Doncaster Sheffield Airport purchase to be completed at the 'earliest opportunity', Mayor's office says

The South Yorkshire Mayor’s deal to purchase the freehold of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) will be completed at the ‘earliest opportunity’, a spokesperson has said.

Advocates for the closed airport hailed victory when Mayor Oliver Coppard announced the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) would strike a deal to buy DSA from landowner Peel.

However, two weeks after political leaders on the SYMCA Board approved its side of the deal, there has been little more information from the authority.

In a new statement, a SYMCA spokesperson said: “The purchase of the airport and surrounding sites is a complex legal transaction. Our respective legal teams are currently working through the legal documentation with a view to completing the deal at the earliest opportunity.”

They reiterated that the terms of the deal would remain confidential until it was completed.

Speaking after the SYMCA Board meeting on October 27, 2026, Mayor Coppard said the purchase deal was now ‘subject to a decision by Peel in a couple of weeks time’.

The SYMCA spokesperson would not confirm if they had received a decision from Peel, who shut DSA in 2022 and called the site ‘commercially unviable’.

Peel did not respond to request for comment when approached after the SYMCA Board meeting.

The project to reopen DSA, using public funds allocated by the SYMCA, has been led by the City of Doncaster Council since the airport closed.

Under any purchase agreement for DSA, risk for the project would fall on SYMCA and the combined authority would receive controlling shares in Doncaster Council’s arms-length airport operator Fly Doncaster Ltd.