Generally, they announce for boarding about 45 minutes before actual take off. They do like you at the gate area before then though. You can keep an eye on departures from downstairs.

Sometimes though, if everyone has checked in early and they can get a slot..they have been known to take off early. This is extremely rare (especially at Donny where flights are rarely on time)but it does happen.

Could you not try patches or something to help you? Where are you flying to?

i am only flying to majorca so not too long a flight .I could manage it ,but when i cant smoke i always want one,thanks for the advice,will look into patches.

Flying from Robin Hood in Septemberfor the first time. Can anyone tell me if there is a Boots Chemist shop there? Thanks.

Hi

have a look at their website http://www.robinhoodairport.com/index.php. Have had a quick look but can't see anything.Might be worth phoning.

regards

sharpy

Hi,

Theres no Boots at Robin Hood unfortunatley. Theres a WH Smith that has a few toiletries etc and a duty free shop after security. Before security theres a spar supermarket.

Does anyone know why flights to and from Malta have been stopped?

What a pain...

we have just used this airport at the start of the school holidays and loved it.......

no huge queues, plenty of space, pleasent staff, good information, very impress, as we only live 40 minutes away......

Hi

Does anyone know if there is another car park for this airport. Is there nothing else to compare to for a cheaper price? £55.49 for 10 days.

thanks marie

Try using code BN21 or BF1 for a 10% discount with BCP.

Louise

Thanks Louise

Unfortunately I got your message too late and I have already booked, but I will keep it for next time.

Thanks Marie

There was an article in this weeks local paper about the airport and its owners Peel Holdings ( they also own Liverpool,Coventry, Bournemouth and I think Luton). Basically, like everyone else at the minute, they are bleeding money and appealed to Donny Council to cut the rates it charges them. The council have said no. I don't know what implictions it has at the minute fo rthe airport..but I notice that flights that used to fly now don't and some of the promised flights that were scheduled to start have not. In addition, a number of shops that were going to be in the airport are not.

When I worked there, Peel were charging far too a high a rent for a number of places and they pulled out. Even worse, they decided to start charging the staff to park their cars there ( we had a separate car park at Hayford House) and parking charges were so extortionate..
Another problem with the airport is that Thomsons had the monopoly on it and so I guess got to pretty much call the shots.

I hope this doesn't spell bad news for the airport..it really has been good for the community to have the airport there..and it has been great for us to only travel a few miles to go on hols!

I totally agree with you Val
I posted about this in October 2007, but it fell on deaf ears and it was "implied" that despite the report, that I was stating this because of the problems I had encountered.
Unfortunately, the link from the BBC/South Yorkshire doesn't seem to work now, but basically it was a plea to Doncaster Council to put on hold or reduced the business fees paid to the said council, for 5 years, in an effort to "break even" and attract into the area more competition.

Even though I live near to the airport, I flew for the first time from Doncaster to Malaga in June.
What a complete disaster, the flight was "diverted" to Coventry, even though Thomson knew the day before that the plane wouldn't be there, as it had technical problems and was going to be grounded in Spain for 80 hours.

There is "no back-up" at Donny and I couldn't figure out why they bussed me across the country to Coventry. when the empty replacement plane could have landed at Donny, just as easy as landing at Coventry.

I always suspected that it was cheaper for Thomson to take the passengers half way across the country, rather than pay the landing fees at Donny and it seems my suspicious have been given some substance.

The airport's not "breaking even" and there's no competition in there.
What a shame I had such high hopes for it and what a waste of a great opportunity to expand, but as I suspected, the prices are too high to attract other airlines and as Thomson are the main airline at Donny, they have Coventry to move passengers/aircraft to, when things go wrong.

EDIT: Got it !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7042362.stm

Sanji

I remember reading that post..the other thing is that planes have to "buy" flight routes and on each of the journey's I have taken from there, we have gone towards Manchester and then doubled back, joining their flight path. Apparantly, this is cheaper than having your own.(obviously).

The worst of it is that nothing is ever communicated to the passengers..and when they ask the staff, they assume the staff are lying to them when they cannot give them an answer. the truth is..we were never told either..and I assume it is still the case. The air cabin crew are generally bussed in and out from Luton by Brittania Airways/Thomsonfly and although they have offices on the premises, there is hardly ever anyone in there..just the occasional cabin crew lass that has to sit there for a few hours on stand-by.

There have been a few redundancies there especially in the shops/franchises that are there. eg: Mitie have the cleaning contract there and when all the additonal part of the airport opened, such as the viewing lounge ( and there are 3 more boarding gates downstairs that hardly ever get used), they were expected to keep a larger area clean on less money because Peel wouldn't pay..so Mitie had to get rid of a few staff.

I have flown from Doncaster a few times now and have always had to wait for the check in desk to open, it may have been because I have had early morning flights. This time I am flying in the afternoon, would I still have to wait for the check in to open or are Thomson using multi flight check in yet.

Has anyone stayed at the new hotel at Doncaster yet ?

