Doncaster Sheffield Airport: DSA lease renegotiation ‘almost completed’ - Mayor
The renegotiation of the confidential Doncaster Sheffield Airport lease agreement between the City of Doncaster Council and the Peel Group is nearing completion, Mayor Ros Jones has said.
The parts of the original agreement, signed in March 2024, are being renegotiated as a condition of the gainshare funding approved by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) to reopen the airport.
In a statement to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Mayor Ros Jones said: “Discussions in relation to renegotiating elements of the lease for Doncaster Sheffield Airport began in September, these are progressing well and are almost complete.”
The update will be promising news for supporters of the reopening, as the funding from the SYMCA is crucial to the return of the airport.
Mayor Jones told the public that flights would return to DSA in Summer 2026, despite airspace approval from the CAA not being expected until May 2027.
A spokesperson for the Mayor has repeatedly emphasised that flights can return before airspace approval, but in limited capacity.
Mayor Jones hopes passenger flights will follow in the winter of 2027/28. However, the Mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard, has instead projected passenger flights will return firmly in 2028.
The DSA lease was leaked to journalists in January 2026, when it was highlighted that the agreement required renegotiating.
It was revealed that the lease included break clauses linked to planning approvals and high passenger and freight targets.
The LDRS previously reported that following the lease, and the outrage from opposition councillors which followed, Doncaster Council announced it was working on the possibility of sharing copies of the lease with councillors.
Councillors were later offered copies on the condition they sign an agreement not to discuss the lease publicly – which led to the offer being labelled a “gag order” by opponents.
Advance UK leader, Councillor Nicola Brown, told the LDRS that no opposition councillors (Reform UK, Conservative or Advance UK) took the offer.
Doncaster Council is currently working to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport using public funds, after failing to find a private operator.
The SYMCA approved around £160million in gainshare funding for the reopening of the airport, subject to the lease renegotiation, in September 2025.
In November 2025, Doncaster Council voted to approve £57m in borrowing to address cashflow issues with the SYMCA funding.