Our German friends are in deep discussion with the Management about widening their operation from Teesside. Management would ideally want a based aircraft and Tui want to be certain that a) the airport is still here when they come to fly their aircraft in and b) they get the same deal as everyone else at the airport in terms of operating costs.
The Tui deal would make Ryanair a non starter.
Thomas Cook are still looking at the airport and a trawl through the postcodes of their NCL passengers shows a suprisingly large number of DL and TS Postcodes.
I am hoping that whoever took the moronic decision to go with Loco's instead of tried and trusted charters is still not in post and they make the right decision.