I've just returned from Alicante this afternoon.
Firstly, regarding the opening times of the check-in desks, two weeks ago it was chaotic on arrival at the airport at 4.45am for a 7am flight.
There were no check-in desks open and another flight departing to Tenerife around the same time, the result was human bodies, suitcases, screaming tired kiddies in queues that stretched outside the building because the people had formed a straight queue, instead of "bending" the queue inside the terminal building....and it was ruddy cold stood outside at that time in the morning, I've not long since recovered from having pneumonia and I wasn't dressed to stand outside, and any attempt to jump the queue or form another one, would have resulted in a riot (I think)
To cut a long story short, at 5.30 am they did eventually get 4 check-in desks open and the queue soon went down, but we spent nearly one and a half hours in various queues, (check-in, passport check with ONE man doing the checking on these silly roped off areas which gets a lot of people in a small space and then the hand luggage scanning queue.)

After going through the hand luggage screening, the boarding announcement was being made for the plane seats in rows A to B and then the rear entrance seats, and some jobsworth had the cheek to ask me to move on, so I said "it will be my pleasure, but I would like my boots to come through the scanner as I didn't fancy walking around in socks for the rest of the day", then I lost my rag and was told that the security personnel had been there since 4am and the check-in staff should have been there at 4 am too, not at 5 am.

We and others had time to do nothing, but hurry to the gate and walk straight onto the plane, which amazingly left Doncaster only a few minutes late.

This afternoon....
Oh gawd, what a cuffuffle at Doncaster Airport, they were re-screening everybody's suitcases again as you came through the passageway/channel to exit the airport...... it was like a kind of airport security hit squad in operation.
Every dozen people were sent into another room and they asked you questions, and the queue held up until they had been cleared and the next dozen sent into the room.
I was annoyed because they expected me to pick up my suitcase weighing 18kilograms and lift it onto a waist high belt to go under the scanner....I flatly refused, so a girl who was a petite little thing and my hubby picked the two cases up between them, but there were big blokes stood around just directing people.

Blinkin eck, we only had 16 cartons of cigs between us and nothing else, I thought we were supposed to be in the EU.?
An announcement said "thank you for your co-operation", I think they meant "thank you for your cohesion".

Despite all the above, it's a cracking little airport for me to use...only 30 mins away in a taxi and much better than travelling down the M1 to EMA and hoping there are no snarl ups on the motorway...so, I'll just have to give it another go in June to Malaga. But, it could be better organised and I've no idea what this high interrogation job this afternoon was all about.

Sanji

Sanji

Glad you had a good time and everything, flightwise, went ok from Donny this time...sounds well disorganised though ..the reception committee on your return was all the work of HM Customs though. i`ve had it in the past at Leeds and its a right pain. They put everyones bags through the scanner to see how many, if any, cartons of ciggies there are. Thats what the scanner does..The Courts in this country have twice ruled these sort of checks illegal as has the European Commission but the Government just ignore them in their pursuit of revenue

Still it makes the jobsworths happy and its a break from looking for stuff like drugs I suppose

Thanks Paully, but that's made me feel ten times worse
It was a complete show of authority and bureaucracy and on reflection the questions fired at me were completely unwarranted.
Q: Where have you been?
A: I've just got off a plane from Alicante (and it was the only plane that landed whilst at the airport.)
Q: How many of you were travelling.?
A: Erm. Just me and the hubby, you've just checked our passports together.
Q: What was the purpose of your journey and how long have you been out of the UK?
A: A holiday, but again they already knew that"¦they knew when we left the country.
Q: Have you any tobacco products and alcohol in your cases.?
A: Yes 16 cartons, eight in each suitcase"¦.nothing else.

The official asking these questions must have been no more than 5 foot 2 inches tall and weighing less than a sprat .
Next, she says "put your suitcases on the belt", so I said "I'm not lifting that" and she replied "neither am I", so my hubby just wanted to get the hell out of there and he lifted it with her, but there were burly blokes stood around just looking important.
We landed at 1.30 pm and actually emerged from out of the airport at 2.20pm and that was only because our two cases were in the first batch off loaded.

I'm annoyed that they expected passengers to pick up their suitcases onto a waist high belt and instead of a petite little thing there should have been someone capable of lifting the cases, if they want to re-scan them.
I'm not exactly "old" but I'm not a spring chicken either and certainly not a weight lifter.

Sanji

Think I`ve met the `little official` you mentioned Sanji, only it was at Hull docks a year or two back. They were only stopping British cars only so it wasnt drugs they were trying to seize...only booze and fags .....very officious but not overly bright would be my description...gave them the cold `name rank and serial number` routine which flustered her cos she ran out of questions and finally gave in...make no wonder this country is awash with narcotics when this was the best Pablo Escobar ever faced.....

Sanji thanks for details at Doncaster, I have been a couple of times on an early morning flight and had similar problems with queues. Once we had checked in but they still didn`t open passport control, so we had to wait ages till they did. I can`t understand why things can`t flow alot more smoother.Doncaster is a cracking little airport but not very spacious in the check in area.

Glad you had a good time in Benidorm and at least they didn`t send you to Coventry, like last time. Well if they flew from there still they might have.

I will keep my fingers crossed that the desks will be open, but it probably won`t be multi flight check in like they do at Leeds or Manchester. We like to get there early and have a meal, so we were hoping to beat the queues. Were going to Benalmadena and staying at the Bali in 2 weeks time.

Anyone flying out soon, Holiday Extras have an offer on long stay parking, £29 for the week.