Airport in “advanced talks” with major cargo customer

The business, which is unnamed due to the sensitivity of commercial relationships, believes the move could save them around £20m from their supply-chain costs every year, realising shareholder value and improving the customer experience. 

Freight integrators exist to provide logistics solutions, using their own assets – for example vehicles. The operation would predominantly comprise of international long-haul freight flights landing at Doncaster Sheffield Airport at a rate of up to 20 per week on wide-body aircraft. Plans would also include taking premises in the vicinity of the airport, potentially bringing hundreds of additional jobs to the area.

Gary Winterman, Head of Cargo and General Aviation at the airport said: “This is a major international business looking to locate their operations at Doncaster Sheffield Airport. What’s more, they want to execute these plans as soon as humanly possible, which is something the experienced team here at the airport stand ready to deliver.”

“This business aren’t in discussions with any alternative airports for this project – DSA is a unique site with unique attributes that can bring massive value to their operations. We are seeing a huge amount of interest in this site, which will bring jobs and economic activity to the airport in the short to medium term.” 

Simon Hinchley, Executive Director of Airport Operations at Doncaster Sheffield Airport said: “This airport has all the right attributes for a freight contract of this size, with one of the longest and widest runways of its type in the country, capable of handling the largest aircraft types. We have held very positive discussions over recent weeks, which has included the senior management of this particular organisation visiting site and talking with us in detail about their requirements and potential volumes. Not only do we have the runway, but we have the onward transport links and the land available for warehousing to accommodate a business operation of this scale.”

Christian Foster, Director of operator FlyDoncaster  Ltd said: “We have always said that there is a huge opportunity to expand upon the freight operations here at the airport. Before 2022, freight operations peaked at around 24,000 tonnes of freight per annum. We know there is significant capacity to increase this, and the interested party would do so more than threefold at a stroke. This demonstrates the significant amount of interest that exists around DSA and the role the airport will play in helping to re-shape the UK supply-chain.”

Doncaster Sheffield Airport is undergoing a transformation, with significant investment in people, technology and infrastructure. This has included investment in the buildings on site and the recruitment of around 50 people so far.

The interested party, upon agreement of terms, wants to move forward with this project 'as soon as possible', which subject to regulatory approval could mean before the completion of the ongoing Airspace Change Process (ACP) which is due to conclude in Spring 2027.