the summer of 2001 at the time when operations at SCA had reduced to one Aer Arann flight and one BA flight to Belfast. They were approached after the owners, Tinsley Park, had approached many others including Manchester, none of whom wanted to get involved. The reason Peel were last to be approached was because the then SCA management team were opposed to Finningley. So Peel weren't the predators, they were reluctantly hunted by people who knew SCA wasn't sustainable as it was.

At the time Peel considered that if it could secure BA's services for its smaller aircraft then build on this, there was about a 20% chance the scheduled service market could help sustain its future. Peel's 50% aquisition took place in August 2001 and after what happened on September 11th almost immediately Aer Arann withdrew and then BA as part of its system cutbacks, withdrew early in the New Year. If you ask Flybe, then will tell you Peel had tried convincing them to come in at the time as they did with the few others who had aircraft small enough to land there.

So now Sheffield has at last its own international airport and on Monday May 9th hosts its first ever international aviation conference - see www.frenchconnect.net. Few would have believed it possible for Sheffield to have attracted 10 airlines to visit the city to look at the market but now, thanks to the Robin Hood Airport, it is. If one of those airlines then put on services, Sheffield and Doncaster's decision to bring in the conference will be more than justified.

[jabird]

"There was no EU money involved,and perhaps if there had been,there would have been closer scrutiny of the contract."

Terry, so are you saying that the EU is "better" at spending cash on transport infrastructure than private companies?

[INKJET]

One thing is for sure and that is that Sheffield Council coundn't run a corner shop and shouldn't be allowed to!

Supertram Lots of Euro cash, a project that will never recover the capital costs, this project closed dozens of business during it construction

World Student games another scandlous use of rate payers money

The vast majority of Sheffields monied population are self made from hard graft and wouldn't waste it on having a private jet parked up that was used once a flood, there are exceptions like the the clown who used to live in Dore with a large private helicopter that (mis)ran the Arcadia group and had an interest in Utd a taste for rather large cigars and Bently's then again it was shareholders money he was spending and that why he got to spend some time in jail.

Good luck to Peel and DSA it will be good for South Yorkshire, good for the industry, HUY will become a posh flying club and Fatty two Jags Prescott will be pissed off. Leeds will lose some Jet2 volume, but they will then have to sharpen their prices so we all win and Sheffield gets a nice new industrial park or retail shopping centre!!

Cheers

Burt

[terrywilcox]

hello jabird,all i am saying is that the original contract was stupid,and i think any overview would have shown that. I know what you are saying about the EU,and perhaps,in view of their history,I was more than a bit silly quoting them.

I just emphasize that it WAS a private company that )negotiated) the contract with Sheffield City Council,and I am sure they took the Council for a ride.