A new airport.... South Yorkshire Airport City?

[Bantamzen]

I get where you’re coming from, but I wouldn’t be quite as certain that Burnham will steer clear.

Yes, Net Zero gives everyone an easy external explanation if things go south — that part of your point stands. But this Government is also signalling a shift toward regional self‑determination, local growth, and high‑visibility regeneration projects. DSA fits that narrative almost perfectly.

Coppard being at the inaugural No10 North meeting today is telling. If the new administration wants to showcase that it’s backing regional priorities, DSA is exactly the kind of project they’d use - big, visible, popular locally, and symbolically tied to ‘levelling up’ without being a Westminster‑driven scheme.

And while the other South Yorkshire authorities haven’t put money in, the political optics of supporting a regionally backed project are still strong. It’s a ready‑made opportunity for Government to say ‘We’re listening to local voices and backing local growth.’

So I wouldn’t rule out movement here. If they want a headline that demonstrates commitment to regional autonomy, DSA is sitting right there waiting to be picked

Three letters spring to mind here, and no they are not D, S and A. NPR, Northern Powerhouse Rail, a project that Burnham was very much about is far more likely to be the big levelling up the North project that he will put the budget behind. I think he will publicly back DSA, and suggest that the Gainshare money should maybe be allowed to be released, but I can't see him centrally funding DSA over NPR in a million years.

So I think DSA may continue to limp onwards for now, a secondary levelling up project that will slowly eat up funds without ever getting near to actually opening as a commercial airport again. Then when the big Westminster / Manchester NPR project goes from aspiration, to mapped out plan, to preparing contracts, DSA will be allowed to finally expire with the few voices of protest left overshadowed by the fanfare of a new Liverpool - Warrington - Manchester Airport - Manchester line that is slightly faster than the current alignments.

Hmm, I wonder if any bookies would take a bet like this.... 🤣

 

[pug]

Three letters spring to mind here, and no they are not D, S and A. NPR, Northern Powerhouse Rail, a project that Burnham was very much about is far more likely to be the big levelling up the North project that he will put the budget behind. I think he will publicly back DSA, and suggest that the Gainshare money should maybe be allowed to be released, but I can't see him centrally funding DSA over NPR in a million years.

So I think DSA may continue to limp onwards for now, a secondary levelling up project that will slowly eat up funds without ever getting near to actually opening as a commercial airport again. Then when the big Westminster / Manchester NPR project goes from aspiration, to mapped out plan, to preparing contracts, DSA will be allowed to finally expire with the few voices of protest left overshadowed by the fanfare of a new Liverpool - Warrington - Manchester Airport - Manchester line that is slightly faster than the current alignments.

Hmm, I wonder if any bookies would take a bet like this.... 🤣

You have hit on the exact strategic trade-off. If regional leaders actually had the discipline to abandon the DSA project, it would open up a massive opportunity for a joined-up Northern strategy.

Instead of Doncaster, with the support of South Yorkshire, pouring hundreds of millions of taxpayers' pounds into trying to resuscitate or protect under-utilised local runways, that collective regional weight could be thrown behind fast-tracking the NPR network.

Imagine a scenario where South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Hull & East Riding, and Greater Lincolnshire formed a unified lobbying block to demand that NPR links Manchester and its airport directly to Sheffield, Leeds, and the Humber ports at lightning speed.

By treating Manchester Airport as the primary international gateway for the entire North—fully connected by high-speed rail—you unlock massive, deliverable growth benefits for everyone. It means a business person or engineer in Hull or Sheffield could get to a truly global airport hub in under an hour, while our local assets like HUY, LBA etc could focus entirely on dominating high-yield business, leisure and offshore support activity. Arguably it would have the biggest benefit to Sheffield which is very close to MAN as the crow flies.

 

[Snackbar]

I take your point about fiscal autonomy but u still don’t think it’s as simple as Burnham refusing to go anywhere near it. Burnham has had years of dealing with Peel directly across Greater Manchester on land‑use, development and strategic planning issues. He knows exactly how Peel operate, how they negotiate, and how they position themselves in regional projects. That familiarity doesn’t make him more likely to bail them out, but it does mean he’s one of the few national‑level figures who can actually navigate Peel without being caught off‑guard by them.

