I guess when we leave the EU we could go back to the old way of ground handling??
I would imagine revising the rules for ground handling at airports will be well down the list of priorities...
GA comments were tongue in cheek, but the North is well behind the rest of the country generally, not just a Newcastle issue - could be a bit chicken and egg (i.e. lack of facilities leading to a lack of activity) but the state of the economy probably has more of an impact.