Teesside airport another £20m bailout

I was looking for flights back to Belfast, usually fly from Newcastle for around £60 depending on how early you book the tickets. At the same time I checked Teesside airport as I’d have been around the area at the time, £150.

That’s why it’s needing bailouts.
 
Jonny_Rondos_Disco_pants said:
But generally those who fly out, return. We aren’t a holiday destination.
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One benefit of an airport is the potential to bring non locals to the area. This was the driver, at the request of the low cost airlines, to give it a destination name ie Durham.

If privately owned, you can receive funding etc from councils if you demonstrate you bring people to the area...and the cash injection that follows.

Just bringing holidaymakers back home having spent 2 weeks spending their cash elsewhere is neither use nor ornament.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
For many in this area it's only an extra 40 minutes to drive to Newcastle. You don't have to get up much earlier to get the equivalent flight.
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Good point. However you can’t be 100% sure of the queues at Newcastle but I could always be parked in in the departure lounge in 15 mins at Teesside . Granted however I really like Newcastle as an airport
 
So many of you bang on about the poor infrastructure of Teesside and yet reckon the airport should close.

It doesn't make sense.

And if you live on Teesside then Newcastle airport is only 40 minutes away if everything goes perfectly to plan. If there's any delay on the A1 you'll be late.

I really think the airport is a great facility and needs to be supported.
 
Soutra said:
So many of you bang on about the poor infrastructure of Teesside and yet reckon the airport should close.

It doesn't make sense.

And if you live on Teesside then Newcastle airport is only 40 minutes away if everything goes perfectly to plan. If there's any delay on the A1 you'll be late.

I really think the airport is a great facility and needs to be supported.
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I agree with this, even if it does need propping up with public money during lean times I think it's worth it.

We might need it one day to fly in all the people who want to holiday on the Teesside Riveria once the usual holiday spots in Europe have become uninhabitable.
 
Soutra said:
I really think the airport is a great facility and needs to be supported.
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Yep keeping ploughing that money in good or bad to ensure that everyone can get on their 2 week holiday, where they can sit and read about the record child poverty rates on Teesside, safe in the knowledge that they dont have to worry about a hours delay on their journey home from Newcastle airport.
 
Soutra said:
So many of you bang on about the poor infrastructure of Teesside and yet reckon the airport should close.

It doesn't make sense.

And if you live on Teesside then Newcastle airport is only 40 minutes away if everything goes perfectly to plan. If there's any delay on the A1 you'll be late.

I really think the airport is a great facility and needs to be supported.
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You should be getting to the airport well before your flight no matter what airport you go to.

Multiple fight times to choose from each day usually and often multiple carriers competing on price.

If bothered about traffic just rock up into the terminal via the metro. We've done this many many times and it's so easy.

The difference here is having teesside airport doesn't add a lot to our infrastructure. Doesn't massively help
People getting here due it it's inaccessibility and poor choice of flights / times. People who do get here then can't easily travel onward locally.

Bus/train etc links here are poor. It's £13.50 now to taxi to boro from Ingleby, £7 return on a bus when my partner looked at the weekend and takes ages? Infrastructure should be something we can all fairly easily make use of and get value for money for the whole area.

Someone posted above its cost every teesside tax payer £27, but the passenger numbers are tiny. This isn't free money the tories are giving us to spend on the airport, it's our areas money so should be benefitting everyone or at least as many as possible

If there was a realistic plan to get it where it needs to be to benefit everyone I could understand it but it seems like they've plucked the figures out of thin air because they sound good.
 
More investment announced in Teeside Airport this morning…

Willis Aviation building 2 new hangers and a flight centre for a new base. £25m investment and 200 jobs.
 
Soutra said:
So many of you bang on about the poor infrastructure of Teesside and yet reckon the airport should close.

It doesn't make sense.

And if you live on Teesside then Newcastle airport is only 40 minutes away if everything goes perfectly to plan. If there's any delay on the A1 you'll be late.

