According to the yorkshire post the closure is imminent.
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1080939
Another council white elephant that we are all paying for.
Although it seems a small strip will be left for private aircraft.
So Mr Helicopter may yet keep his own personal airfield ;)

The airport doesn't currently cost Sheffield anything.

The company which makes the alleged losses also makes a great deal of money from property adjacent to the airport.

The airport is overmanned. Since the airport only really has private flights it does not need many of the staff or facilities to operate legally. Anyone in any doubt should visit the airport and see how many staff it employs whilsts "losing money". Other airprorts in the UK manage to break even or turn a profit by operating on a very small staff. Since the operators can buy the freehold for £1 if it fails then you can draw your own conclusions about whether it is to their advantage to cut staff and facilities to a level where it might break even.

The idea of cutting the runway length is to appear to keep a runway while also being able to build more offices. Will these offices and their rents be included in the overall profitability? In fact the proposed runway length has been set at a length which is just too short for a great number of aircraft. This will mean that there are even less people using it and so they will be able to shrug their shoulders and say theyhave to close the entire airport.

Originally posted by matsalleh
According to the yorkshire post the closure is imminent.


Well, theres something we never expected. Sad really as Sheffield had so much potential to have an airport as great as Manchester and Birmingham. :(

Originally posted by Lestat
Well, theres something we never expected. Sad really as Sheffield had so much potential to have an airport as great as Manchester and Birmingham. :( And where the hell would we have built this airport as big as Manchester and Birmingham then?

Just by extending the airport . . get rid of all those huge crappy discount stores like Big W and JTF etc. The pakway could be re-lined so it leads in and around.

Originally posted by Jon
And where the hell would we have built this airport as big as Manchester and Birmingham then? On a piece of land situated between the Parkway and Tinsley train yard.. Oh no, let's build hotels and Carcraft on it to make it fail and then say there aint enough land !

Originally posted by KenH
The airport doesn't currently cost Sheffield anything.

It actually makes something - Sheffield a laughing stock, in that it can't even build an airport properly.

This airport had great potential and I used it on several occasions. Like Captain_scarlet said, there was plenty of undeveloped waste land in the area, the runway was there long before any access roads or any of the industrial buildings.

Originally posted by Lestat
Sheffield had so much potential to have an airport as great as Manchester and Birmingham. :(

we have got one its called sheffield doncaster,robinhood,maid marion,sherwood forest,little john..or summat like that:)

Originally posted by kirky
we have got one its called sheffield doncaster,robinhood,maid marion,sherwood forest,little john..or summat like that:)

Doncaster Robin Hood Airport actually..

Originally posted by Rich
Doncaster Robin Hood Airport actually..

i didn't know that:rolleyes:

It is also not true that there isn't room to extend it. There is room for an extension at the Parkway end without moving the parkway (the runway is at an angle to the parkway). If you take a drive past there now you will see that they are already building roads for new offices where the approach lighting currently is.

The same Quangos that were set up for the Student Games, building the airport and now, renovating the city centre generally have the same faces on them. Many people don't seem to care that the airport was built with public money but is being run down. Will those same people care if in ten years time we find that a private company can buy tracts of the city centre for £1?

What most annoys me about the possible closure of Sheffield Airport (Rotherham Airport in reality seeing as they built it on the edge of our town because they didn't want the noise) - is the fact they ripped up and flattened a wonderful ancient woodland not to mention a beautiful golf course, all for nothing it seems.

Living in nearby Brinsworth as a kid I spent many happy hours playing with my pals in Tinsley woods, it was wonderful in there, mature oaks to climb, bluebells, trails, thick in bracken ... what fun we had as children in there.

When I was older I played golf many times on the old great course, they ripped half of that up too, they chopped down thousands of trees and built something nobody in this area even wanted .... now they're considering shutting it all down .... someone should be held accountable for this debacle.

Boy does is really annoy me that they DESTROYED such a beautiful area FOR NOTHING MUCH MORE THAN AN UNUSED LANDING PAD.

Originally posted by Billy24


Boy does is really annoy me that they DESTROYED such a beautiful area FOR NOTHING MUCH MORE THAN AN UNUSED LANDING PAD.

But now there is an airport there. Once it goes there will be a series of offices and maybe even a retail park or two. If the developers are really lucky then they may be allowed to build hundreds of "luxury aparttments". You'll never get your wood back that's for sure.

It also isn't true that is is unused. It is used quite a lot by a whole variety of people. The problem is that the aviation activities alone don't generate enough income to keep it running in its current state. However, if you factor in rents and other icnome from the associated business park then it is aquite different story.

Well obviously i know we're never going to get our woodland back Ken, that's not what i was saying .... the whole venture has been a complete waste of YOUR money mate .. YOU paid for it, so go on, enjoy it.




PS,
Give us a wave from an Heliflight!!!

It certainly has been a waste of money but it needn't have been and it could still be salvaged if the council has some guts.

I am appalled at this waste of money but the real issue behind this is making sure it can never happen again and possibly even trying to see what action can be taken against those involved the first time.

I can't help thinking that having a clause whereby the freehold can be bought for £1 if it is unprofitable is not a good idea. This condition was negotiated by an unelected quango. What other deals will such people get away with in the future? It is also important to note that they still have 3 years before they have have it for a quid and yet they are having the cheek to ask for a partial closure now so they can build yet more offices.

Originally posted by Rich
Doncaster Robin Hood Airport actually..

I prefer Kirky's name for the Finningly site.........it has a certain ring to it :P

Sorry to say this but

the new larger airport in south yorkshire

is officially called


'Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield'

As we have said so many times on other threads Sheffield council love to waste money by building things knocking them down and rebuilding. They can't have had Lego sets as kids.

