Troubled flightpath leading to an airport for Sheffield

THERE has been a lot of nonsense in recent articles and letters about Sheffield airport.

I write as just an interested observer, having had no involvement in Sheffield Development Corporation’s original decisions nor in any subsequent consideration by Sheffield City Council.

Can I deal with the allegations and address each in turn?

The first charge is that it was a disgrace that Sheffield was the largest city in Europe without an airport and that this was because (Labour) Sheffield City Council just wasn’t interested.

Nearly 30 years ago, I arranged for the deposit in Sheffield Archives of minutes which recorded the persistent efforts of the City Council from 1945 onwards to secure a civil airport in the Sheffield region.

However, each and every attempt to pursue the possibility of a local airport at various locations was firmly rebutted by the Civil Aviation Authority (and its predecessors) on safety grounds, because of the industrial and utilities infrastructure, the topography and, until the late 1960s, the air quality. It wasn’t a lack of will, but a lack of means that prevented progress.

The Thatcherite decimation of the local coal, steel and engineering industries from 1979, and the success of local clean air policies, opened up possibilities that hadn’t previously existed.

These were being explored by both the City Council and Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, before being taken up by Sheffield Development Corporation – an imposition, and to whom members were appointed, by the then Conservative government.

This brings us to the second charge, namely “the airport needs to be in Sheffield, not Doncaster”.

Of all the opportunities then explored for the development of a Sheffield region civil airport, RAF Finningley easily came top on all criteria – including runway length, and commercial and development opportunities for both passenger and freight use.

Unfortunately, the Ministry of Defence then insisted not only that Finningley was remaining in RAF use but also that there was absolutely no prospect of Finningley becoming available for civilian use in the foreseeable future. Of course, we all now know different.

If Finningley had been available then – or even if the MoD had said it would be available within ten years, or the MoD had been prepared to countenance joint military and civil use – there would have been no Sheffield airport.

The associated third charge, that “Robin Hood, Doncaster is too far away from Sheffield”, is just a joke.

As a regular business flyer on four continents, I can confirm that nearly all cities have lengthier city-to-airport times than Sheffield-to-Robin Hood.

Further, Sheffield alone could not generate enough demand to support the sort of high-fare, short-hop business flights that could use the limited airport, while the types of aircraft used by the new, expanding low-cost airlines could not use the airport because of the short runway. These were the killer blows.

To seek to compare Sheffield with London City Airport is just ill-informed and naïve.