Originally Posted by
SWBKCB
The rationale at the time was that the airport needed to be expanded and that the local authorities had neither the money or the expertise to do so. I don't think it was considered at the time that it was being given away, but lets be fair there was plenty of criticism of how the airport was being run on these pages before Ben took over.
Indeed taken on by a company who had facilitated the development of Liverpool from a tiny backwater airport to one of the busiest regional airports in the U.K. by employing a stack em high sell em cheap approach to getting airlines in. Unfortunately Teesside and Doncaster didn’t have the catchment areas large enough to generate the critical mass to be a success.
I’ve no doubt there is latent demand at Teesside, but not enough to be handling millions of passengers a year. There aren’t as many airlines around now as there were 20+ years ago, so less opportunity for growth in that sector.
Hopefully the ancillary stuff they are getting involved in at Teesside will future proof the site and allow it to continue after Ben Houchen goes elsewhere and takes his money tree with him.