Doncaster Sheffield Airport reopening plans must not be derailed by u-turns: Peter Kennan
There is a lot of attention on Doncaster Sheffield Airport at present, but what we have at the core of this project, is an experienced team going about their work, preparing a mothballed airport for reopening.
It is easy to lose sight of the opportunity. Having been a stakeholder in the previous iteration of this airport, I can speak with a degree of certainty about the economic impact which a reopened airport will have.
It will not only benefit Doncaster, or even the three other local authority areas of South Yorkshire – Sheffield, Barnsley and Rotherham, but a successfully reopened airport has the opportunity to be a lever for growth in the wider North of England, and even relieve severe pressures on airports in other parts of the country.
Read Transport for the North’s 2023 policy paper on the role of airports in the north of England: “The International Connectivity and Aviation policy paper calls for a maximising of the full potential of ports and airports in the North of England, categorising it as essential to growing the North’s economy.”
Airports by their nature are complex. It’s not as simple as turning the lights back on. In such a safety-critical industry, it takes years of planning to get to a point of reopening. This includes bringing new safety and security infrastructure onto site, making facilities for emergency services, fit for the 21st century, and even regaining control of the airport’s own airspace.
These measures require careful coordination between private sector and multiple layers of local and regional government. With demands and interests often competing, the team seeking to reopen the airport are having to carefully navigate their way through this complexity with skill and tact.
Amongst all this, u-turns on decisions that have already been made, are unhelpful on a number of levels. The private sector thrives on incremental progress and consistency, so when you are negotiating with airlines and occupiers (as I know the team at DSA are) you need to reassure them that you have a settled plan.
Having known and worked with the senior management at FlyDoncaster in the past, I am very confident that they know exactly what needs to be done to deliver this key strategic asset for the region.
Therefore, it is up to experts to counter some of the more unhelpful suggestions and narrative that has been allowed to emerge. Accusing the project, for example, of needing a ‘blank cheque’ is no more true than it is plausible.
We know the level of public backing that has been put behind this airport – principally £160m of gainshare funding. What the City of Doncaster Council needs to do, is to fast-track this money (which can only be paid in increments) by drawing down a loan against it. This method of funding is entirely appropriate for a project of this scale.
We also need to dispel the myth that the money can be spent elsewhere, as anybody sees fit. The funding pot is designed to drive economic growth in the region, so it cannot, for example, be used to lower council taxes, fill potholes or build hospitals.
DSA is precisely the type of project that gainshare funding was designed to enable.
When it comes to profitability and viability for the airport project, what many still fail to understand is that what is being proposed here is a very different prospect to what went before. You can argue about what previous operators did, and their motivations for doing so, but it is academic.
It is much more helpful to look at this as a new project with renewed focus, leadership and ambition. The team are not simply reopening an airport, they are reimagining what one looks like, based around the civic value it provides.
That value can be measured in jobs, skills and inward investment to the north of England.
I ask anyone who criticises the reopening of one of South Yorkshire’s key strategic assets, to give me an alternative vision of how we are to move forward South Yorkshire, from a base of significant lower skilled, lower paid jobs, low productivity and a high dependence on SME business.
The SME sector is huge and valuable in South Yorkshire but cannot alone drag South Yorkshire up by its bootstraps. We need something more radical and a regional airport is a key part of that plan.
Travel around Europe and you will see many cities who share that vision. In Poland and in Romania for example there are growing regional airports working to transform regional economies.
With so much public support, and the economic benefits on offer, it surprises me how much contention there seems to be around reopening this airport. In economic terms, it is a key strategic asset to deliver an economic vision and those looking to derail plans should bear that in mind.
Peter Kennan is a former private sector Transport & Infrastructure Board member for South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and former private sector South Yorkshire Board Member for our regional transport strategic body, Transport for the North.