Yes, very much agree with all those points ken.

Originally posted by desy
As we have said so many times on other threads Sheffield council love to waste money by building things knocking them down and rebuilding. They can't have had Lego sets as kids.

Sheffield Council had nothing to do with this. It was an unelected qango. However, if they have some guts they can stop the airport being ripped up.

Its sad but look on the bright side. Doncaster has loads more land and if there is a massive disaster and a plane crashes into a populated area - who cares - it's only doncaster! EVERY cloud.......;)

People will be able to look back and say "Ee, when I were nobbut a lad, this were all airports."

Its all about land grabbing gits and making millions. It was apparently agreed that if the airport was a failure, the leaseowners of the land could aquire it for a VERY small sum. Peel holdings stepped in to buy 50% shares, made sure the aiport was a failure, grabbed the land and made millions on redevelopment.
Sheffield aiport could have been a success withoubt doubt, but money matters.
Sheffield a 'fashionable city' don't make me laugh !!!!

Yeah , Scenic , it makes you think.
Whatever the excuses and reasons for closure , it seems very strange that a city the size of Sheffield , with its 3 or 4 nearby satellite towns and cities , can't have a successful airport.
Much smaller places than Sheffield seem to manage o.k.but our lot always manage to come up with some wonderful excuses.
Your suggestion sounds as if it has the ring of truth to it !

Originally posted by kirky
i didn't know that:rolleyes: And the fact the airport is in Doncaster, not Sheffield...

I have read the replies on this topic and have a few points to make. It will be madness to get rid of this facility after all that has been spent and land sacrified to give us something the other major cities (we were the fifth largest last time I checked...) take for granted as part of their transport infrastructure. One of the reasons cited for closure is that there are other airport/airfields nearby - which in flying terms is true. However, practically the nearest place is Netherthorpe (private airfield), near Shireoaks, Notts. or Doncaster (Lets be rate here its Doncaster, Finningley NOT the balls up of a name that they concockted, which bears no relation to real geography!)

The main reasons that I can see is 9/11 and the loss of the airlines operating out of the airport. On top of this is the fact that the biggest f**k up was in the planning. Someone failed to do some technical reasearch and make sure that the runway was of sufficient length to make the facility viable for short haul flights.

On a personal note I want to make a career in General Aviation if Sheffield goes thats gonna put a big spanner in my works. I wouldn't consider myself well-off by any stretch of the amagination but I want to be a pilot and make that my career. Whatever happens tho it ain't gonna stop me, it'll just make things harder. If anyone from Sheffield City Council are reading this get your financial priorities in order and don't be in blind rush to cut off your nose to spite your face:mad: !!!!! The sad fact it seems with hindsight is that this venture was, as seems likely, doomed to fail before it left the drawing board.:(

The council commissioned a report and that is now published on the council web site. Having read it I can tell you that the airport is almost certainly doomed.

There are some interesting snippets of information in the report that should be communicated to the council because they are well hidden. It seems that the airport made a £150,000 profit last year until some large overheads were acounted for including the parent company charging a ground rent that it set at a very high rate because the land could be used for offices. That seems a bit catch 22, in that the rent is very high because the land could be offices so the airport then makes a loss so they get to own it for £1 and, err, build offices.

Another point is that many of the running costs could be cut, and so make a bigger profit, but for the fact that the airport is obliged to keep a certain level of service (called C-2). This means that although there are no commercial flights they still have a full fire station amongst other things. Similar airports in the UK would have far fewer staff and so make more money. If this clause was reviewed and the ground rent was reduced then the airport would be profitable and so would stay open.

The third ppint in the report is that the airport owners are asking to reduce the runway length to 642M (about half its current length) and to build offices on the other half. It seems that the position of the proposed offices will actually mean the take off length on westerly takeoffs (the normal direction for the prevailing winds in the UK) would be 530M. With light aircraft there is a formula for calculating takeoff distance required which, amongst other things, adds a third to the handbook figures for training flights. This means that many aircraft will no longer be able to operate from Sheffield. With a shorter runway they will not sell as much fuel since nobody will take off form a short runway with heavy tanks and yet much of their profit last year came from fuel sales.

The council could still stop the airport closing but there is a snag, if they wait 2 years then they will get nothing. If, however, they negotiate now then they may get a cut of any development. It seems that there is a clause in the original clause giving the council a percentage of development returns once the developers have been repaid for their losses. If this was to happen now then the council might get something, if they wait two years then they will probably get nothing.

Originally posted by Billy24
not to mention a beautiful golf course, all for nothing it seems.

Would that be the one up the road from Brinny Comp, under the bridge, turn right, past the marshelling yard onto the dirt track.


If so, I should be happy as it was the old cross country route when I was at Brinny Comp (1983-1988)

On the front page of the Sheffield City council website (http://www.sheffield.gov.uk):

"Following an independent report earlier this year which showed that Sheffield City Airport was not commercially viable to continue to operate, Sheffield City Council’s Cabinet have agreed to early release from the 10 year lease, subject to successful negotiations with the Airport's operator. It will now go to Council for a final decision on 27th July."

Originally posted by KenH
... if the council has some guts. ... but the real issue behind this is making sure it can never happen again and possibly even trying to see what action can be taken against those involved the first time. .... clause whereby the freehold can be bought for £1 if it is unprofitable is not a good idea. This condition was negotiated by an unelected quango. ... It is also important to note that they still have 3 years before they have have it for a quid and yet they are having the cheek to ask for a partial closure now so they can build yet more offices



That is surely the nub of the issue: IF the Council has some guts. And quite which bright spark authorised a contract with a built-in agreement that the freehold can be bought for £1 if it is not profitable is NOT good business sense. So what sort of deal was done to turn a blind eye to that one.