And that’s where the political optics come in. This Government is clearly leaning into regional regeneration and regional identity, and DSA is a big, visible, locally popular project that fits neatly into that narrative. Coppard being at No10 North today isn’t accidental – it’s the kind of stage where a PM can stand next to a regional mayor and say they’re backing South Yorkshire’s future. That doesn’t have to mean a cheque. It can mean political cover, policy alignment, regulatory flexibility or simply a public signal that Westminster is behind the region’s ambitions.

So yes, Treasury discipline will be a factor, and yes, the business case will get scrutinised – especially the speculative passenger forecasts and the Peel turnover clause. But involvement doesn’t have to mean a bailout. It can be strategic support that helps Coppard without undermining the principle of devolved responsibility. Burnham’s past dealings with Peel actually make that easier, not harder. That’s why I wouldn’t rule out movement here. The risks are real, but the political incentives for a show of support are stronger than the purely fiscal reading suggests.

NB: this is not to say there’s going to be any change in the fundamental lack of viability of the site as an airport. Political motivation can only get you so far. So for anyone quietly lurking these forums, it will still fail but it may get a convenient stay of execution past September.

Of course Coppard wasn’t the only regional mayor is attendance - today’s meeting was attended by all regional mayors…..Agree on the optics for DSA but given the news emanating from Teesside at the moment I’d expect if Coppard gets extra funds you can guarantee Houchen would be on the phone pretty sharpish….As would every other regional mayor with their funding challenges.
It was also planned to bin a whole host of infrastructure projects just before Starmer’s demise to fund defence spending - whilst there has been a change of Chancellor that hole in financing remains and is mostly likely larger given Healley will have to now stand by the issue here resigned on. So not sure if Burnham has that much cash to chuck around.
Lastly Burnham will be a lot more familiar with the potential for DSA project to fail given his familiarity with MAG and will see though any gaslighting by Coppard or anyone else.

I suspect what will happen is that at some point regional mayors will be given more devolved spending and flexibility how to spend that cash. It will then be up to Coppard to decide where to spend that budget. He’d be a fool to throw it all at a money pit like DSA - but he is a politician after all!

 

[pug]

Of course Coppard wasn’t the only regional mayor is attendance - today’s meeting was attended by all regional mayors…..Agree on the optics for DSA but given the news emanating from Teesside at the moment I’d expect if Coppard gets extra funds you can guarantee Houchen would be on the phone pretty sharpish….As would every other regional mayor with their funding challenges.
It was also planned to bin a whole host of infrastructure projects just before Starmer’s demise to fund defence spending - whilst there has been a change of Chancellor that hole in financing remains and is mostly likely larger given Healley will have to now stand by the issue here resigned on. So not sure if Burnham has that much cash to chuck around.
Lastly Burnham will be a lot more familiar with the potential for DSA project to fail given his familiarity with MAG and will see though any gaslighting by Coppard or anyone else.

I suspect what will happen is that at some point regional mayors will be given more devolved spending and flexibility how to spend that cash. It will then be up to Coppard to decide where to spend that budget. He’d be a fool to throw it all at a money pit like DSA - but he is a politician after all!

I broadly agree with all of that. The funding picture is tight, every mayor in the room will have their own pressures, and Burnham isn’t sitting on some magic pot of cash he can just throw at South Yorkshire. And yes, he’ll absolutely see through any over‑selling of the project — he’s been around long enough to know when the numbers don’t stack.

The only thing I’d add is that Burnham’s long‑standing relationship with Peel actually reinforces your point. If he did get drawn into this, Peel are exactly the kind of organisation who would quietly warn him that the fundamentals aren’t there and that publicly backing a reopening carries reputational risk. He’s dealt with them for years; they don’t sugar‑coat commercial reality. So even if the optics look good, he’s not going to put himself in a position where he’s politically tied to something Peel themselves think is likely to fail.

