The Newcastle debt is a different beast, it can be serviced from income and there is a track record of good performance (in normal years anyway). Teesside is different in that it is the speculate to accumalate, "build it and they will come" approach - there is no ssuch track record to support the investment. So a lot of money has now been spent on refurbishing the terminal etc. However, the Mayor's pitch was that any serious industrial area had to have its own airport to give business good links and to attract inward investment. I'm not sure that the money that's been spent was needed for this business orientated approach, has bothered the likes of KLM for years. He now needs the likes of Ryanair to build the throughput that will keep the bars etc busy during the rest of the day. As has been said many times the issue with the airport is the money can only be spent once - were there better uses for taxpayers money than building nice bars for Teessiders to sit in before they go on their holidays (a deliberatley cheap shot, but you get my point). He now needs to build the throughput so that the ancillary's like car parking, bars and shops to pay off the debt.
And that's just the passengers - I see in the news last week that the airport say that the southside access road will be started "in a few weeks". How many times is that now?