Next Doncaster Sheffield Airport update 'worth waiting for', says city mayor
“What I can say is that the next update is well worth waiting for and I look forward to sharing further details in due course.”
The Mayor of Doncaster has said the next update regarding the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport is ‘worth waiting for’, amid frustrations over poor communication.
Mayor Ros Jones’ statement during the meeting of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) Board will challenge growing concerns about the reopening’s future.
She said: “A number of residents and businesses in Doncaster have expressed to me how frustrated and impatient they are to not see a more substantive progress reported, this is understandable, and indeed I share some of their perspective. As politicians we are naturally impatient for change and delivery.
“What I can say is that the next update is well worth waiting for and I look forward to sharing further details in due course.”
In aligning herself with local frustrations, Mayor Jones appeared to shift responsibility for months of vague, uninformative updates regarding DSA on to SYMCA.
However, speaking after the board meeting, Oliver Coppard, the Mayor of South Yorkshire, stood by the communications strategy that had been employed to this point.
“No press releases doesn’t mean no progress and I think that’s important to understand. We are absolutely moving forward at pace with the Doncaster Sheffield Airport project,” he said.
Mayor Coppard refuted suggestions that the lack of updates regarding the airport had left ‘gaps’ in the narrative for others to fill.
He said: “I would rather my team were doing the work than putting out press releases simply for the sake of saying that we’ve done that.
“I get it, people want to know more always about what’s going on, but some of this is commercially sensitive and therefore we can’t always tell everybody what is happening behind the scenes.”
Concerns for the future of the DSA reopening have been heightened since June 2026, when Doncaster Council refused to deny suggestions that the project could ‘run out of money’ in September.
Earlier this month, sources with knowledge of the situation said the reopening would not end up cashless before October 2026, however, they refused to offer any sort of indication on the reopening’s finances or how long it could go before fresh cash injections were needed.
SYMCA are yet to release £160million in funding for the airport agreed in September 2025, as two of the three conditions on the money remain unsatisfied.
The lease agreement between Doncaster Council and the airport landowners, the Peel Group, has yet to be renegotiated.
Additionally, Fly Doncaster Ltd – the ‘arms-length’ company owned by Doncaster Council to run DSA – is yet to hire an ‘experienced Project Management Officer’ a whole year after the condition was set.