What ghost airports in the UK could be brought back to life?

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Some UK airports have been very successful, with Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted all rebounding strongly following the coronavirus pandemic. Heathrow, the UK's busiest airport, handled a record average of 200,000 passengers per day in February.

However, some smaller UK airports do not register even 200,000 travelers a year. Many people rely on public subsidies to survive for social and economic reasons. Highlands and Islands Airports, which manages 11 airports in Scotland, received $56 million in grants in the most recent financial year. This amounts to a whopping $40 per passenger using the airport.

Other airports are not so lucky. This century, six UK airports have closed, with Doncaster Sheffield being the most recent. A South Yorkshire airport has been put up for rescue bid 16 months after the last passengers left.

So which airports are toast and which can be revived? Key questions and answers.

6 airports closed to commercial flights this century

sheffield city

South Yorkshire's first airport services began in 1998 with domestic connections to London City, Belfast City and Jersey, and international connections to Amsterdam, Brussels and Dublin. The route was gradually canceled, with the last flight to and from Belfast City in August 2002.

Can we reopen? no. The site is now part of Sheffield Business Park.

coventry

This is a strange one. Baginton Airfield, south-east of Coventry, has been in operation since 1936. In 2004, travel giant Tui decided to establish a new low-cost airline, Thomsonfly, in Coventry and purchased the airport.

It was thought that operating from its own airport would be cheaper and easier than using Birmingham (13 miles west) or the East Midlands (33 miles north).

The facility consists of a jumble of temporary buildings. Thomsonfly, a late and poor response to the success of easyJet and Ryanair, duly took off, and over the next four years a significant Mediterranean-focused network was established in Coventry. Even Wizz Air has flights to Gdansk and Katowice. But ThompsonFly left in 2008 after the High Court struck down plans to build a permanent terminal. Permanently.

Tui now has a thriving presence at Birmingham Airport, but now faces competition from easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2.

Can we reopen? Coventry Airport continues to function as a general aviation airfield for small aircraft. There are no plans for a commercial revival.

Temporary terminal: Thomsonfly's first day at Coventry Airport

(Simon Calder)

Plymouth City

The airport north of the city center opened in 1925. Like many smaller airports, this one was closed by British Airways while domestic flights were suspended. The one time I used this service, in 2004, there were only 9 passengers on an Air Southwest flight from Newquay (39 miles away) to Gatwick (179 miles away). Other links lead to Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, Jersey and Cardiff, just 75 miles away by air, but more than twice as close by road or rail. The airport closed in 2011.

Can we reopen? That's according to Plymouth City Council leader Tudor Evans. Last month he said: We are a major city. We have ambitions to grow and prosper and the airport must be part of that story.

Manston

What could go wrong? The former RAF Manston is located on the Isle of Thanet, north-east Kent. This brings huge benefits to Manston Airport. Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Amsterdam are at least 20 minutes closer to Manston than Heathrow. The lightly used airport in a remote part of Kent, 66 miles from central London, avoids congestion over and on the ground over London, the world's busiest air traffic control space.

It is easily accessible from the capital via the M2 and A299 (the motorway leading to Thanet). Thanks to the HS1 rail line, Ramsgate station is just 79 minutes from London St Pancras and around 5 minutes from the airport.

However, repeated attempts to establish regular flights from Manston have failed. In September 2004, I boarded my first EUjet flight to Dublin. The following July, the airline went bankrupt. Since then, Flybe has collapsed not once, but twice. But before doing so, the regional airline cut its routes from Manston to Edinburgh and Belfast.

KLM's Amsterdam service was launched from Manston, but not financially. The last scheduled flight from Manston departed for the Dutch capital on 9 April 2014. Since then, the airport has had a fairly lucrative sideline as a staging lorry park for Brexit-related traffic disruptions in Kent.

Can we reopen? Yes, according to RiverOak Strategic Partners, the goal is to revive Manston Airport into a successful and profitable air cargo hub of national importance with complementary passenger and engineering services.

