Concern for 800 Doncaster Sheffield Airport workers as consultation on future of unprofitable site launched
and live on Freeview channel 276
Airport bosses have ‘reluctantly concluded aviation activity may no longer be commercially viable’ and triggered a six-week consultation process set to conclude at the end of August.
The site at Finningley is a major employer through flight operations – passenger and cargo – and within the terminal, which has restaurants, shops, money exchange, hotels and car rental businesses.
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Hide AdIts website states it is in the process of ‘upgrading our facilities to include additional seating areas, a revamped Wetherspoons and a bigger range in Duty Free’.
Earlier this year it applied to the South Yorkshire mayor’s office to borrow £20m to finance big projects and safeguard and create jobs during the post pandemic recovery. It lost more than 80 per cent of customers at the height of the pandemic.
Owner the Peel Group has ploughed in £250m since 1999. Now bosses say it ‘never achieved the critical mass required to become profitable’.
The consultation aims to work out ‘how best to maximise and capitalise on future economic growth opportunities for Doncaster and the wider Sheffield City Region’.
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Hide AdThe wider Peel Group owns the adjoining GatewayEast development which has logistics and manufacturing space which it says is creating hundreds of jobs.
Robert Hough, chairman of Peel Airports Group, which includes Doncaster Sheffield Airport, said: “It is a critical time for aviation globally. Despite pandemic related travel restrictions slowly drawing to a close, we are still facing ongoing obstacles and dynamic long-term threats to the future of the aviation industry.”