So yes — devolved spending flexibility might come, and Coppard will have choices to make. But Burnham getting involved in a visible way is potentially unlikely, not just because of the funding constraints you mention, but because the people he actually trusts on the commercial side would be telling him to tread very carefully. Be interesting to see whether he adds his face to the reopening, politically it will be very difficult to keep at arms length. Doncaster is a battle ground that he needs to keep onside, so there’s no guessing how much he might be swayed to support it given the Reform sweep there last year. Conversely the lack of honesty from Ros Jones and, to an extend Coppard, could be their undoing there anyway.

 

[pug]

Apparently Christian Foster was quoted in the Sunday Times as claiming now he’s in negotiation with the MoD over using DSA to transport munitions and military equipment because if it’s ’long and wide runway and history as a military airfield’.

Just keeps getting more odd, perhaps even desperate! In sure we don’t really need to explain why this is a complete non starter. I guess he’s confusing the Sheffield links with final product ok that takes place at secure facilities nowhere near DSA. They are then transported using existing military and aerospace industry aircraft from existing facilities.

 

[Egyptian King]

Apparently Christian Foster was quoted in the Sunday Times as claiming now he’s in negotiation with the MoD over using DSA to transport munitions and military equipment because if it’s ’long and wide runway and history as a military airfield’.

Just keeps getting more odd, perhaps even desperate! In sure we don’t really need to explain why this is a complete non starter. I guess he’s confusing the Sheffield links with final product ok that takes place at secure facilities nowhere near DSA. They are then transported using existing military and aerospace industry aircraft from existing facilities.

It appears to be a newspaper today, he is chasing overflow capacity from closures such as Brize Norton

 

[pug]

It appears to be a newspaper today, he is chasing overflow capacity from closures such as Brize Norton

That’s one angle he’s going down, but the disruption at Brize is temporary, phased and contingency has already been implemented with EMA, PIK and BOH. Some may also disperse to Boscombe and other places.

This is a desperate grab at something he can call news. If people saw a Voyager land at DSA there would be a photo opportunity to display momentum. Thats all this is about and it’s actually not a great look. Clearly the operators they claim to have interest are nowhere to be seen and they’re trying to find a problem for their solution.

 

[Bantamzen]

Apparently Christian Foster was quoted in the Sunday Times as claiming now he’s in negotiation with the MoD over using DSA to transport munitions and military equipment because if it’s ’long and wide runway and history as a military airfield’.

Just keeps getting more odd, perhaps even desperate! In sure we don’t really need to explain why this is a complete non starter. I guess he’s confusing the Sheffield links with final product ok that takes place at secure facilities nowhere near DSA. They are then transported using existing military and aerospace industry aircraft from existing facilities.

I wonder how shipping munitions to wars around the world in huge, four engined military craft like C5s and C17s fits into DSA's "sustainable aviation" model?

 

[752]

Seen on the news several times on TV and the mechanic resharing about the Symulators.. (Simulators) not sure if the mechanic used AI or not sure how to use spell check. They look like a computer game. Nothing to report Imo

 

[pug]

Seen on the news several times on TV and the mechanic resharing about the Symulators.. (Simulators) not sure if the mechanic used AI or not sure how to use spell check. They look like a computer game. Nothing to report Imo

As @radar previously suggested, probably e-waste that Peel gave them to play with. Provides a convenient distraction to the other news that nobody seems to bother reporting on.

 

[radar]

It’s not a bad simulator, it’s pretty much the industry standard. It’s also quite a low spec version, and the very minimum that a unit proposing ‘greenfield’ validations would be required to have by the CAA.

The e-waste comment related to the value of the DSA 1.0 sim if Peel tried to sell it to anyone other than DSA 2.0 - in that scenario it’s not much more than a pile of screens and PC towers. However if they sold it to DSA 2.0, it’s worth five figures. Good deal for DSA 2.0 as well, as a new one is well into six figures.

 

[pug]

They can add it to the clapped out domestic fire engine then, something else I’m sure they got a great deal on.

I wonder what the sum total of assets actually is by this point.

 

[Stagman]

They can add it to the clapped out domestic fire engine then, something else I’m sure they got a great deal on.

I wonder what the sum total of assets actually is by this point.

Next press release will be how the airport fire engine helped tackle wildfires nearby.

