The locals wanted to, quite rightly, call it Douglas Barder Airport. However, the first flight operator to pledge flights out of Finningley, was Thomson, on condition that they got to name it. They then did market research worldwide asking people what came to mind when they thought of South Yorkshire (Doncaster-Sheffield), and Robin Hood was the result. Shame really. I can’t quite imagine someone in, say, Fiji, thinking ‘Doncaster, Sheffield. Robin Hood!’ when the locals of Finningley’s Douglas Barder suggestion was far more apt.
Douglas Bader was born in London, didn’t live in Donny that long and moved back down south. I like the fact we’ve named the new square in town after Nigel Gresley, a genuine local legend.
I like you, as a poster, genuinely, I do. But that does come across as somewhat patronising. I know where Douglas Barder is from, despite not knowing how to spell his name correctly. Back when Finningley was applying for planning to become a commercial airport, there was a local committee, out there called F.L.Y. (Finningley Locals say Yes) and it was they who threw their backing behind the Douglas BADER link, and we’re terribly disappointed that Robin Hood was chosen.
Soz, trying to multi task I can understand why some would have liked Bader to be chosen. I don’t share the view. though I was as surprised as anyone when they chose Robin Hood, and the only upside is that we get to tell people about the link. Personally I’d have liked simply DoncasterAirport or South Yorkshire Airport. It’s surprising how many folk from Yorkshire never consider flying from here, as everyone I know who’s used it loves it.
It shares (with EMA) the facility to park up and walk to the terminal. But what would be really handy would be for Jet2 to use it. Probably unlikely, as they already operate out of Leeds, Manchester and EMA. But I think they'd do well out of the South Yorkshire/Humberside/Lincolnshire catchment.
Makes no sense for us to park there, we usually get a lift or a taxi. But they could do with another airline, I liked when we had Ryanair, did Amsterdam and Dublin twice. Also did Paris the other year and can’t for the life of me remember the airline (BMI baby?) Leeds Bradford is a nightmare to get to even from South Leeds. But they’re planning better links now.
It is, by far, the best airport I have ever flown from. The only time I flew from there, it literally took 5 minutes from gaining access to the car park, to being checked in and sat in Weatherspoon’s with a Wetherspoons priced pint, it was a dream. But it is so expensive to fly from there unless you really drop on a bargain flight. I know a bloke who lives on Hirst Lane, Auckley, who owns a home in Spain. He could literally walk to Finningley airport, from home, but even he has only flown from there once as Birmingham, East Midlands, Leeds are so much cheaper.
I can’t say we’ve noticed it costing so much more, in fact I know people who travel from quite far to fly from here. edit: I just randomly picked the holiday we had in Kos this year, to book for next. Cheapest Airport was Donny, alternative flights were all more expensive, ranging from £9.40 pp for the same day from Manchester to £239.70 pp for East Midlands. Now I didn't go looking for a bargain, it's quite possible if I was looking for something different the results would have differed, I just picked a similar date and the same hotel we did this year.