just to pick up on Newcastle and its transports issues, Newcastle is possibly one of the best regional airports in the country to get to. While its not a motorway the A696 is dual carriageway all the way from the A1 to the airport car parks. We also have a fairly decent bus service to the airport and the Metro service is excellent in my opinion as this links directly into the main rail network. Compare this to the likes of Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, Belfast who all have public transport links far worse than that of Newcastle but are experiencing better growth.
As for traffic congestion then again we have airports that are again in a worse position than that of Newcastle. I have just spent most of December working at Manchester Airport and I can speak from personal experience that the traffic problems I experienced every day were for worse than I have ever known getting to Newcastle airport. The M60 ring road especially as it goes past the Trafford Centre had huge tailbacks every day.