Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Coppard addresses differing reopening timelines from Labour mayors
The Mayor of South Yorkshire has addressed the repeated discrepancies between his timeline for reopening Doncaster Sheffield Airport compared to the Mayor of Doncaster’s.
During a speech in Doncaster in August 2025, South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard revealed passenger flights from Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) were “unlikely” before 2028.
The revelation was a significant delay from the Spring 2026 target outlined by Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones and the City of Doncaster Council in 2024, which had never been explicitly abandoned by Jones, despite numerous opportunities, until she responded to Coppard’s speech.
Mayor Jones suggested it would be aiming to get passenger flights in the air by the “end of 2027”, though this has subsequently been revised to “winter 2027/28”.
Following the approval of £160m in gainshare funding to help reopen DSA in September 2025, each Mayor’s speech revealed yet another competing timeline.
In his speech, Mayor Coppard said: “We have taken the decision to commit £159.9m to reopen it next year, with freight operations in 2027 and commercial flights and passenger flights and a fully operational airport in 2028.”
Minutes later, Mayor Jones repeated her previous statement regarding freight flights.
She said: “If everything goes to plan in relation to our Airspace and Aerodrome certification then next summer we will see freight aircraft return to Doncaster.”
Quizzed on the differing timelines by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Oliver Coppard said Jones made no secret of her desire to reopen DSA as soon as possible.
He said: “Ros is always going to be ambitious for this project. I think it’s more likely to be towards 2027 and Ros is hopeful it will be towards 2026. We’re going to do it as quickly as we can – that’s our commitment to people.
“If we can get it in ‘26, we will. I think it’s more likely to be ‘27, but we’ll do it as swiftly as we can.”
Timelines for the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport have come under close scrutiny in recent weeks, after the 2028 admission by the South Yorkshire Mayor.
As previously reported by the LDRS, Councillor Guy Aston, leader of the Doncaster Reform UK group, accused Mayor Ros Jones of misleading local people regarding passenger flights from DSA.
In response, the Mayor said: “We have always stated that there are interdependencies out of our control in relation to issues such as Airspace and Aerodrome Certification.
“We expect to see freight services commence in Summer 2026, followed by passenger flights towards the end of 2027, meaning we should see plane tickets and holidays on sale by late 2026 flying from Doncaster for the winter 2027/28 holiday season, but again this is all dependent on several factors.
“In relation to commercial passenger flights, we have been reviewing plans over the last few weeks in advance of the SYMCA Gainshare decision whilst they were carrying out additional due diligence works.
“I want our airport fully operational as soon as possible, but we must follow the correct process.”