Airport workers fighting for their livelihoods and local MPs demanded the government steps in to save Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
Louise Haigh, MP for Sheffield Heeley, and Ed Miliband, Doncaster North MP, joined workers facing joblessness to deliver a 100,000 signature petition to the Department of Transport on Thursday morning.
They were calling for the government to come good on PM Liz Truss's promise to protect Doncaster Sheffield Airport, which is due to close at the end of this month.
Ms Haigh, who is also Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, described the scrapping of a travel hub that is so crucial for the region as "another nail in the coffin for the government's abandoned levelling up agenda".
Will you be affected by the closure of the airport? Email webtravel@reacplc.com
Condemning the government for throwing airport workers out of employment "with a few minutes' notice", Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change Ed Miliband said protecting regional airport workers' jobs was a key part of Labour's plan for a just transition to net zero.
"Regional airports are a crucial part of our economy," the former Labour leader told The Mirror.
"Labour's green agenda is about supporting workers. It's a really important issue. We have a government that are at the moment washing their hands of it."
Since the planned closure was announced last month South Yorkshire's political leaders have offered owners Peel Group public money to keep it afloat, but South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard said this had been rejected.
The race is now on to find another solution so the airport can remain open beyond the end of the month.
Ms Haigh urged the government to step in with its civil contingencies powers and save the airport.
"The only person with the power to keep the airport running at the moment is the Secretary of State for Transport, and this morning I pressed her in parliament and she refused," she told the Mirror.
"Despite the PM's promise to protect the airport and the government's professed support for regional airports, they would rather leave the markets to decide whether this strategic asset for South Yorkshire sinks or swims."
The Sheffield MP said many families in her constituency had been "really devastated" by the closure news, and that many would struggle to make ends meet as the cost of living crisis continued to bite.
"In this cost of living crisis this is absolutely the last thing we should be doing for quite a deprived area of the country," Ms Haigh said.
"There are over 800 people directly employed by the airport, but the supply chain means thousands of jobs will be affected.
"We're already an area that has been hit time and time again by deindustrialisation, and these are pretty well paid high skilled jobs.
"It would be a devastating blow to hundreds of families. It's another nail in the coffin for the government's abandoned levelling up agenda."
Ms Haigh said that the last time she'd flown from the airport was aboard a TUI flight to Tenerife.
On Thursday morning Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan insisted ministers had worked with local authorities to "find ways forward" since moves to close the airport began.
She added: "The issue that she raises around the civil contingencies act to prevent closure I have looked at in some detail, and whilst all things around the civil contingencies act are owned and determined by the Cabinet Office ministers, I am not persuaded that the closure of DSA would be able to be undertaken under that act."
The minister described the decision to close the airport as a "commercial" one, but that the government was "incredibly disappointed" by the "difficult news".
In her first PMQs appearance, Ms Truss said the airport would be protected.
"Regional airports including Doncaster Sheffield Airport are a vital part of our economic growth and what I will make sure is that the new transport secretary (Anne Marie Trevelyan) is immediately onto this issue," she said.
“She’s already contacting the people in Doncaster and Sheffield to protect this airport and protect the vital infrastructure and connectivity to help our economy grow.”
The Peel Group has been contacted for comment.
