Durham Tees Valley boss says airport at risk of closure
The boss of the company that runs Durham Tees Valley Airport has said the hub could close unless there is a sharp increase in passenger numbers, the Northern Echo reports. Craig Richmond, chief executive of Peel Airports, said people in the Teeside region need to start using Durham Tees Valley or risk losing the facility.
The number of passengers using Durham Tees Valley has fallen from a peak of 920,000 in 2006 to a predicted of figure of less than 200,000 this year. The airport has yet to recover from losing three airlines in 2009, bmibaby, Flyglobespan and Thomson Airways. The decision last November to impose a £6 charge on passengers that must be paid at the time of departure is also rumoured to have put off a lot of potential customers.
Speaking to The Northern Echo newspaper, Mr Richmond said the loss-making airport could not be propped up indefinitely. He said: ‘I don’t know what the time frame is, but eventually if it can’t turnaround, something’s going to change. I have three airports (Durham Tees Valley, Liverpool and Robin Hood) and the other two airports have six million passengers, yet I spend half my time on Durham Tees Valley thinking what we can do.’