Is your downtown airport at risk of closure?

[canair67]

I have watched ours (CYXD) progressivley reduced to a trickle of what it once handled. All larger passeger jet/prop service was moved south 30km to the Edmonton international (CYEG) citing more efficientcy. The move has been incredibly inefficient when any passenger has a $50 cab fare and a good hour to get downtown. To catch a 732 or BAE 146 to Calgary and within the province was to quick and close. Any successful city has good air service close to it's city center and ought not remove it.A stupid move being pondered on the part of our city we will find the decision of in June.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_City_Centre_(Blatchford_Field)_Airport

[ptbodale]

Like most downtown airports it is the neighbours that kill them off. Air Canada/Air BC used YXD but the neighbours kept complaining so flights eventually moved out to YEG.

I live in Peterborough and we have a lake in the downtown that was used for floatplanes (not commercial) but they are gone now as well as people who live along the waterfront kept complaining and whining.

In YYZ, where I work, YTZ is doing well despite the municipal gov't, including the Mayor, trying to shut it down. So far the neighbours and the politicians are losing.

[ASpilot2be]

I cant seen Anchorage closing down Merrill field anytime soon.

[Big777jet]

I noticed most downtown airports are closing. Closed airports: (All I can think of)

Chicago - Meigs Field

Milwaukee - Downtown airport (unknown name airport) that was long time ago.....

Denver - Stapleton Int'l (almost close to downtown 10 min)



Can you particular closing airport? Please post it here.

Stuart

[canair67]

Like most downtown airports it is the neighbours that kill them off. Air Canada/Air BC used YXD but the neighbours kept complaining so flights eventually moved out to YEG.

I live in Peterborough and we have a lake in the downtown that was used for floatplanes (not commercial) but they are gone now as well as people who live along the waterfront kept complaining and whining.

Exactly the same people who bitch at the hike to the present airport which is just a glorified arm for YYC.
This airfield is very historic and should be retained and developed as the airport it still is.

[CathayPacific]

Some downtown airports are actually staging a come-back against their supposed-to-be "replacements". Examples are

- Tokyo Haneda (HND, used to be TYO): which was reduced to a domestic airport when Narita opened in the 1970s. But Narita was never able to handle the demand of international traffic. The Japanese gradually redeveloped Haneda in the last 10 years and it will have 4 runways (against Narita's 2 runways) in 2010. Haneda restarted international service a few years ago, first to Seoul, then to Shanghai and HongKong. It will receive service from Singapore and Paris soon and as the 4th runway opens, the govt is planning to further reduce restrictions on international traffic at HND.

- Taipei Sungshan (TSA, used to be TPE): located right at the downtown of Taipei, it became a domestic airport when Taipei Chiang-kai-shek (renamed Taoyuan a few years ago) opened in the 1980s. Flights at Sungshan were further reduced when the high speed rail in Taiwan opened in 2006. But now the field became a preferred field for the new direct flights to China. Since 2008, it has started receiving large aircraft such as 747s, 777s and A330s again. A new quasi-international terminal was opened for flights to China.

- Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) and Seoul Gimpo (GMP, used to be SEL) also started receiving a limited number of international flights again after being demoted to domestic airports when their larger replacements (Pudong for Shanghai and Incheon for Seoul) opened.

- Kuala Lumpur Subang: Firefly, Malaysia Airlines' regional subsidiary, is establishing its main operating base at this old Kuala Lumpur's airport, with domestic and soon regional international flights envisioned. Firefly only operates ATRs now but there are rumors that MH wants to make it the group's regional airline comparable to SQ's Silkair and CX's Dragonair, which, despite being the "regional/connection carriers" of SQ and CX, operate A320s and A330s. If this is true, we may soon see some MH 737-400s transferred to Firefly and see those jets flying from Subang again.

On the other hand, the old Bangkok International (Don Muang) is winding down as Thai moved all the domestic flights to the new airport as the new airport finally started to solve its problems started at the time it was opened. But Don Muang is not exactly a downtown airport anyway.

[Tanner_J]

Cleveland has Burke Lakefront which has shown no signs of closing to me. It is right smack-dab downtown on the lakeshore.

[Alessandro]

Bromma, Stockholm is soldiering on, it got more life than a cat.

[TCASAlert]

Sheffield City was open for only a few years, then closed. The airport was very handy for the M1 and surrounding areas, but the problem was that it opened at the wrong time. It opened in the late 90s and had regular flights from KL, BA, SN and Aer Arann.

However, this was right at the time that easyJet and the likes started up, and people would rather fly with them. There was no room for them at SZD thanks to a very short runway with no room for expansion, therefore the regulars pulled out as they lost money and nothing replaced them. Soon it was just a GA field with bizjets, Cessnas and helicopters using the airport.

In 2002 it was bought by Peel Airports, who were about to open Robin Hood Airport at Doncaster, just up the road. They closed Sheffield and are planning to turn it into a business park.

A sad end to what could have been such a successful airport, and would have been so nice to be able to fly from an airport 15 mins up the road

[Big777jet]

Cleveland has Burke Lakefront which has shown no signs of closing to me. It is right smack-dab downtown on the lakeshore.

That's right but I hope not to close so why don't Southwest start service Burke? LOL Midway Airlines DC-9 used to fly there from Midway to Burke 4 times a day. It was back in mid 80's.

Stuart

[APS]

Nope. ABZ is Aberdeen's only airport for over a hundred miles in any direction, with its nearest neighbor to the north, at Inverness, being considerably smaller and less-serviced. We're due for a runway extension to boot.

[HalcyonDays]

Surprised no-one has yet mentioned the downtown "city" airports in London and Belfast, which have both been highly successful and remain very busy.

[Vincentomoh]

The first Houston airport is still active and was recently re-developed. Hobby Airport is now a big Southwest focus city.