Doncaster Sheffield Airport: cost of taxpayer-funded reopening increases to £193m

Mayor Ros Jones has said this will bring 5,000 new jobs to the area by 2050, and has claimed the benefit cost ratio is nine to one.

However, new council papers show that DSA is expected to operate at a loss of up to £81m over the first nine years.

They also reveal the overall cost to the public purse of the reopening will now hit £193m.

Worryingly, the papers suggest if costs increase even further then closing DSA would need to be considered.

The reopening cost has significantly increased since February, when Doncaster Council said it would cost taxpayers £145m.

In September, South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard approved that £160m, including all of Doncaster’s devolution funding until 2050, could go towards reopening DSA.

As this is only released on an annual basis, now Ms Jones is asking councillors to approve borrowing an additional £57m to get the airport up and running.

She said: “Fully reopening Doncaster Sheffield Airport is my number one priority.

“I have said all along that reopening the airport is a massive undertaking but one that is vital for the future prosperity, well-being and economic growth of our city, our region and UK PLC.

“The Cabinet report appraises where we are today and sets out with clarity and probity the challenges and opportunities that are inherent in a programme of this size and scale.”

Munich Airport International has agreed to operate the airport, which would be owned by an arms-length council body called Fly Doncaster.

It is hoped that commercial flights will take off from 2028, with talks involving TUI and Wizz Air returning ongoing.

However, the latest council papers indicate there is a chance that by this point costs may have spiralled even further, increasing by 20 per cent.

This would put the overall reopening expenditure at £222m, and the council papers say that if this happens closing DSA would need to be considered.

The report says: “The profile of the additional costs and extent of the increases would impact on the borrowing costs; therefore, the consideration of the potential closure decision point would need to be regularly evaluated, and scenarios updated.”

The council is predicting that from 2034 onwards the airport will start to make a profit, totalling £230m before tax and interest by 2049.

The aim is to work to get a private investor on board to take some of the risk away from the taxpayer.

Under the previous owners, Peel Group, the airport made a loss in every financial year from 2005 to until it closed in 2022, totalling £180m.

In a speech last month, Mr Coppard said that “success does not, cannot, simply be reduced to a line on a profit and loss spreadsheet”.

“Success cannot be measured by passenger numbers alone,” he said.

“Let me be clear, we have today committed to the long-term funding of DSA because of its strategic value to South Yorkshire, because of this project’s unique ability to drive jobs and growth, to return money back into the economy, and to attract investment into the wider Gateway East site and across South Yorkshire.”