ABOVE: Wizzair opened a new base at Doncaster in 2020, but acrimoniously left in July 2022

The Peel Group, owners of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) have confirmed that the airport is to close, despite strong opposition to the move (see last month’s Notes). In a statement confirming the closure, Robert Hough, Chairman of Peel Airports Group, said “we recognise that this will come as a great disappointment to many. The intractable problem remains the fundamental and insufficient lack of current or prospective revenue streams, together with the airport’s high operating costs.” Peel said services at the airport, which employs eight hundred people, would wind down from 31 October.

Peel has also rejected an offer of public money to keep the airport operating into 2023, according to South Yorkshire’s mayor Oliver Coppard. Doncaster’s mayor Ros Jones and Coppard have also written to Peel to “urge them to seriously consider offers for the purchase of the site.” In a statement, Ms Jones said that Peel “need to accept the public sector offer to cover their losses for 13 months while negotiations of a sale are progressed and concluded.”

More than 100,000 people have signed a petition urging the government to save the airport.

PHOTO: AIRBUS