Funding Approved for Doncaster Sheffield Airport

[ECCOnoob]

2 hours ago, Anna B said:

all. When compared to the pristine airports we'd just come from,  this was real third world stuff....  

 

Oh it does so amuse me the way you chuck out that phrase.  Anna, you wouldn't know what third world is if it came and smacked you in the face.

 

There are people living in shanty towns in extreme poverty without access to basic  clean drinking water or public facility.... but oh diddums you had to stand in a long queue in a slightly dated airport terminal whilst they were doing repair works to the roof, all after you have stepped off your jet plane travelling from the other side of the world. 

 

When will those starving people in Ethiopia think about those really suffering.  Those poor passengers stood in a airport terminal  queue.  Oh my God the inhumanity....

[HairFarceOne]

5 hours ago, ECCOnoob said:

 

Oh it does so amuse me the way you chuck out that phrase.  Anna, you wouldn't know what third world is if it came and smacked you in the face.

 

There are people living in shanty towns in extreme poverty without access to basic  clean drinking water or public facility.... but oh diddums you had to stand in a long queue in a slightly dated airport terminal whilst they were doing repair works to the roof, all after you have stepped off your jet plane travelling from the other side of the world. 

 

When will those starving people in Ethiopia think about those really suffering.  Those poor passengers stood in a airport terminal  queue.  Oh my God the inhumanity....

Do you feel a little bit of a bigger person now?

I thought the idea of the forum was to discuss the topic, not denegrate the poster.

[Tony]

If I may.

 

1st World. What we know at "The West". Essentially the non Communist post WW2 nations that came to include Japan, S Korea, etc. 

 

2nd World. Essentially the post WW2 communist nations and those under their influence. Russia,the Soviet Bloc, much if S America, etc. the "enemy" if you like.

 

3rd World. The rest.

 

 

 

3rd World isn't meant to be a pejorative term. It's a Cold War geopolitical reference. 

Edited December 11, 2024 by Tony

[ECCOnoob]

2 hours ago, Tony said:

If I may.

 

1st World. What we know at "The West". Essentially the non Communist post WW2 nations that came to include Japan, S Korea, etc. 

 

2nd World. Essentially the post WW2 communist nations and those under their influence. Russia,the Soviet Bloc, much if S America, etc. the "enemy" if you like.

 

3rd World. The rest.

 

 

 

3rd World isn't meant to be a pejorative term. It's a Cold War geopolitical reference. 

 

Maybe so, but it was certainly meant as a pejorative by the earlier poster that's why they used it in their comparison. 

 

It's also pretty well known that colloquially the term third world refers to poor nations with high rates of extreme poverty, economic instability and high mortality.  

 

Doesn't detract from my point. It is absolutely ludicrous for a poster to seriously be comparing the minor inconvenience of standing in a queue at a slightly worn out and under maintenance terminal at Manchester Airport with the poverty, absence of basic infrastructure and hardship faced by people living in the real third world.

[Tony M]

You are trying to compare passenger numbers with Manchester and East Midlands but these are very well established airports whose operaters want them to succeed. Not like DSA where Peel wanted it to decline so that they could close it and then use it for warehouses and construct a housing estate on the land that they had aquired cheaply.  Similarly the Sheffield city airport where they bought the airport for £1 and closed it and have built industrial units on it.  They also tried that with other airports. Increasing costs to operators above what was profitable. With the right operator and proper negotiation on flights etc DSA would be a very viable and profitable enterprise that would also benefit a vast number of travellors. Don't forget, Manchester airport was very small once.  I remember visiting in the mid 1960's to see concorde's first flight there and it was just a viewing room and a small open area in the public part. The only runway went across a road where they had to stop the traffic whilst the plane landed.  Look at it now, we went there a few weeks ago and it's immense.  Doncaster can attract customers from a massive surrounding area and just needs some good management. Actually, have you even visited what you describe as a tin pot airport? I would be most surprised if you have as in area it is very similar in size (see google earth) to Manchester, Leeds and East Midlands!!

[ECCOnoob]

5 hours ago, Tony M said:

You are trying to compare passenger numbers with Manchester and East Midlands but these are very well established airports whose operaters want them to succeed. Not like DSA where Peel wanted it to decline so that they could close it and then use it for warehouses and construct a housing estate on the land that they had aquired cheaply.  Similarly the Sheffield city airport where they bought the airport for £1 and closed it and have built industrial units on it.  They also tried that with other airports. Increasing costs to operators above what was profitable. With the right operator and proper negotiation on flights etc DSA would be a very viable and profitable enterprise that would also benefit a vast number of travellors. Don't forget, Manchester airport was very small once.  I remember visiting in the mid 1960's to see concorde's first flight there and it was just a viewing room and a small open area in the public part. The only runway went across a road where they had to stop the traffic whilst the plane landed.  Look at it now, we went there a few weeks ago and it's immense.  Doncaster can attract customers from a massive surrounding area and just needs some good management. Actually, have you even visited what you describe as a tin pot airport? I would be most surprised if you have as in area it is very similar in size (see google earth) to Manchester, Leeds and East Midlands!!

 

Yes I have on several occasions. I am very aware of its geographical location. I'm also very aware that every time I visited it was for nothing more than some seasonal holiday package charter flight going out only on X day and coming back only on Y day. 

 

The thing was open for 17 plus years. It was not some case of Peel running it into the ground deliberately. It had 17 plus years to achieve something. It failed to secure a single big name airline with scheduled year round flights. It failed to secure a single flag carrier. It failed to secure any major freight operation.  Its passenger numbers, even at its absolute peak, were significantly behind its nearest rivals despite that large regional population you talk about.

 

We all know the story of Sheffield Airport. Which IMO was another vanity project.  What a genius idea! Building a tiny airport with a tiny runway squeezed in between a motorway offering nothing more than short city hopper flights for a selective crowd. Add it was launched at a time when business air travel was starting to decline and the rise of the big budget airlines with their big jets catering to the masses was on the rise, which embarrassingly Sheffield couldn't serve because it was too small.  It's was a totally misjudged market and totally inadequate location. They had delusions that people would be more than happy to fly from Sheffield and change and Amsterdam to reach their actual destination. That was a major catalyst in it's downfall. 

 

I admit, perhaps if DSA was opened way way back in time when and instead of Sheffield Airport then maybe it will have been in a better position to develop and compete. However, by the time it came along in 2005, the ship had sailed. This great region had already got several established airports, with established operators and established flight schedules all within 40 to 50 miles.  

 

If you have faith that the new DSA is going to be some roaring success 'properly' managed by civil servants then fine you can have your delusions. I don't buy into it. I'd rather my tax money was spent on more viable and pressing need transport projects in the region.  Not some ego trip for the regional mayor and his committee cronies. 

[geared]

For an airport Peel always wanted to fail, they sure pumped a ton of money into it.

 

 

[steveger1]

On 13/11/2024 at 09:26, HeHasRisen said:

Jet2 just announced their 13th UK base at Luton. Probably another boat missed.

Jet2 are currently having "talks" with Doncaster Council about DSA, was in the news before Christmas and TUI have already said they will return.

[HeHasRisen]

1 hour ago, steveger1 said:

Jet2 are currently having "talks" with Doncaster Council about DSA, was in the news before Christmas and TUI have already said they will return.

With their one plane no doubt. More use than ornament.