Poor Fokker: Manston Airport on EUjet launch that lasted less than a year with Fokker 100 aircraft.

(Simon Calder)

blackpool

2014 was not a good year for small airports in the UK. With Manston closed, Blackpool Airport on the Lancashire coast was in the death throes with regard to scheduled flights. Squires Gate Airport has an interesting history. Over the years many routes have come and gone, including frequent Ryanair jet connections to Stansted, a Tui charter program to the Med and a prop jet connection to Biggin Hill airfield on the London-Kent border. The restoration of direct trains from Blackpool to London appears to be coming to an end. The last passenger flight departed in October 2015.

Can we reopen? Blackpool is open and thriving for general aviation and business flights. In 2022, it handled more flights than Teesside, Leeds Bradford, Bournemouth and Southampton. But just 85 minutes away by direct train from Manchester Airport, the prospects for more passenger flights look bleak.

doncaster sheffield

RAF Finningley, six miles from Doncaster and 19 miles from Sheffield, closed in 1995. Ten years later, it reopened as Robin Hood Airport with Tui enthusiastically supporting a new, affordable departure point for UK holidaymakers. However, Doncaster Sheffield has four competing airports within an hour's drive. It is 28 miles from Humberside, 38 miles from Leeds Bradford, 46 miles from East Midlands and 53 miles from Manchester. DSA will close in 2022. Owners Peel Group said at the time: No substantive proposals have been received to address the fundamental lack of airport ownership or financial viability. Then-Prime Minister Liz Truss' promises to protect the airport and its infrastructure did not work. The last flight landed in November 2022.

Can we reopen? yes. The mayor of Doncaster, Labor Ros Jones, signed a deal for the local council to take over the airport. However, it is unclear which airport operators would be interested in operating DSA or which airlines would fly there.

About financial life support

Each country in the UK has an airport that is maintained through heavy subsidies.

Prestwick, Scotland

This stunning airport, located southwest of Glasgow, is celebrated as the only British soil where Elvis Presley set foot while refueling for a US military flight from Germany to the US. For decades, Prestwick was a major transatlantic airport with British Airways departing daily for New York. However, its location on the beautiful Ayrshire coast makes it difficult for many people in Scotland and the route gradually erodes. In October 1995, Ryanair took the revolutionary step of opening a new domestic route to the UK for 19 years, from Prestwick to London Stansted. Ryanair is still the only commercial operator operating two to three flights a day from Prestwick. The Scottish Government owns Prestwick and it remains the Minister's long-term intention to return Prestwick Airport to the private sector at the appropriate opportunity.

Are you going somewhere? Prestwick is serviced by Ryanair several times a day.

(Simon Calder)

Teesside, England

The airport, which has just two trains a week to the train station, was a basket case when Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen brought it back into public ownership rather than allow Peel Holdings to level the site and build houses. Teesside was the first airport in the UK to abolish the 100ml limit on liquids in hand baggage. Apart from that, the main interesting point is that there is a link to Amsterdam twice a day and the occasional Ryanair flight. Last year the airport lost 2.26m, equivalent to exactly 10 passengers.

Cardiff, Wales

Cardiff's passenger numbers have roughly halved over the past 20 years, but Bristol Airport is now handling around twice as many passengers in the same period. The capital's airport, located southwest of the city, is struggling to get passenger traffic back to pre-pandemic levels. While almost all UK airports saw growth in 2023 compared to a year ago, the latest figures from the Civil Aviation Authority show a slight decline in Cardiff, with just 837,000 passengers using the airport.

By March 2023, annual losses totaled $4.5 million, with the Welsh Government subsidizing $5.3 million.

city ​​of Derry, Northern Ireland

CoDA is an excellent gateway to the cities of Derry/Londonderry and County Donegal in the Republic. But as Northern Ireland's third airport, after Belfast International Airport and George Best Belfast City, it has always had its challenges. It costs more than $3 million a year to maintain the airport, and the local council is seeking additional funding from Stormont.

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