Mayor upbeat about Doncaster airport decision

Next Tuesday, SYMCA will vote on whether to assign £160m of public funds towards the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport and the wider Gateway East site, with Mayor Oliver Coppard announcing in advance that his vote will be an ‘aye’.

It’s a turnaround from last week’s more cautious statement from the Mayor, as he expressed doubt for the first time publicly about the viability of the project.

At next week’s meeting, the board will be asked to vote for one of three options: to approve the additional funding to the City of Doncaster Council to fully reopen the airport; to defer the decision pending further assurances and completion of commercial negotiations; or to withdraw the public funding option and look for private investment.

The report prepared recommends the first option of full approval, and now the Mayor is urging his fellow voting members, consisting of the leader of Barnsley Council Steve Houghton, Mayor of Doncaster Council Ros Jones, leader of Rotherham Council Chris Read, and leader of Sheffield Council Tom Hunt, to also vote in favour.

£16m of public funds has so far been spent on the scheme, following closure of the airport in 2022 for being unviable.

Since then, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and Doncaster Council have explored how to make it work for the region, resulting in Doncaster acquiring the surrounding land and assets on a 125-year lease to create space for Gateway East.

The South Yorkshire Airport City project is a 10-year plan that uses the DSA as an anchor for Gateway East to become a sustainable aviation hub, capitalising on the region’s status as an Investment Zone and focusing on advanced manufacturing.

Doncaster Council has also used the money to appoint Munich International Airports to operate DSA, has started the regulatory process for airspace, and created FlyDoncaster to manage the airport project.

The business case prepared by Doncaster has been tested by independent advisors and, says the Mayor, has convinced him that the project should go ahead.

He said: “I couldn’t be more pleased to be able to confirm that next Tuesday, the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority Board will be considering the decision to commit nearly £160 million pounds to support the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport and the development of a sustainable aviation and advanced manufacturing hub at Gateway East.

“It’s taken some time to get here. We’ve done a huge amount of work. Over the last few days and weeks in particular, my team have been working at pace.

“But that work is now completed, and we have a final deal in front of us. I can’t speak for others, but I’m really proud to be able to finally say, after looking at all the evidence, the risks and the opportunities, I am now able to confidently vote in favour of that funding.

“We’ve done our homework, which is why we can now take a fully-informed decision about the future, based on data, insight and robust expertise.”