The Mayor of South Yorkshire has said he is “really confident” for the future of Doncaster Sheffield Airport during a panel discussion at the 2025 Great Northern Conference.
Oliver Coppard acknowledged opening Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) was not without risk, but said extensive assurance work undertaken by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) and the City of Doncaster Council means leaders know the risks posed.
“Ultimately, our job is to drive growth in our regions… Sometimes to take that step you need to take a bit of a risk,” he told the audience.
Mayor Coppard was speaking on stage with other Northern leaders, including the Mayors of West and North Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin and David Skaith, and the leader of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council Anne Handley.
Coppard said SYMCA had been working “hand-in-glove” with Doncaster Council to ensure the authorities are best prepared for the reopening of DSA.
He added: “It’s a team effort. It always has been a team effort.”
In an emphasis of the collaboration between the two authorities, Mayor Coppard told the panel audience of the hope to get passenger flights off the ground from DSA by “late 2027, early 2028”.
The comment represents the South Yorkshire Mayor shifting his projections forward slightly to align with the Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones’.
When the SYMCA board approved the £160million in gainshare funding to reopening DSA, Mayor Jones and Mayor Coppard offered differing opinions on when passenger flights would return to South Yorkshire.
Coppard had offered a more cautious timeline of 2028, whereas his Doncaster counterpart suggested it could be as early as the Winter of 2027.
Speaking after the end of the Conference, Mayor Coppard confirmed that he still believes it will be 2028 when passenger flights take off from DSA, but added it “could be 2027”.
