Sheffield City Airport was a small

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

; it is now closed. It was in the Tinsley Park area of the city, near the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

and

Sheffield Parkway The Sheffield Parkway is a major dual carriageway which runs between the City of Sheffield and junction 33 of the M1 in South Yorkshire, England. The road was opened in 1974. Route The route runs east of the City, connecting Park Square in ...

, and opened in 1997. The airport's

CAA CAA may refer to: Law * Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 of India ** Citizenship Amendment Act protests, Protests regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act * Copyright transfer agreement, Copyright assignment agreement, to transfer copyright to ...

licence was withdrawn on 21 April 2008 and it was officially closed on 30 April 2008, and the site is now part of the

Advanced Manufacturing Park The Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) is a manufacturing technology park in Waverley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It was partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund, and developed by thHarworth Group previously the prop ...

with various manufacturing businesses. Sheffield Business Centre and Tower 22 10 2018 1

History

Planning

Although an early proposal was made in 1968 to build an airport in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

on land near

Todwick Todwick is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 1,637, reducing marginally to 1,634 at the 2011 Census, and contains a primary school (junior and infants) and a nursery, Todwick ...

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

, the scheme came to nothing. Almost thirty years later, a consultant report suggested that Sheffield would benefit from a short-runway

STOLPORT A STOLport or STOLPORT was an airport designed with STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) operations in mind, usually for an aircraft class of certain weight and size. The term "STOLport" did not appear to be in common usage as of 2008, although was c ...

model similar to

London City Airport London City Airport is a regional airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the Borough of Newham, approximately east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the twin centres of London's financial ...

. The main lack of an airport in Sheffield is due primarily to the fact there is only a limited area of flat land large enough for it. In fact the size of the airport which was eventually built was determined by this geographical factor, se
topographical map of the Sheffield area
It is not coincidental that Sheffield is built on hills because the resultant rivers powered the development of its most famous industries, namely steel making and engineering.

Operations

The airport opened in 1997. Scheduled flights began on 16 February 1998. Airlines

KLM uk KLM uk was the brand name of a British airline subsidiary of KLM, which operated services within the UK and between the UK and the Netherlands using ATR-72, Fokker 50 and Fokker 100 aircraft. KLM uk had its headquarters in the Stansted House ...

Sabena The ''Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne'' (French; ), better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels National Airport. After its ba ...

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

and

Aer Arann Stobart Air, legally incorporated as ''Stobart Air Unlimited Company'', was an Irish regional airline headquartered in Dublin. It operated scheduled services under the brands Aer Lingus Regional, BA CityFlyer and KLM Cityhopper on behalf of t ...

offered regular passenger services to

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The

service was described by KLM UK as the best start-up they had ever experienced. Passenger figures were: * 46,000 in 1998 * 75,000 in 1999 * 60,000 in 2000 * 33,000 in 2001 * 13,000 in 2002

Demise

Sheffield City opened just as the

low-cost airline A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

revolution began in the UK, a change that rapidly made the high-fare short-hop business flights model obsolete. Likewise the length of the runway limited the range of aircraft types that could use Sheffield. Most of the early low-cost airlines had planes that were unable to land at Sheffield. Nevertheless,

Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield Doncaster Sheffield Airport , formerly named and commonly referred to as Robin Hood Airport, is an unscheduled international airport closed to passenger traffic. The airport is located in Finningley near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England ...

, which did have a larger runway, struggled to attract such airlines. By November 2001 only the only remaining schedules flights at the airport was the twice daily

flight to Belfast City which later ceased in August 2002.

Peel Airports The Peel Group is a British infrastructure and property investment business, based in Manchester. In 2022, its Peel Land and Property estate extends to of buildings, and over of land and water. Peel retains minority stakes in its former ports ...

, who were shortly to be opening

airport, purchased the site in 2002. By then, the airport terminal interior had already been converted to office accommodation. Fire and rescue cover and

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

were both reduced along with the withdrawal of published procedures for instrument approaches. A base for the

Yorkshire Air Ambulance Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA) is a dedicated helicopter emergency air ambulance for the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It was established in October 2000, and currently operates two Airbus H145 aircraft. It is an independent char ...

opened at the airport opened on 25 October 2007.

Closure and redevelopment

Controversy surrounds whether Peel Airports had any incentive to promote the airport. The original lease between the

Sheffield Development Corporation The Sheffield Development Corporation (SDC) was created in 1988 to oversee the urban regeneration of the Lower Don Valley area of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. History The area had been the major industrial region of Sheffield but had gone ...

and Tinsley Park Ltd included a reversionary clause permitting the buyback of of land for £1, if it could be shown that - after 10 years of opening - the airport was not financially viable. Peel's proposal to turn the airport into Sheffield Business Park was advertising land at up to £220 per square foot. The estimated profit on the site was more than £1,000,000. On 22 November 2012, the South and East Yorkshire Branch of the

Federation of Small Businesses The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is a UK business organisation representing small and medium-sized businesses. It was formed in 1974 as the National Federation of Self Employed (NFSE). The current name for the organisation was adopted in ...

launched a campaign and petition against the redevelopment of the airport site. They wanted the airport's potential to be reassessed. Three weeks later, a mystery bidder made a bid to Sheffield City Council to reopen the airport. However, nothing came of this and construction work began in 2014. The heliport remained in operation after closure for use by the

South Yorkshire Police South Yorkshire Police (SYP) is the territorial police force responsible for policing South Yorkshire in England. The force is led by Chief Constable Lauren Poultney. Oversight is conducted by Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings. T ...

air support unit and the

. The air ambulance base was closed in 2010 and moved to Bagby airfield near

Thirsk Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England known for its racecourse; quirky yarnbomber displays, and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby. History Archeological ...

. The police helicopter base closed by the

National Police Air Service The National Police Air Service (NPAS) is a police aviation service that provides centralised air support to the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, as well as the three special police forces serving that area. It replaced the pr ...

on 1 February 2016 bringing an end to aviation activity at the site. The former terminal building and control tower have since been converted into office accommodation. The former Airport apron is now used as a car park. The ICAO identifier EGSY was reassigned to

MOD St Athan Ministry of Defence St Athan or MOD St Athan (Welsh: Maes awyr Sain Tathan), formerly known as RAF St Athan, is a large Ministry of Defence unit near the village of St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, southern Wales. It was the designated site for ...

from 1 April 2019.

Accidents and incidents

* On 4 February 2001, Short 360-100 registration ''EI-BPD'', carrying 25 passengers and three crew, was damaged beyond repair following a hard landing at Sheffield City Airport after a scheduled Aer Arann Express passenger flight from

. There were no injuries.

References

External links

Sources for the history of Sheffield's Airports
Produced by Sheffield City Council's Libraries and Archives
Council information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheffield City Airport and Heliport Defunct airports in England Transport in Sheffield Heliports in England Airports in Yorkshire Airports established in 1997 Airports disestablished in 2008