Senior UK government figures, including the country’s deputy leader, are backing a £30 million ($39 million) investment plan to re-open Doncaster Sheffield airport and support the creation of a sustainable aviation hub in the area.
Efforts to re-open the South Yorkshire airport – which closed in 2022 after 17 years, during which it was persistently unprofitable – have been gaining momentum, with Munich airport’s consultancy arm recently recruited to assist the scheme.
“Previous governments stood by as Doncaster Sheffield airport was closed by its owner despite the overwhelming support for it to stay open,” says UK deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.
“It now sits idle despite the potential to drive jobs and growth across the north.”
Devolved funding will be invested in the aviation hub by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, a partnership of regional councils.
The government says it has also started exploring, with the authority and other representatives, the extent to which the airport project could “unlock wider benefits” in the region.
“I’m thrilled to see devolved funding for South Yorkshire being used to revitalise the airport project, and boost the region as a whole,” says transport secretary Heidi Alexander. “I look forward to the first flights taking to the sky.”
South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard describes the funding package as “significant” and a “vital signal” of a “shared commitment” to the airport and the region’s economy.
“To now have the support of a government who don’t just understand that opportunity but truly want to help us realise it, couldn’t be more important,” he adds.
