The case for and against Doncaster Sheffield Airport

Tomorrow will mark exactly four years since Doncaster Sheffield Airport shut down, seemingly for good, and Gary Winterman’s livelihood evaporated. His company CargoWorld had existed for just shy of 20 years but ceased trading the moment that the DSA’s owner, Peel, decided to abandon what they allege was an irreversibly sinking ship. At the time, Sheffield councillor Ben Miskell described the move as a “total betrayal of the people of South Yorkshire”.

But, for Winterman at least, it seems there’s no hard feelings. He’s delighted to be back working at the airport, this time alongside his son Matthew, with a fancy new title (head of cargo and general aviation) and his own office to boot. He tells me with total sincerity that it’s his life’s mission to make sure it’s a success this time round. “I’m a local lad, born and bred in Doncaster,” he says, before adding: “But it's not just about Doncaster, it’s about bringing this back to the region.”

Though the first flights won’t take off until September next year, Winterman is one of almost 100 employees already on-site, mostly on the payroll of the council’s arms-length company FlyDoncaster. The mood there is “fantastic,” Winterman says, adding that the airport even has a new nickname: Heathrow North. The only thing that threatens to kill the mood is the constant scepticism in the local press and on social media about whether the grand reopening is a good idea. “We just need people to get behind us, which I think they’re starting to,” he says. “I think the tables are starting to turn a little bit.”

While that may be true, the DSA still has some die-hard critics. Take Richard Sulley, who describes himself as a "disgruntled former employee of the mayor of South Yorkshire” and says he left his job at the combined authority in part because of his outrage at the plans to reopen the airport. “All evidence available publicly from anyone in this field is that small regional tourist airports don’t bring massive economic benefits,” he argues. 

In Sulley’s view, Doncaster Sheffield Airport is an obvious white elephant and politicians like South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard are simply in too deep to see sense. “If I was a resident of Doncaster, I would be nervous,” he says, given that more than £121m of Gainshare funding previously earmarked for other Doncaster council projects will now be poured into the airport instead. While politicians insist reopening the DSA will bring economic benefits greater than its cost, he notes the calculations used to support this claim are redacted due to commercial sensitivity. “We will find out everything when there is an inevitable public enquiry about this,” Sulley suggests. “But, by that time, all the politicians will have moved on and the damage will have been done.”

Between one of the airport’s most dedicated advocates and a DSA doomer, who is closer to the public mood? And, more importantly, who will be proven right in the end?