'It can't be derailed': Doncaster Sheffield Airport cargo boss issues plea to councillors ahead of £57m vote

The future of Doncaster Sheffield Airport has become something of a political football in recent weeks, with the likes of Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage trading blows over the reopening project.

While Labour want to push ahead with ongoing plans for City of Doncaster Council (CDC) to reopen DSA under public ownership while leasing the site from previous operator Peel, Reform claims financial concerns mean the plan should be scrapped in favour of an attempt to buy the airport land instead.

The situation is expected to come to a head on Monday, when councillors will vote on a Reform motion to rescind a previously-agreeed £57m loan for the project – a move Labour claims could “kill” the reopening and plunge the council into a financial crisis.

Reform, which has the majority of councillors on CDC while its executive is run by Labour mayor Ros Jones, says councillors had “materially-incomplete information” when they voted for the borrowing back in November. That position follows the airport lease being leaked to The Yorkshire Post in January with a series of previously-secret controversial clauses being revealed to councillors and the public.

A further complication is that £160m of devolution funding for the reopening – which will in part go towards repaying the loan – will not be released by Labour’s South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard until some terms of the lease are renegotiated. But lease changes are “on hold”, with a current impasse with Peel over whether taxpayer funding can be excluded from a turnover rent clause. Reform has indicated it may change its position should changes to the lease be agreed.

In the midst of the uncertainty, Gary Winterman, head of general aviation and cargo for FlyDoncaster, the council-run company which will operate the airport, has decided to speak to The Yorkshire Post.

He says that revoking the loan and attempting a different plan is a mistake which would risk undoing the progress that has been made so far. Mr Winterman says he is non-political but wants to highlight both the potential of the reopened airport and the consequences of cancelling the loan.

"There are jobs already here, employment is happening, we are engaging with logistics companies and global operators that are looking to reposition here,” he says. "The job numbers are going to be quite substantial. It can’t be derailed. I’ll tell you from the inside, it is going to be a success.”

Mr Winterman says he is particularly concerned about the impact of cancelling the loan on discussions with prospective freight customers he has been rebuilding relationships with since being appointed in November. "If they delay the loan and start looking for CPO... all that does is put uncertainty back into the market. I have spent six months reassuring the market. DSA was a trusted brand in the market and we are again. We just need to say, ‘Right, we are open’ and then it will be full steam ahead.”

When DSA operated privately, Mr Winterman’s company led cargo operations from the site. "We started with the ad hoc charter market – we were doing car parts and machinery parts. We secured Amazon flights into Doncaster, 450 flights which started the Amazon Prime product here in the UK.”

He says the closure of the airport in 2022 – which resulted in around 800 jobs being lost in total – was “absolutely devastating”. His company, Anglo International Express, subsequently went into liquidation. Mr Winterman believes the new DSA can deliver vastly-higher volumes of freight than was achieved previously.

"We offer a central location logistically. We’re within direct access of processing plants, we’ve got good motorway connections. We’re not congested like other airports. Because of the space and facilities we have got, we are looking at getting up to around 400,000 tonnes by about Year 10. It previously never got above 23,000 tonnes.

"The outlook and the model is completely different. It is going to be enabled in such a way that it can develop to those tonnages. There’s completely different leadership, a different outlook and an absolute need to make this succeed.”

Bosses at DSA recently said they are in “advanced talks” with a major international business which would bring triple the amount of annual freight through the site than was achieved under private ownership. Officials say an unnamed freight integrator business hopes to run “up to 20 flights per week”, resulting in 80,000 tonnes of freight per year passing through DSA.

Mr Winterman says that is just one of “a number” of similar ongoing conversations. "The market reception has been very, very positive. We’re talking with another supplier that’s looking to start another 15 to 20 flights a week towards 2029.

"That comes into our plans for our development area. We’ve got planning permission for airside development and warehousing. As we build the infrastructure up, the market is very receptive.

"We’re having conversations with one supplier that wants to take 14 acres of land, which is massive. We’ve got other people looking at it as we have space here. We can get cargo started a lot more easily than the infrastructure that’s needed for the terminal and passengers. That’s a slower burn."

Mr Winterman says he is delighted to be playing a part in getting DSA reopened.

"I have always hoped this opportunity would come back again. It has brought me back to where I belong basically. The team here are absolutely fantastic and everyone works well together. It is just absolutely brilliant to be back.

“Commercially, I know who I am talking to and it will be a success. It is impossible to fail – I will go on record saying that. The only reason it is going to fail is if blocks are put in the way. It is literally ready to go.

"If the loan goes through, it gets rid of the uncertainty and lets us continue to crack on with confidence and build it back up to what it should have always been.”