Wizz Air has confirmed that seven routes operating to Doncaster Sheffield (DSA) will shift to nearby Leeds Bradford (LBA) from the start of the winter 2022/23 season.
The move comes after Peel Group, which owns Doncaster Sheffield, announced plans to close the north of England airport after it struggled to secure what it called a “critical mass” of airlines. It will begin winding down operations from Oct. 31.
Wizz’s services to Doncaster Sheffield will operate as planned until Oct. 30, before moving to Leeds Bradford the following day. This includes flights from Gdansk (GDN), Katowice (KTW), Krakow (KRK), Warsaw (WAW) and Wroclaw (WRO) in Poland, as well as Bucharest (OTP) and Cluj-Napoca (CLJ) in Romania.
However, flights to Doncaster Sheffield from Vilnius (VNO) will end. Ryanair already serves the Lithuanian capital from Leeds Bradford.
Doncaster Sheffield, which served 1.4 million passengers in 2019, was first opened in 2005 by re-developing the runway and facilities of the former RAF Finningley.
Wizz has served DSA for the past 16 years and grew to become its largest operator, accounting for almost 50% of capacity in 2019. OAG figures show the ULCC offered some 367,000 departure seats during the year.
However, in June 2022 the ULCC axed a large number of routes from the airport, prompting a strategic review by Peel. Since the review was launched, Peel stated that no “tangible proposals” have been received regarding the airport’s ownership or address what it calls a “fundamental lack of financial viability.”
Related Content
