Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Mayor Oliver Coppard explains 2028 date for passenger flights

Yorkshire Post

South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard has revealed passenger flights won't operate from Doncaster Sheffield Airport until 2028 should a reopening plan for the site get the green light next month. He spoke to Yorkshire Post business editor Chris Burn about the situation.

Transcript

00:00So we're here today in Doncaster where you've announced some important information about

00:06Doncaster Sheffield Airport, including the fact that passenger flights, if the airport

00:11goes ahead, won't start until 2028. Could you just talk us through why that is the case?

00:16I think I'm just trying to offer some clarity about what fully operational means. We're

00:20determined to open the airport as quickly as we possibly can. That's what we want to

00:24do. We've got to take the funding decision and there are challenges there, as I've explained

00:27today. And then I just want the people to be aware that the airport will then go through

00:31a process to get to that fully operational status. We think that we can get to those commercial

00:36passenger flights from 2028. In the meantime, there will be other things that happen, be

00:40it freight flights, be it private flights, be it expanding the operations of businesses

00:44across the gateway site. But that fully operational status probably is going to happen in 2028.

00:49We're two weeks away from that funding decision. You've said today you still can't say what

00:55that decision is going to be. Can you tell people why that is? Because obviously, it's

00:59taken months to get to this point.

01:00So we're trying to take that decision as quickly as we possibly can. And we're working

01:04at pace to do all of the homework that people would expect when trying to take a decision

01:08about over £150 million of public money. I've got competing prices. One, I really want

01:14to reopen DSA. But at the same time, we have to protect taxpayers' money and make sure

01:18that we're using that money effectively. So we're trying to make sure we understand what

01:22that risk, what that opportunity, what that challenge looks like, and go from there. And

01:25that's the work we're still engaged in today. And we'll keep on doing right up until we

01:29take that decision.

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