Its a bit daft when the airport quote 2.7million passengers live within 1 hour of Teesside. Of those 2.7m more than 50% live within 1/2 an hour of newcastle. Which probably takes us back to the start of this thread (how many years ago)
Historically Teesside used to do rather well with flights to the cheaper destinations, Yugoslavia being well used in their pre war years, Northern spain, recently Turkey and Bulgaria.That's probably because per capita Teessiders spend slightly less on holidays and generally don't favour the more exotic destinations. Employment levels and wages account for the differences in travel patterns when compared with the more affluent parts of the country. Globespan had the right business model a small number of cheapish destinations but messed up because of poor reputation for reliability (go back through the Gazette archives) and, as I read it from other threads ,lack of airframes to base down here.
This summer will be quiet, but maybe Ryanair will be encouraged if the Alicante and Girona flights sell well and perhaps extend the programme in 2010.
One thing I can't see is Peel Holdings chucking any money at facilities improvement.