Round 2 to the public at the next mayoral elections?
Also, what would the mayor do if he bought it? I would suggest that making it easier for the good people of Teesside to go on holiday isn't a great use of public money, so the "public interest" argument would be to increase the regionals global connectivity to attract inward investment and facilitate international trade.
So what routes do you need - maybe LHR? While BA would be the preferred operator they already fly out of LBA and NCL, so you're probably looking at a flyBe DHC-8 type operation (if you can get the slots). Where else - DUB? Again EI would be the preferred operator, but again they fly from LBA and NCL.
What other options are there?