‘No doubt’ planes will be flying from Doncaster Sheffield Airport in ’20-30 years time’, Mayor Coppard says
Plans to purchase Doncaster Sheffield Airport were approved by local leaders.
The Mayor of South Yorkshire has said he has ‘no doubt’ that flights will still be going at Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) two decades from now.
Oliver Coppard’s prediction came minutes before the region’s political leaders approved plans for the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) to buy the freehold of DSA and bring it into public ownership.
He said: “I have no doubt that our freight and passenger flights will be flying in 20 to 30 years time.”
The leaders of South Yorkshire’s local councils in Sheffield, Doncaster, Barnsley and Rotherham all voted with the South Yorkshire Mayor to approved the airport purchase proposal.
Officials at the SYMCA will now press on to wrap up the deal with the current landowner, the Peel Group. Details of the deal, including the amount to be paid, will be released once the dotted line has been signed, Mayor Coppard has said.
Mayor Coppard’s projection for the future of flights from DSA came during a discussion on the environmental impacts of reopening and international airport, after concerns were raised by Councillor Fran Belbin, the Labour Party leader of Sheffield City Council.
Mr Coppard said he believed South Yorkshire was ‘at the forefront of solution to sustainable aviation’, adding that locally-based organisations such as Boeing and the University of Sheffield were working with the SYMCA to create a ‘sustainable aviation hub’ in the region.