Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Greens claim 'failed' airport should not reopen during climate emergency

Councillor Douglas Johnson criticised Doncaster Council’s plan to lease Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) from The Peel Group and find a new operator to run it by March.

It comes as South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is set to approve the council’s outline business case this week and offer £138m for the rescue plan.

The council said it needs the money to secure a lease agreement and offer a new operator millions of pounds in taxpayer-funded subsidies as there will be “significant reinstatement costs”.

Peel Group closed DSA in November 2022, claiming it had never attracted enough passengers to turn a profit.

“It was a failing airport in a failing industry that's been propped up with subsidies of public money for years,” said Councillor Johnson. "It just wasn't a viable business.

“The airport closed and the world didn't end in South Yorkshire where we're reasonably close to Manchester, East Midlands and Leeds Bradford airports.”

He also said it “isn’t sustainable” to be reopening an airport in a climate emergency, especially after the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service revealed global warming exceeded 1.5C (above pre-industrial levels) across an entire year for the first time in 2023.

World leaders vowed to try and prevent global temperatures rising by more than 1.5C when they signed the Paris Agreement in 2015.

“If anything should be a reminder that we need to take action globally and locally then that's it," said Councillor Johnson.

"Of course the aviation industry is one of the worst contributors of emissions that really accelerate climate change. It's absolutely the wrong industry to be promoting.”

Doncaster Council has previously said reopening DSA will lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions but it will “maximise every opportunity to have a green city airport” and promote the use of sustainable aviation fuels which are being developed.

Councillor Johnson said there has been “greenwashing” and the use of sustainable fuels on commercial flights “is still a way off”.

He also said the council and SYMCA have both declared climate emergencies and reopening the airport “flies in the face of that”.

“It’s massively disappointing but also shows they don't really understand the words that they're using,” he said.

“In South Yorkshire, we could be turning a lot of our manufacturing strengths to support the renewable energy industry. There's so much scope there for developing jobs and skills in that area.”

In the UK, international and domestic flights produce around 7 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions.

In November, the first transatlantic flight by a large passenger plane powered only by sustainable aviation fuel was completed. There were no fare-paying passengers on board.

The fuel was tested and analysed at the University of Sheffield’s Sustainable Aviation Fuels Innovation Centre.