Doncaster Sheffield Airport: 'Fundamental redesign' of flight paths mooted after original plan dropped

It is applying to the Civil Aviation Authority to reinstate DSA’s airspace, with a final decision in the multi-stage process due next year.

CDC had initially sought to restart the previous arrangements which had been in place before the closure. But it has now been revealed its initial option has been ‘discontinued’, with two other alternatives put forward instead.

While the initial plan had forecasted 2.5m passengers a year within a decade of operation, the new alternatives set out estimates of 1.1m passengers a year by 2037.

Submissions to the CAA state ‘Option 2’ is ‘similar’ to the original plan but involves refining it ‘due to stakeholder feedback or to align with CAA policy’, with ‘Option 3’ described as a ‘very different proposal’ that would include controlling flight paths ‘within the smallest amount of controlled airspace’.

The report said officials are currently “leaning towards Option 3 as being the preferred option” to take forward.

A project spokesperson said of the reason for discontinuing the original option: “CAA policy is that the amount of controlled airspace must be the smallest volume necessary to support the operation.

"We believe we could reintroduce the same flight paths that were there previously, but with a slightly smaller volume of controlled airspace. Therefore Option 2 was created based on some modifications. Option 3 requires even less controlled airspace but this requires a more fundamental re-design to the flight paths that were there previously.”

The change in the airspace plan comes after NATS (formerly National Air Traffic Services) - which is currently involved in an ongoing process of making major amendments to how UK airspace operates - said in January it was “unfortunately” unable to support reinstating the previous arrangements.

It said doing so “would be at odds with the work already undertaken and create conflict” with the future airspace strategy for the North of England, which is due to come into action from 2030.

But NATS added it believed “there may be a more optimal solution which will meet DSA’s design principles and reduce the scale of future change”.

The initial plans were also challenged by Leeds Bradford Airport, which in January described the submission as “fundamentally deficient” and claimed projections that DSA could serve 2.5m a year by 2037 were “inaccurate” given DSA’s previous record year had been 1.4m passengers in 2019. LBA called for “downsized” and “realistic” options to be put forward.

Manchester Airports Group’s feedback separately said DSA’s initial plan “seems practical” but cautioned that it should cause “no change” to the future airspace strategy being developed for its operations.