Sheffield City Airport was a small

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

; 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) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

and Sheffield Parkway, and opened in 1997. The airport's CAA licence was withdrawn on 21 April 2008 and it was officially closed on 30 April 2008, and the site is now part of the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, with Yorkshire Forward, and developed by Harworth Gro ...

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 counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

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). There is a village h ...

Rotherham Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...

, 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 a certain weight and size. The term "STOLport" did not appear to be in common usage as of 2008, although wa ...

model similar to

London City Airport London City Airport is an international airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the London Borough of Newham, Borough of Newham, about east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the two centres ...

. 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, Sabena,

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

and

Aer Arann Stobart Air was an Irish regional airline based in Dublin, originating in 1970 and closing in 2021. It operated scheduled services under the brands Aer Lingus Regional, BA CityFlyer and KLM Cityhopper on behalf of their respective owners. S ...

offered regular passenger services to

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. 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 (LCC) or low-cost airline, also called a budget, or discount carrier or airline, is an airline that is operated with an emphasis on minimizing operating costs. It sacrifices certain traditional airline luxuries for cheaper fa ...

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

flight to Belfast City which later ceased in August 2002. Peel Airports, who were shortly to be opening Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield 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 air ...

were both reduced along with the withdrawal of published procedures for instrument approaches. A base for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance opened at the airport 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 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 Mayor Oliver Coppard. History The force was fo ...

air support unit and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. The air ambulance base was closed in 2010 and moved to Bagby Airfield near

Thirsk Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England; it is known for its racecourse and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby. History Archeological finds indicate there was a settlement in Thirsk aro ...

. 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 p ...

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 The airport apron, apron, flight line, or ramp is the area of an airport where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, boarded, or maintained. Although the use of the apron is covered by regulations, such as lighting on vehicles, it ...

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 Royal Air Force St Athan, or more simply RAF St Athan, is a large Ministry of Defence unit near the village of St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, sou ...

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