Flights at Doncaster Sheffield Airport will begin ‘winding down’ next month after owner Peel Group said a strategic review had concluded the airport was ‘not viable due to its lack of adequate forward revenues and high operating costs’.
A consultation process will now begin with more than 800 airport staff.
On Friday, the South Yorkshire Mayoral Authority put forward a plan that would keep the airport going for another 13 months, but Peel Group Chief Executive Steven Underwood said accepting funding would only ‘postpone the inevitable’.
TUI – the only airline currently flying out of DSA – has said it will cease operating from the airport on 4 November. Around 200 TUI staff are affected and the company said it will try to relocate as many as possible to other parts of its operation.
Chief Executive Andrew Flintham said: “We’re incredibly disappointed about the decision to close Doncaster Sheffield Airport to passengers. The airport has always been a popular and important regional airport for our valued customers and colleagues in the local area.
“We know how important regional airports are to the UK economy and we’ve always supported any proposals to keep the airport open.
“We’ve worked with Peel Group, the airport’s owners, and Government throughout the consultation process to try and prevent this outcome.”
Manchester Airports Group is guaranteeing interviews for staff who will lose their jobs because of DSA’s closure.
It has a job fair in Long Eaton, near East Midlands Airport tomorrow (27 September) and another on 4 October at Stansted.
Meanwhile, Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, whose local Teesside Airport was put into public ownership three years ago, said: “This would have been us.”
He added: “My heart goes out to staff at Doncaster Sheffield Airport, with hundreds of jobs now at risk due to this unfortunate announcement, and to those local people who have lost their airport on Peel’s watch.
“The past two years have been tough and expensive, as they have for all airports and airlines, but you have to look at the bigger picture and the prizes that a successful local airport can bring for a region.”