I really think the airport is a great facility and needs to be supported.
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People bang on about the poor infrastructure because it is exactly that. There isn't even a direct bus service to the airport from Boro. It's about the same time to get to Newcastle airport via Central.

The airport could be a great facility but it isn't the public not supporting it that could cause it to fail.
 
Jonny_Rondos_Disco_pants said:
More investment announced in Teeside Airport this morning…

Willis Aviation building 2 new hangers and a flight centre for a new base. £25m investment and 200 jobs.
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"It is thanks in part to our Freeport status that WLFC has begun the planning process to the scheme proving how the Teesside Freeport is working not just for Teesworks, but for the whole of the region. When I saved our airport from closure, I said that no homes would be built on the airport site."

Was it his single handed effort that saved the airport?

Asking for a friend.
 
The airport is excellent for me travelling for work. It takes 20 mins in a taxi and I normally get there an hour before.

However, there are two problems I have.
1) Work related - KLM red eye flight and late flight back to Teesside have been pulled - This may be more Covid and lack of people at Schiphol. I did read on here that they may be re-instated in October.

2) Personal and family related - The cost of flights are prohibitive. To take the family of 4 from Teesside costs circa £250 more with the same Travel Firm than flying from Newcastle. If the flights were somewhere near comparable then I would use Teesside every time as I am sure others would. If the flights are not priced competitively then people will not use Teesside, hence the low number of footfall. I guarantee that if the flights were a similar price to those from Newcastle then people from around this area and further away would use it.
 
Let’s just be happy that their is investment in the area no matter who brings it to the area not bothered if the are cons or labour that gets it here
 
Paintolerance said:
One benefit of an airport is the potential to bring non locals to the area. This was the driver, at the request of the low cost airlines, to give it a destination name ie Durham.

If privately owned, you can receive funding etc from councils if you demonstrate you bring people to the area...and the cash injection that follows.

Just bringing holidaymakers back home having spent 2 weeks spending their cash elsewhere is neither use nor ornament.
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Ah, so it's not meant to benefit local people who aren't making a killing out of it?

Maybe it's time local business was asked to come up with the cash if that's who it's for?
 
Unravel_Morrison said:
People bang on about the poor infrastructure because it is exactly that. There isn't even a direct bus service to the airport from Boro. It's about the same time to get to Newcastle airport via Central.

The airport could be a great facility but it isn't the public not supporting it that could cause it to fail.
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I can get the train from Saltburn to Manchester airport but not Teesside. It's bloody ridiculous 🙂
 
American_Mary said:
It's a disgrace that during a cost of living crisis that those on low incomes are having to subsidise an airport, which whilst it is nice to have is far from a necessity given our proximity to both Newcastle and Leeds.

For every passenger that flew from Teesside last year it cost the taxpayer £25.47, there were 18,013 flights and 78,250 passengers which gives an average of 4.3 people per flight, which is unsustainable, Newcastle had 21,421 flights and 1,024,930 passengers with an average of 47.84 people per flight and Leeds had 14,566 flights and 739,131 passengers with an average of 50.74 per flight, even Doncaster which is said to be really struggling after the collapse of FlyBe had 14,077 flights, 309,512 passengers and an average of 21.98 per flight, Teesside had a much lower terminal spend than the 3 examples above also.

The concern is that Houchen has got the figures massively wrong and whilst he's been quick in the past to blame others for their mismanagement of the airport he's actually done a much worse job and his business model makes little to no sense, Covid has just become an convenient excuse for a failure to understand the industry that started way before the pandemic.

It's a vanity project and has been used to score political points by Houchen, there can be no justification for low income families who have no hope of being able to afford to use the airport having their tax diverted to a white elephant.

I love this area and would never knock it, but sometimes reality is spun by those who stand to benefit as negativity, my concern is if Houchen's flagship airport scheme is in such mire what is the state of other projects and their finances, talking a good game is a very different beast to playing one.
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The further investment of £20 million must be linked with the 25 million invested by American company to repair aircraft at the airport.
 
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