Doncaster Council is in talks with owners The Peel Group, after it was offered a lease in April but said the terms were "not acceptable".

But the council is also considering plans to acquire the site, without the owner’s consent, by applying for a compulsory purchase order (CPO).

Around £3.1m is being spent on drawing up a business case for running Doncaster Sheffield Airport and an assessment that will be used to decide whether compulsory purchase is necessary.

However, the council said it would need millions of pounds to apply for the order and then contest it at a public inquiry if The Peel Group objects.

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, which is being asked to provide £6.2m for the compulsory purchase bid, said even if the order was granted by a planning inspector it was not clear how much it would cost the council to buy the airport and run it.

But in a report, it also states the airport was key to the local economy, contributing around £108m a year and employing about 800.

The report says: “The full costs of a compulsory purchase order are not yet known and the report recognises that more funding may be required.

"Further related costs could be incurred in the event of a successful compulsory purchase.”

Doncaster Council is urging the Civil Aviation Authority to maintain the controlled airspace around the airport, as that allows commercial flights to operate with air-traffic control.

The Peel Group closed the airport in November, claiming it had never made a profit due to a lack of passengers, despite more than £250m of investment.

The passenger shortage was exacerbated by Wizz Air’s decision to stop running flights and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport handled a record 1.4m passengers in the last pre-pandemic year, 2019, but just 403,869 passengers used it in the 12 months ending in March 2022. It also recorded an operating loss of £4.3m in that financial year.

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, who runs South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, had urged the company to keep the airport open and set up meetings with investors interested in a takeover but no deal was reached.

Back in 2018, Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen agreed a £40m deal to buy Durham Tees Valley Airport from The Peel Group to keep it open for passengers.

It is now known as Teesside International Airport and has struggled since being taken into public ownership, as it recorded an overall loss of £11.9m in the year ending March 2022.

In a report, managing mirector Phil Forster blamed low passenger numbers, claiming the airport had suffered from the “after-effects of the Covid 2019 pandemic, which persisted for longer than the industry originally expected”.

However, 173,006 passengers used the airport near Middlesbrough last year – the highest number recorded since 2011.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Cost of possible taxpayer-funded takeover ‘not yet known’