Owners shouldn't strip out Doncaster Sheffield Airport assets - The Yorkshire Post says

It’s not often that local people want to welcome an airport on their doorstep. You need only look at the years’ of protests against the expansion of Heathrow.

But DSA is different. The airport presents an opportunity that does not exist. It’s not just about offering another destination to fly from but also about the economic possibilities that have not been realised by the airport’s current owners.

Peel Group must now ensure that they don’t strip out critical assets and make the airport “unusable and unsellable”, as the owners have been accused of doing.

Peel has decided to shut the airport, which employs about 800 people, because it says DSA is not financially viable. But the Government and local leaders are urging the owners to sell DSA to another operator so it can remain open.

While the fate of DSA looks bleak at this stage, it is not yet sealed, despite the former PM Liz Truss going back on her promise of doing all she can to keep the airport open.

That is why Peel must act in good faith and ensure that the airport is not eroded to a state where a sale is no longer possible.

While the Government to date has refused to use emergency powers under the Civil Contingency Act to keep the airport running, Mr Sunak’s administration may want to ask themselves whether they want to see a permanent monument to a failure to level up in South Yorkshire.