Sheffield City Airport R.I.P.

At 20h00 this evening, Sheffield reclaimed a title it’s not held since 1997 - the city (population 525,800) is now the largest in Europe without its own airport.

Sheffield City Airport has closed tonight, barely eleven years after it opened. The airport lost commercial service in 2002, supposedly because of post-9/11 travel fears, but more reasonably because low cost airlines never established service. The runway was built frustratingly short - too short for a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320, the two aircraft that now dominate low cost airline service in Europe.

When I arrived in Sheffield in 2001/2, the City Airport had (if my facts are straight) multiple daily flights to Amsterdam, Belfast, Brussels, Dublin, London City and Jersey. British Airways, AirUK, Sabena and numerous smaller charter operators all used the airport, which still features the beautifully simple little terminal building designed for it by Sheffield City Council’s architecture department. It was, by all accounts, a delightful little airport to fly in and out of, barely 10km from the city centre.

I’ve heard many grumbles from other Sheffielders about the airport’s demise (see this thread on the lively Sheffield Forum), namely that Peel Airports who own the site entered into an agreement with the City Council that basically allowed them to buy the airport land for a single figure sum if they could prove that the airport had no commercial future. Their attempts to draw new airlines and services to the airport were notably languid. Understandable really, since they were far too busy investing in and developing the all new Robin Hood Airport about thirty kilometers away in Finningley. Many blamed the short runway for limiting commercial service, although many airlines (Eastern Airways, FlyBe etc) are doing very well operating regional links in planes that could use Sheffield City.

After commercial service ended in 2002, the airport continued as a private aviation airfield, with pleasure flights and private aircraft using the landing strip. The South Yorkshire Ambulance and Police have helicopters stationed there, and they’ll continue to use a limited heliport facility. The runway and the rest of the site will be torn up to form a business park.

Late night cheese

The days are getting longer, not just in terms of hours but in terms of workload. This is most noticeable in my eating habits, since I’m getting home later and later and usually missing the opening hours of the Co-Op or the local wholefoods shop. Late night visits to the Crookes or Crookesmoor Co-Op are normally undertaken in the final fifteen minutes before closing time, as last minute fresh mark-downs are identified by their little yellow tags and snagged before another hungry student finds them.

Weekly promotions are also worth looking out for. Like this special on prepacked cheeses. Twenty percent off a range of British cheddars. Except the “per 250g” pricing scale seems to have been confused. Look closely at the two price tags above.

Thank god there’s twenty percent off. I doubt I could afford that at normal price: £45 per kilo of “Truly Irresistable Goulds Farmhouse Cheddar”.

WordPress meltdown

Sorry, no posts from me this week… work has piled up and WordPress has “upgraded” to a new publishing interface, which has buggered my attempts to post images. I’ll take the time it’ll need to relearn WordPress once I’ve cleared this backlog.

Snapshots: Thetford Station