SOUTH YORKSHIRE LEADERS TO TAKE £160M DECISION ON DONCASTER SHEFFIELD AIRPORT

Published 2 September 2025 at 12:00pm

South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard and Council Leaders will take a decision on whether to provide up to a further £160m (£159.52m) of funding to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport at a meeting of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) Board on Tuesday 9 September 2025. The funding will be on top of the £16m already committed previously by the Board.

The South Yorkshire Airport City (SYAC) Board paper includes three options for the Board to decide on:

1. To approve up to £160m of funding to City of Doncaster Council to fully reopen DSA.
2. Defer decision pending further assurance and completion of commercial negotiations.
3. Withdraw from public funding and seek alternative delivery models.

The project is not without risk to the taxpayer given the sums of public funding involved, however, the report recommends the approval of the £160m project subject to a number of conditions to address a few outstanding concerns.

The decision will be taken by the Board made up of South Yorkshire’s Mayor who chairs it, the Leader of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council Sir Steve Houghton, Mayor of City of Doncaster Council Ros Jones, Leader of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Chris Read and Leader of Sheffield City Council Tom Hunt.

Doncaster Sheffield Airport was closed in November 2022 by its owner, leaving South Yorkshire one of the largest city regions without an aviation presence. The closure impacted upon residents’ ability to travel, disrupted existing businesses and impacted upon business confidence for the future.

Since it closed, the Mayors of South Yorkshire and Doncaster, along with local authority partners and central government have worked at pace to explore the opportunity to return aviation to the region through a reopened airport with a viable future.

This includes City of Doncaster Council acquiring land and assets through a 125-year long-lease; starting the regulatory process for the reinstatement of airspace; the appointment of an airport operator in Munich International Airports (MIA); and the award of over £16m in SYMCA funding to support site holding costs, preparatory operational activity, and business case development.

Time has also been taken to set the vision for the South Yorkshire Airport City project – a 10-year plan for economic growth in which a reopened airport is an anchor for the development of the wider Gateway East site including reconnecting the region to global markets. It will capitalise on the region being the UK’s first Investment Zone focused on advanced manufacturing engineering and creating a sustainable aviation hub. McLaren, Boeing, Rolls-Royce and Hybrid Air Vehicles have already chosen to locate in the region. Crucially it would also see the creation of good, well-paid jobs allowing South Yorkshire’s residents to stay near and go far.

The Board paper notes the outcome of the assurance activity on the SYAC project which is required on all SYMCA investments and is a precondition of the receipt of devolved funding from central government. Assurance activity supports the assessment of projects, highlighting the risks and opportunities, and supports the commissioning of work to help the Board make balanced, informed decisions.

The Full Business Case (FBC) prepared by City of Doncaster Council has been tested by independent expert advisors, whilst additional work has been undertaken to supplement that business case and support the Board in its decision making. As the SYAC project is not without risk to taxpayers’ money, a number of workstreams were commissioned to further test areas of concern. This included:

• Testing of City of Doncaster Council’s passenger traffic assumptions and financial model using an expert airport due diligence firm.
• A review of the programme plan to test the project timeline in conjunction with work undertaken with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to understand the implications of the regulatory process for the return of airspace and aerodrome certification.
• A review of the 125-year superior headlease by a leading lease advisory firm.
• A review of the opportunity to develop the Gateway East site as a sustainable aviation and advanced manufacturing hub.
• A review of the methodology used to calculate the Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) and sensitivity testing in line with government guidance.
• A climate impact report to inform the understanding of a return of aviation to the region, and the impact on net zero aspirations.
• A Sustainability Opportunity Statement to assess options to mitigate adverse climate impact.
• A Surface Access Statement to establish a baseline of the current connectivity to the airport and Gateway East site, highlighting existing access challenges and opportunities for improvement.
• A review into skills and employment challenges to consider how best regional programmes could support workforce development.
• An Equalities Impact Assessment to properly understand the impact of the proposal on communities.
• Analysis of governance options for both the airport operations and wider Gateway East development.

Overall, while there are still risks, the extensive work undertaken points to a real opportunity to reopen DSA and make it a viable airport and deliver the wider South Yorkshire Airport City project.

South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard, 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.

“So, on Tuesday 9th September, the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority Board, chaired by me, will take the decision on the future of that funding. All five members of the MCA Board will have a vote. There will be an important debate on the day, which I will of course listen to before casting my vote. Now we know everything we can about the project, I’ll be thrilled to be able to argue in favour of releasing that funding at that meeting.”

The review of the programme plan for the resumption of the airport found that should a positive decision on funding be taken, the first summer season for scheduled commercial flights is likely to commence in 2028, although there is the possibility of some charter and cargo flights from winter 2027.

This is because, along with other infrastructure work to get the airport back up and running, it would take two-years to complete airspace reinstatement and aerodrome certifications. Encouragingly, the CAA has committed to a principle of ‘no regulatory delay’.

In testing the passenger traffic model and re-casting the business plan and financial model, the forecasts show a range of traffic and property income scenarios, with base case scenarios unaffordable against the current funding envelope, but affordable against the higher-case scenarios. The report notes the high-case scenarios are considered achievable but will require a pro-active and experienced airport management team that has a deep understanding of the broader UK regional airport market, as well as the key drivers of the market served by DSA.

Upon the review of the BCR, it has gone from 9.1 in the Full Business Case to a central forecast BCR of 2 (a range between 0.9 and 3.3) which is still positive and means the project will represent good value for money.

On climate change, an impact report was commissioned which found that there is an inevitable increase in carbon emissions, however much of this is likely to accrue from displacement of activity from other areas while adoption of sustainable aviation fuel into the future is likely to reduce emissions.

A Sustainability Opportunity Statement has also been prepared. There are opportunities to work with and potentially incentivise airlines that are early adopter of sustainable aviation fuel and/or more efficient aviation technology, opportunities from public control of DSA and the public transport network to reduce carbon emissions travelling to and from the airport, longer-term opportunities for rail and tram-train, linking the airport to the East Coast, Midland Mainline and Lincoln Line, and improvements to the walking and cycling network so local communities can benefit from sustainable access to and from the airport. There are also opportunities to decarbonise the estate including installation of heat pumps and potential for solar capture. The report recommends that a Sustainability Strategy, reviewed annually, is adopted as a contractual obligation of funding.

On skills and employment challenges and getting the right people into critical hard to fill roles such as air traffic controllers, specialist fire crew, aircraft maintenance engineers and cyber security professionals, a multi-agency skills board has been formed to coordinate South Yorkshire Airport City workforce planning and training. The adult skills funding devolved to SYMCA and employment support services can be used to address this challenge too.

On the Equalities Impact Assessment, while the report found that there will be some negative impacts such as increased emissions from road and air traffic, the positive outcomes will be employment opportunities and potential for skills and training and additional housing.

South Yorkshire Leaders will take the decision at the 2.30pm SYMCA Board meeting on Tuesday 9 September.

Further information on this is available in the SYMCA Board papers - Agenda item 17.