Mayor says £160m airport funding is 'a risk'

Doncaster Sheffield Airport has been closed since 2022

A regional mayor has backed the decision to spend nearly £160m to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

The airport on the former RAF Finningley site closed in 2022 when landowners and operators Peel Group declared it was no longer financially viable.

While acknowledging the financial risks involved, South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard described the airport's revival as a "huge opportunity" for the region and confirmed he would vote in favour of committing the funding at a meeting next week.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, he said: "I will be voting in favour of the full funding in order to create that thriving Doncaster Sheffield Airport at the heart of South Yorkshire."

At a board meeting next Tuesday, council leaders from Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster will decide whether to allocate the money, defer the decision or withdraw from public funding and seek alternative delivery models.

Coppard previously said reopening the airport would support 5,000 jobs, boost the economy by £5bn and provide wider benefits of £2bn by 2050.

Opened in April 2005, Doncaster Sheffield Airport once served a host of destinations, including Berlin, Dubrovnik, Paris, Alicante and Mallorca.

If given the funding, it is hoped the airport will be fully operational by 2028 and serve freight operations, private aviation and business activity alongside passenger flights.

Coppard said his decision to support the funding package was based on an "accumulating amount of evidence," with 1,000 pages of due diligence expected to be published later on Monday.

"I've always wanted to protect taxpayers' money, but I'm also here to try and grow the economy of South Yorkshire, and this is a huge opportunity," he told the BBC.

"It is not without risk. No project of this kind ever is, but it's a calculated risk to grow the economy of South Yorkshire and that's what I'm here to do."

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard said a decision on whether to fund reopening the airport would be made next week

Coppard said the ambition was for the airport to become self-sustainable in the future but said its reopening was a long-term investment.

"We are going to be investing in the future of the airport on the basis that that isn't a cost to taxpayers," he said.

"That's an investment in the future of South Yorkshire, in jobs and growth and opportunity."

Asked how he would measure the airport's success, Coppard said it was "not all about passenger numbers".

"This is not simply us investing money so people can go on their holidays from Doncaster Sheffield Airport or can get a flight to Marbella," he said.

"I absolutely want people to be able to access those opportunities like a nice flight to Tenerife, but it's not just about that.

"It's that wider ambition for the whole site and the whole of (nearby business park) Gateway and the whole of South Yorkshire."

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