Doncaster Finningley Airport, DCS

Doncaster Finningley Airport

Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield (IATA: DSA, ICAO: EGCN) is an international airport located at the former RAF Finningley airbase in Finningley, South Yorkshire, England. The airport lies 6 nautical miles southeast of Doncaster and eighteen miles from Sheffield. The Airport principally serves the metropolitan counties of South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire moreover due to its key location, a population of more than six million potential customers can access the airport within a 60 minute drive.

The opening was marked by the first commercial flight from the airport, destined for Palma in Majorca, which departed exactly on time at 0915 on April 28, 2005. The Captain of the first flight from Robin Hood Airport was Paul Rafferty of Thomsonfly1. The airport is expected to see at least one million passengers during 2006. Three months after opening the airport had handled 300,000 passengers, by December 2005 the figure rose to 500,000 and within the first year had risen to 900,000 passengers. 60 weeks after opening, the airport had handled over 1 million passengers.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P876) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction.

The majority of flights from the airport are operated by Thomsonfly, with a few flights operated by Thomas Cook, Pegasus, Air Europa, BH Air, Wizzair, Flybe, Flyglobespan, Onur Air and Ryanair.

Facilities

The airport's runway has a length of 2,891 metres (9,485 feet) and a width of 60 metres (197 feet), making it longer and wider than those at many other airports in northern Britain. This capability may make the airport attractive to operators of wide-bodied, long-haul or older cargo-carrying aircraft. The reason the Airport has such a long runway stems from its history as a former long-range nuclear bomber base (see RAF Finningley). The Airport currently has a single runway designated 02/20 and there is significant room for further passenger and cargo capacity expansion when the market requires. Operators Peel Holdings also own Liverpool John Lennon Airport and Durham Tees Valley Airport.

Part of the Airport site is being developed into a Business and Technology Park which could potentially be linked with the M18 motorway via a link road at Junction 3. This in itself might attract further investment into the Region.

Due to open in late summer 2007 is a Ramada Encore chain hotel, which will have 150 bed capacity. Work is also progressing on a new 62 acre business park across from the terminal, which will link to a new access road into the airport via nearby Hurst Lane.

Airlines and destinations
Scheduled Flights

Flybe (Belfast-City)
Flyglobespan (Toronto-Hamilton [Starts May 2007])
Ryanair (Dublin, Girona, Pisa)
Shaheen Air International (Islamabad [Start tbc], Toronto [Start tbc])
Thomsonfly (Alicante, Amsterdam, Faro, Geneva [starts Winter 2007], Jersey, Málaga, Palma, Pisa, Prague, Salzburg)
Wizzair (Katowice, Gdansk [Starts Summer 2007])

Charter Flights
Summer Destinations

BH Air (Bourgas, Varna)
Nouvelair (Monastir)
Thomsonfly (Bodrum, Bourgas, Cancun, Corfu, Dalaman, Orlando-Sanford, Girona, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Larnaca, Malta, Menorca, Naples, Paphos, Pisa, Puerto Plata, Reus, Rhodes, Salzburg, Tenerife-South, Verona, Zakynthos)
Thomas Cook (Dalaman (Pegesus Airlines), Gran Canaria (Air Europa), Monastir (Nouvelair), Palma (Air Europa), Tenerife (Air Europa))

The Airport name

The name is now often simply referred to on travel websites and on other literature as Doncaster/Sheffield Airport or Doncaster Airport, even though the official name is Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield.