Date set for much-anticipated funding decision on £150m Doncaster Sheffield Airport
“If we don’t prepare properly it will fail. We have to make sure we get it right the first time.”
The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) has set a date for Oliver Coppard’s decision on funding for Doncaster Sheffield Airport, the Local Democracy Reporting Service can confirm.
Mayor Coppard will decide on whether to approve gainshare funding to support the South Yorkshire Airport City project – and the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA).
At the SYMCA annual general meeting in June 2025, Coppard said he was expecting to make the decision in “early September”, but no firm date was announced.
However, the authority has now confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the Mayor’s decision is scheduled for Tuesday, September 9, 2025.
It follows the decision being scheduled for the same date on the SYMCA forward plan for key decisions.
Speaking at the AGM in June, Coppard said: “I realise that people are frustrated… but we have to get it right.
“If we don’t prepare properly it will fail. We have to make sure we get it right the first time.”
He said it was important to protect taxpayers money – as current projections for the cost of reopening DSA approach £150million.
Reopening the airport was the single key issue on which the Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones, campaigned on before the May 2025 elections.
Earlier in the year, she said the project was at a “critical point” and the project needed the certainty of the SYMCA gainshare funding.
September 2025 is later than initially anticipated for the SYMCA decision, yet, despite the delay, Jones has told the LDRS she is still committed to getting the airport reopened by spring 2026.
At the time, a spokesperson for the Mayor said: “There of course remain a number of interdependencies.
“Once we have the Gainshare decision signed off in early September we can finalise our plans, including progressing with our Airspace, signing-up airlines and freight providers and to employ and train the hundreds of staff required to operate an airport.”