"If they can do it why won't Peel do this just down the road? The pax are obviously wanting to fly.
I wouldn't be surprised if half of those 50,000 pax came from the Teesside area and had to drive 50 miles up the road.
50,000 people to fly out of Newcastle Airport over Easter | Tyne Tees - ITV News"
Err, population Teesside circa 376k.
Population T&W - circa 1.1m, Northumberland (mostly just n of T&W) circa 311k, County Durham (mostly just s of T&W) circa 513k, makes circa 1.924m.
I think your estimate may be a little out, or are you seriously suggesting that the inghabitants of Teesside are 6 times more likely to have flown this weekend than the rest of the region ?