Doncaster Sheffield Airport Q&A: Mayor Oliver Coppard answers your questions on reopening plans
South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard answers The Yorkshire Post’s readers’ questions ahead of his decision on the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport.
What are the pros and cons of reopening the airport?
Oliver Coppard: Huge pros in favour of the airport are it creates jobs, it creates growth. It means that we have a gateway to South Yorkshire for international visitors and a way for people to do business outside of South Yorkshire directly and immediately.
On the less positive side, the airport never hit high enough passenger numbers under the last owners to get to point of viability. We think we can do more than that, but we’ve got to show that in a timeframe that allows us to keep the airport going.
What gives you the confidence that Doncaster Council can run an airport better than an experienced operator like Peel?
OC: I think the private sector are the best people to run airports, which is why we have brought in Munich Airport International to do the work.
There’s a difference between who funds it and who runs it, and of course as the funder we would have a say on how that process should run going forward, but that shouldn’t be a day-to-day vision from people like me or the Mayor of Doncaster.
How is the business case adding up to reopen DSA in the face of more competition from other airports like Leeds Bradford and Teesside?
OC: The aviation market seems to be expanding. I have my concerns to a certain extent about expanding aviation markets, but I think South Yorkshire should get a bigger slice of the piece but I don’t necessarily think the airport market should expand exponetially.
We are now looking at those numbers and that is the essence of what we are trying to understand – is there enough of a market out there for us to sustain it? I’ve always thought and I think the numbers back this up, that there is a market there.
If a foreign investor was on the horizon, would it be feasible to hand over the airport lease to them?
OC: It’s really important that we don’t rule out that private sector investment and we haven’t. But it’s got to be the right deal for taxpayers, it’s got to be the right deal for us and crucially it’s got to be the right deal for the airport. There’s nothing stopping us from bringing in that private sector expertise.
Why has the slippage in dates happened?
OC: We were hoping to bring in private sector investment. But once we took the decision that none of those deal were right for the airport going forward, we then had to do a load more due diligence to see if we could put more public money into the airport. It’s a different calculation once we are the main investor.
We’re working at record pace, it genuinely really swift progress to have made it this far this quickly.
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