Doncaster Sheffield Airport decision leaves Yorkshire levelling up grounded - Jayne Dowle

It opened in 2005, after an abortive attempt to site a major airport in Sheffield itself. Although its history has often been controversial – remember the row over the original name, ‘Robin Hood Airport’? – DSA was quite possibly the easiest to reach and most welcoming airport ever, well at least in the North of England.

And now, it’s going, after a long history of aviation stretching back more than a century to 2015, when as RAF Finningley, it was used as a base by the Royal Flying Corps.

The airport’s owner, Peel Group, has taken the decision to close it down, and the last flight is scheduled for the beginning of November, although it’s reported that operations will start to wind down from the end of October, with the loss of at least 800 jobs.

The closure of the airport is a body blow for Doncaster, which only earlier this year was celebrating being awarded city status as part of the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

In the last few years, despite the pandemic and other devastating world economic events, Doncaster has established itself as one of the major logistics and distribution hubs in the UK, with major companies such as Amazon setting up operations. A more burgeoning example of successful ‘levelling up’ you wouldn’t find.

So why has the city’s airport, with so much potential for expansion, been left out on the wing?

Don Valley MP Nick Fletcher, one of the ‘Red Wall’ Conservative MPs who took his seat in the 2019 General Election is calling for a public inquiry into the airport’s closure.

He says he has contacted Number 10 and the Department for Transport over the “ridiculous decision” to shut the site, and wants to know why Peel Group have been allowed to turn down the offer from South Yorkshire leaders to support the airport with public funds until a new buyer is found.

I know the government has hugely pressing matters to deal with as regards the aftermath of the disastrous mini-budget of last week, but really, PM Liz Truss, who promised, “We will protect this airport and we will protect this infrastructure” in her very first Prime Minister's Questions just a few short weeks away, needs to bear down heavily.

Not just on her Secretary of State for Transport, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who represents Berwick-upon-Tweed, but also on Middlesborough MP Simon Clarke, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up.

The news of closure is difficult enough to bear, but I fear that the government’s seeming lack of interest in doing anything about it does not bode well for the North of England.

Whilst Leeds Bradford Airport bosses vow to continue with their expansion plans, including a new terminal, in the face of fierce local opposition, it strikes me that it’s becoming harder and harder to book a flight out of Yorkshire.

I know services are nowhere near back up to pre-pandemic levels, but I’ve recently spent several days trying to secure seats for my daughter and I to visit Vienna in the week before Christmas.

I gave up counting after a while, but if you could see the huge number of Vienna flights to and from Gatwick, one of London’s major airports, and compare them to those available from any Yorkshire or North East airport, you would see what I mean. These are actual flights, by the way, not seats.

It’s just one example, I know, but we really struggled. We’ve ended up with no choice but to travel from Manchester; sadly, the Jet2 flight from Leeds-Bradford didn’t fit with work commitments.

I try to avoid the megalith of Manchester airport whenever possible, because getting there demands a leap of faith and setting off hours in advance – the big question being, will the Woodhead Pass and/or M62 be snarled up with panic-inducing traffic? – but frankly, if we want to go, we have no choice.

I certainly wasn’t driving to Gatwick, which would have taken far longer than the two hours 10 minutes it takes to get to Vienna.

And why should I? Living in Yorkshire, with our population of more than five million people, we have as much right to airports as anywhere else in the country.

Yet I feel short-changed somehow. And one less airport now means one less location for flight operators to invest in our region. With the jobs and adjacent facilities, such as hotels and restaurants, which airports attract, why can’t the government see how much of a bonus they are, and promote proximity to efficient air travel as a key plank of levelling up?

Back in May, when Doncaster’s successful bid for city status was announced, Daniel Fell, chief executive officer of Doncaster Chamber, proudly told the world that now the South Yorkshire region is home to two cities, we’ll be granted “an even bigger seat at the table when it comes to engaging national government.”

The national government, under a new Prime Minister with strong links to Yorkshire, who has gone back on a promise made faithfully in Parliament, just pulled the chair away.