The British government has given £30 million to reopen Doncaster/Sheffield airport, part of a plan to transform it into an aviation hub and boost the local economy.

The government is also supporting a £100m Doncaster council proposal to provide loans to FlyDoncaster, a council-owned company, to help fund the airport’s expansion.

The whole project is expected to create 5,000 jobs and boost the local economy by £5 billion by 2050. Needless to say, the government subsidy was warmly welcomed.

Last month, the Economy Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, announced her Department for the Economy (DfE) was “assuming responsibility” for financing City of Derry Airport (CoDA).

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The announcement was warmly welcomed in the north west. Paul Gosling, an economist who knows more about the Derry economy than anyone else – he’s been writing about it for nearly 40........

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