Doncaster Sheffield Airport: mayor reassessing contracts and lease arrangements as part of audit

He has come under pressure from local business leaders to speed up the process, with Dan Fell, chief executive of Doncaster Chamber of Commerce, writing in The Yorkshire Post that it was “time to unlock regional funding” for the airport and said the Government’s intent “must now be matched, urgently, by others”.

In the Spending Review on Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves once again reiterated her backing for the reopening of DSA, while Sir Keir Starmer visited Doncaster in April to announce an additional £30m of future devolution funding for the project.

However, Mr Coppard said it was important to “take the right decision at the right time”.

He told The Yorkshire Post: “The worst thing we could do for our airport is to take a decision based on the wrong numbers or incomplete information.

“So we need to make sure we have all the information we need to take the most sensible decision to balance both the financial risks and the huge opportunities of DSA.

“So we will take a decision later in summer, as quickly as possible.”

The Labour mayor confirmed that an infrastructure strategy was assessing the proposals, as well as the commercial and lease arrangements.

“It is a significant amount of taxpayer’s money,” Mr Coppard explained.

“I’ve always got to be responsible to taxpayers, and take the best possible decision on behalf of taxpayers across South Yorkshire.

“But it’s also about economic growth and opportunity and we’re balancing both the risks and the opportunities.”

Peel Group, the airport’s owner, closed DSA in 2022, after it made a loss every year from 2005.

However, now the Government has firmly got behind Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones’ plan to reopen the airport next spring.

Ms Jones has proposed that £105m will be loaned by the council to Fly Doncaster, a council-owned company created to oversee the airport, using its share of devolution funding from Mr Coppard.

But recent council papers suggested that the reopening costs could rise to £145m.

There are hopes that Munich Airport International, which will operate and manage DSA if it reopens in spring 2026, will charge lower landing fees than the previous owners, given the public funding that has gone into the reopening.

If the airport reopened, Ms Jones has claimed this would double Doncaster’s gross value added by 2050, and said the rate of return will be nine to one.

Last month, the Civil Aviation Authority announced that it was redrawing DSA’s airspace, which Aviation Minister Mike Kane said “brings the reopening of the airport yet another step closer”.

Mr Kane said it is expected to help boost the local economy by £5bn and support 5,000 jobs in the area.