Read more: Bromley: Closure will not hold Sheffield back

Dulles is Washington's international airport. Washington's main airport (US flights being mostly domestic) is Washington National, a 5 minute drive from the the centre of the US capital. Toronto too has its municipal airport, called unsurprisingly "Toronto City Centre" and located a mere 2 miles from its eponymous parent. Moreover, both Dulles and Pearson have door to door motorway links with their respective cities, and both offer a dense network of flights to a large range of destinations.

Contrast this with Robin Hood, reached tediously via narrow, traffic-clogged roads through the Doncaster suburbs. Best to allow at least an hour if coming from Sheffield. On arrival, where can you go? According to the May OAG air timetable (the standard work on air routes) there are occasional services to Alicante, Belfast, Dublin, Jersey, Katowice, Warsaw, Wrocklaw and Poznan. OK if you're going to Poland, but of little use to the typical Sheffield businessman.

Mr Bromley dismisses Sheffield as "a failed experiment". It is fortunate for businessmen and holidaymakers that the promoters of London City, or almost every French provincial airport, all in their time big loss-makers, did not display such a dismissive attitude, but soldiered on until things finally came right.

Mr Bromley is right to call for better links to Manchester Airport. He echoes the calls from me and many like me over the past quarter century. Yet we still have no decent road and no high quality train service. Meanwhile, with BA's abandonment of its direct european services, Manchester's usefulness to business travellers has deteriorated.

The decision to abandon Sheffield's airport will be regretted for decades to come. It is yet another example of the adage "Only in Sheffield could it happen"!