Why all efforts should be made to save Doncaster Sheffield Airport - Jayne Dowle

Speaking ahead of an extraordinary meeting on September 20, when City of Doncaster Council’s cabinet is to be updated on work to reopen the site, Ms Jones argued that DSA was “the best airport in the country, with untapped potential” and could “benefit South Yorkshire and beyond”.

Just as Peel was drawing up plans to cut 800 jobs and close down, in October 2022, DSA won the accolade of ‘best small airport in the country’, awarded by consumer organisation Which? for the fourth time in a row.

Passengers praised DSA for its short queues, friendly staff and “faultless service” and it beat off other regional airports including Liverpool John Lennon, London City and Exeter, with a customer satisfaction score of 85 per cent, taken from the experiences of almost 7,500 travellers asked to give their views on everything from the length of the queues to the number of shops.

And now it stands empty, deemed as unprofitable by Peel, reported to have invested more than £250m in the site over the last 25 years.

Peel has previously said it had “pursued all viable commercial aviation opportunities at DSA” before the closure.

However, in July, City of Doncaster Council said a search had begun to find an investor or operator to run the airport if the site can be acquired from its owners.

The council is speaking to the aviation sector to find capital investors and those with the “experience and technical” knowledge of running an airport.

Isn’t it time someone in government stepped up to the flight desk and supported Ms Jones and the hundreds of thousands of people in South and East Yorkshire within less than an hour’s drive of DSA?

Situated on the former RAF Finningley airbase, south east of Doncaster city centre, not far from both the A1 and the M18, DSA was a much-needed second airport for a region of more than five million people, alongside Leeds-Bradford serving the West and North of the county.

It seems inconceivable that the North East, for example, has two airports, Newcastle International and Teesside International, the Midlands has two – Birmingham and East Midlands, and so does the North West, the megalith of Manchester and Liverpool John Lennon. Why not Yorkshire then?

It seems that this particular element of levelling-up has gone seriously off-kilter. Whilst airports are usually, but not always - Manchester is owned by an amalgamation of the 10 metropolitan borough councils of Greater Manchester and Australian investment fund IFM Investors – privately-owned, they are a public service.

Another airport in Yorkshire would help to stave off the need for Leeds-Bradford to expand to cope with demand, a controversial situation which led to the scrapping of a new £150m terminal last year after the government threatened to hold an inquiry into the plans.

The aviation minister, Charlotte Vere, Baroness Vere of Norbiton – which is in Surrey – might not be able to find Doncaster on a map, but she should certainly be across this particular element of her brief. As a keen Remain supporter during the EU referendum, she clearly understands the importance to ties with Europe.

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose 49 days in office started just over a year ago, famously promised Ms Jones that she would do all that she could to keep the airport open. Her successor, Rishi Sunak, whose Richmond constituency is just 80 miles up the A1 from Doncaster, has been less forthcoming.

Is he missing a trick, especially given the proximity of so-called ‘Red Wall’ seats to DSA and the recent insistence – in June - from the Northern Research Group (NRG) of MPs that the PM needs to present a far more radical and engaging vision for the North?

Many supporters believe that Peel was far too hasty in closing down DSA, when the airline industry and tourism had barely recovered from month after month of lockdowns and overseas travel bans and restrictions.

Anyone who has been anywhere near an airport this summer will know just how busy air travel is once again.

Surely there is a strong economic case for DSA to fly again?