On a side, one thing id like your opinion on is BA routes out of the Toon, could they make any work most likely a long hauler?
BA have shown little interest in the regions for many years, though there has been noise about MAN recently. Never say never but...
It's been said before on here, our Bergamo flights went out full, they did well, but then Ryanair got Manchester slots, so we lost it. They started MAN-BGY the week after they pulled NCL-BGY with the same days of operation, timings etc. An all too common trend from here.
Which would suggest that it wasn't a strong performer.
Re: Star Alliance loyalty in the North east, when I flew NCL-DUS-NCL on my way to China, (seriously, always look at LH from NCL on long haul if you need to travel, they have amazing deals, I paid £290 to Shanghai), on both flights I heard more than 1 conversation about people keeping up their silver/gold star alliance status.
The Star Alliance offering from DUS isn't great (Newark, Tokyo, Singapore?) - so presumably need onward connections to MUC or FRA? Not very competitive against single change options from LHR, AMS, CDG, DXB. SAS are often cheap, but the connections aren't great (which again suggests that we are mainly point-to-point or European feed, rather than long haul)
If you think about it, there are very few options for non stop transatlantic flights currently. The vast majority are on US legacies, which is why it's difficult for airports like NCL to cut the mustard. When that changes, we will stand more of a chance. Why is it bad that people want a transatlantic service?
Agreed - but if not on a US legacy, you lose the onward connectivity and it becomes more point-to-point, which reduces the size of the market. Nothing wrong with wanting a transatlantic service, but there are suspicions that it became a "holy grail" for the airport, taking up a disproportionate amount of management time which could have been better used on less glamorous but more attainable targets
I'd like to see better connections from Cumbria, Teesside, Northumberland etc.
Agreed - but this is the airports main problem, its hinterland/catchment area is small, mainly rural or poor in comparison with other UK regions