Government backs Doncaster Sheffield Airport reopening

Climate experts voiced concerns about the environmental impact of reopening the airport and said it could not be justified during a climate crisis.

Richard Sulley, senior research fellow at the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, said: “The authorities are stressing this [airport city] will be about building sustainable aviation, but the technologies don’t exist yet, so there will be a period where aviation fuel is being burned.”

Reeves also announced the government supported the expansion of Heathrow with a third runway.

Christine Gilligan Kubo, Green Party councillor for Hillsborough on Sheffield City Council, said airport expansion “cannot be part of any serious plans to address climate change”.

“Reopening DSA with all its additional flights will only make achieving our carbon targets more difficult,” she said.

“We see every day the impact of rising carbon emissions on our local and global environment.

“We know if these emissions aren’t addressed it will only get worse.”

Doncaster Central MP Sally Jameson said opening the airport would be “good for climate change” as it would prioritise “sustainable aviation”.

“What we need to do [is] make flying more green, and we’re not going to do that if we don’t invest in those industries and that’s what Doncaster Airport will be there to do,” she said.

“I think this is really a statement from Doncaster that we are ambitious, we are ambitious for our future, we back ourselves, we back our industry we back our ability to make this work.”

Ros Jones, Mayor of Doncaster, reiterated on Wednesday that passenger flights could return in spring 2026.

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