 

[Finger66]

Well that will be the only flames they may successfully fan!!

 

[pug]

Next press release will be how the airport fire engine helped tackle wildfires nearby.

There’s more news brewing apparently. It’s not big news, it’s not momentum, but it apparently included some piece of otherwise irrelevant infrastructure. I think they might have painted the fire engine too.

 

[Egyptian King]

There’s more news brewing apparently. It’s not big news, it’s not momentum, but it apparently included some piece of otherwise irrelevant infrastructure. I think they might have painted the fire engine too.

Or painted his bus wreck

 

[pug]

As expected Burnham (who I quite like) has weighed in on the DSA matter on a visit to SY today.

Andy Burnham says Doncaster Sheffield Airport reopening is 'within touching distance'

Andy Burnham unveiled the plans, which No10 described as the “biggest transfer of financial powers” away from Whitehall in decades, at the Meadow Family Hub in Sheffield

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

As one would expect, Chadwick has jumped on it by suggesting it’s another avenue to explore for DSA.

I would point out at this point that Coppard, also quoted in the article, was not able to provide an update on the lease renegotiations. Instead he intimated the following, which is the most critical quote of the entire article:

“There are no immediate implications from the announcement regarding DSA’s financing.”

Another tacit acknowledgement that none of the things announced by Burnham offer any practical solutions to ‘Save DSA’. The mechanisms that are holding up the release of Gainshare are still in effect, they do not appear to be going away.

For anyone interested in political commentary and that listen to The Rest Is Politics, Alistair Campbell has himself cautioned that this type of ‘speculative mega-project’ (but he didn’t mention DSA specifically) is what will very rapidly undo the policy of greater regional fiscal autonomy, primarily because it will be a catalyst for regional mayors to over-reach on such speculative infrastructure projects and result in them going broke very quickly. This would ultimately undermine devolution.

Burnham is signalling, he’s offering no solution. I’m sure MAG would tell him exactly where he’s going wrong on this point. I’m sure Peel will tell him (if they haven’t already) why there is no practicable solution to turn things around.

 

[Guppy]

Note he doesn’t say it’s opening “On his first visit to Yorkshire since becoming Prime Minister, Andy Burnham told The Yorkshire Post that Doncaster Sheffield Airport's reopening was "within touching distance".

 

[pug]

Note he doesn’t say it’s opening “On his first visit to Yorkshire since becoming Prime Minister, Andy Burnham told The Yorkshire Post that Doncaster Sheffield Airport's reopening was "within touching distance".

Political signalling. Offering support but not actually offering solutions.

If I was to stand outside the supermarket with a cardboard sign saying ‘please give me £1 million’ I’m pretty sure there’d be some people offering me support, they might come pat me on the back and say ‘good luck’, they might even suggest I go chat to some rich people or head to the bank to ask for a loan or something. They might then say that me becoming a millionaire is ‘within touching distance’, because it’s theoretically possible. However what they probably wouldn’t do is come and hand me a cheque for £1million, because if they did they’d want to be very specific about this and they’d probably want their pictures in the paper and gain plaudits - they’d say something along the lines of ‘I gave pug £1 million’. Burnham has said none of these things, and if I’d been stopped doing the same thing outside of the supermarket for 4 years and someone came along who was a mate, had access to lots of money and power, and said something like ‘you’re within touching distance of being a millionaire because I’m going to give you the right to keep the £1.00 from the shopping trolleys every time someone uses one’, at that point I’d probably say something like “there are no immediate implications from this announcement regarding my financial situation’.

Poor analogy perhaps, but I’m sure you catch my drift.

I am absolutely certain that Burnham has had an altogether different conversation with Coppard in private.

 

[pug]

Anyone else find it a bit strange that Ros Jones has not released any statement online promoting the commencement of the ACP consultation? In fact she’s posted nothing about the airport since 24th July and that was just about the meet the buyer event.

Maybe she’ll post something later. Or maybe she’s trying to distance herself from it a bit too now? Who knows, but Chadwick is going into over drive about it again as if the CAA want to pick through thousands of survey submissions from Doris from Bawtry who supports it ‘cos jobs and flights to Benidorm’.