Revived Doncaster Sheffield 'cannot rely solely on low-cost holiday flights’

Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) is unlikely to reopen to commercial passenger flights until 2028, according to the mayor of South Yorkshire.

 

The reopening was not as simple as it may seem from the outside and was a long-term project, Oliver Coppard told local business leaders.

 

He said: “We now know that while opening an airport is not a binary process, we’re now unlikely to be at full operational capacity until 2028.

 

“As a result, we would be unlikely to see commercial passenger flights into or out of DSA before then, albeit we will of course aim for that to happen sooner,” he was reported by the Yorkshire Post as saying.

 

Doncaster Council, which is hoping to run the airport through a council-owned company, has previously indicated that it wants to reopen the airport from spring 2026.

 

A final decision on releasing funds for the project had originally been due in February but was delayed by Coppard to seek independent advice over concerns that backing the scheme carried a “significant risk” to public money.

 

The airport shut in 2022 after former owner Peel Group said it was financially unviable and the search for a private operator to help revive flights started almost a year ago. 

 

The mayor’s decision is due to be announced on September 9, when a meeting of the Mayoral Combined Authority Board will take place. 

 

Further work was necessary following the failure to find a private operator to take the airport on, according to the mayor.

 

“That material change has required us to undertake a new and deeper level of analysis, to satisfy the very significant demands of using public funding for a project of this nature and this scale,” he reportedly said.

 

“I have made, and will make, no apology for that approach; for doing the proper due diligence when being asked to potentially spend in excess of £150 million of public money, to make real a project that has the potential to be either a huge economic driver, or a significant drain on public funds.”

 

Coppard said almost 1,000 pages of “investment grade due diligence” have been done on the scheme and also revealed the potential economic benefits of the reopened airport are “lower than we initially understood”.

 

He said: “We know the commercial aviation and passenger forecasts have the potential to make or break this project, and that at the lower end of those forecasts do have the potential to undermine the viability of DSA.

 

“But we also know now that the wider South Yorkshire Airport City project will not, cannot, solely be focused on providing low-cost holiday flights.

 

“There is no future for a regional airport in South Yorkshire with a business model solely concerned with commercial passenger flights.

 

“We now know that the cost-benefit ratio of reopening DSA may be lower than we initially understood, but with the right conditions the project could still provide a strong economic and social benefit to South Yorkshire, and a decent return to taxpayers over the long-term.”

 

Coppard insisted he is committed to the principle of saving DSA and has put years of work alongside partners into making it happen and disagreed with those who say it should remain closed. But he added a final decision on whether it will reopen is still yet to be made.