DURHAM TEES VALLEY AIRPORT - 4

[DTVAirport]

Originally Posted by perusal

From The Journal today

Quote:
NEW parking measures came into effect at Teesside Airport yesterday

Maybe they've been reading the road signs.

For a start, the road signs are all but changed, and secondly, The Journal isn't exactly the most popular newspaper in the world.

[DTVAirport]

Originally Posted by carbheathot

Come on DTV thats a bit out of order referring to named individuals like that

Not my words, I know that several members of staff think along those lines.

Besides, can someone please tell me how someone who is an ex-employee of the North Tees Hospitals HR department become an Airport Operations Director? She has no previous experience and does not have a clue - again, not my words, all this is from members of staff.

[N707ZS]

She lives next door to HL in Yarm.

And further more how did the new security manager get her job?

[DTVAirport]

Not familar with the new security manager so wouldn't know.

Fair enough, I probably shouldn't name names, but even if I hadn't, it would still probably be obvious who I was talking about.

[skyman771]

I would remind people that HL was boss at the airport BEFORE Peel came along , and things have turned T*ts up since that company took over.

My views on 'Hughies' competence & ability to run a and develop an airport are well publicized. The bottom line is that irrespective of who his employers are be it Peel or whoever, if he feels that he is constrained and unable to carry out his role then he can of course leave and seek a new job. Presumably he could have applied for the job at LBA, or perhaps he did , then again perhaps even they found someone whose track record isn't going to reduce their airfield to little more than a grass strip in five years time. As for the suggestions of nepotism in recruitment, then nothing surprises me any more, perhaps Peel are rubbing their hands with glee that they have an ally to assist in undermining the sites principle function - an airport

[carbheathot]

perhaps Peel are rubbing their hands with glee that they have an ally to assist in undermining the sites principle function - an airport

Peels ally in undermining the place at this point in time is GSM, tonights "gazette" has the story of mondays debacle. Meanwhile the CAA figures for August show 20% down on passengers in the same time last year
Not good

[N707ZS]

At the end of the day all that hapens at DTVA is Peel's doing lets just hope it doesn't follow Sheffield city.

I think it could be time the local press got ahold of the bigger picture and asked Peel "what is the future?" Especially as Peel have recently asked for change of details for the South side planing permissions from aircraft related industry to general industry.

Lets get back to aviation, on the brighter side the roumours are still coming out of the woodwork for airlines related to the Peel other airports and I don't mean Barton for once

[DTVAirport]

Apparantly Peel have not been successful at ANY of their airports, Obviously Sheffield City flopped, If DSA had been as successful as Peel said it would before it opened, they would have been handling 5 million pax per year heading for 15 million, and I've been told Liverpools success is in spite of Peel and not thanks to Peel, I don't fully understand that statement but it sounds true enough.

[lplsprog]

LPL's success is directly down to Peel. They have put in over £100m in new infrastructure which the previous owners would certainly not have done. I can't see 5.5m PAX being handled with the shed we had before!

[carbheathot]

LPL's success is directly down to Peel. They have put in over £100m in new infrastructure which the previous owners would certainly not have

Hmm a bit like the £20 million at EGNV, its not actually £20m, knock off the zero, take a wee bit more off, ........Ok then its £427 16s. 3d.
If Peel say its £100m you can be sure thats £90m from the taxpayer either through Europe, local authorities, development agencies whatever, and the rest borrowed from the Trafford Centre.

[DB5]

Carbheathot – agree with your comments about who’s apparently paying what. Interesting to know if Peel has actually put any money into MME as yet because the new access road etc. was funded by one of the NE development agencies if I remember correctly.

The viability and future funding of our local airport ideally needs to be raised in the local media because we can discuss opinions on here until the cows come home but it won’t make a blind bit of difference to anything tangible happening at MME. Unfortunately local TV, radio, and newspapers, are clueless about aviation and only ever report the ‘shock horror, passengers delayed for 5 minutes on Malaga flight’ garbage. Anything more in depth and they’re entirely in the hands of Mr L or the dreaded MME press release, accepting everything that’s given to them because they don’t possess any basic knowledge of aviation in order to respond.

[carbheathot]

‘shock horror, passengers delayed for 5 minutes on Malaga flight’ garbage

It wasnt 5 minutes, it was 24 hours outbound and 6 hours inbound, and it was persistent over 4 weeks.How do I know? Cos I was one of the poor deluded muppets who supported our local airport on the flight
But back to the economics argument. Peel Holdings , as I have banged on about before, are a Property Development Company. They have an airport arm which is run by people whose primary interest is Property and whose secondary interest is Aviation. I would challenge any Peel employee or supporter who might have heard of this site to come on here and argue with me. Peel bought the airport from the local councils for a pittance and are now sitting on 300(?) acres of land with a number of planning consents which they are in the process of attempting to vary in order to build non aviation linked development.Thats fact and is in the public domain.
The Airports statistics, as reported to the CAA show a steady downturn in business and this cannot be helped by the dismal failure of GSM to provide a reliable service, and the ongoing BM saga with the Heathrow uncertainties.
Unless HL and his team can pull some big rabbits from the hat very soon, the future is bleak.

[lplsprog]

Carbheathot:- Yes I agree not all Peel money but a lot of EU money included in that total, however if they hadn't applied for it, the previous owners wouldn't have and it would have gone elsewhere in the EU.

[skyman771]

Peel Holdings I note that they have at least done one thing positive, in that they have updated their website and business summary to reflect a higher proflile to their aviation activities. Whereas as I noted some time ago that there was hardly a reference to DTV in their whole 'manifesto' DTV now ranks equal in web presence at least with it's other aviation interests. This of course has no real relevance to the current state of affairs at DTV, but it removes one criticism at minimal cost,..... possibly those from Peel take note of this site

[paarmo]

Customer pressure

I see that DVT have at last organised ultra short stay and drop off facilities away from the long stay carpark.This I believe is a direct result of customer pressure on the airport. If only they could organise the security arrangements better then more people will be prepared to travel from there. With more people willing to travel then more airlines will be prepared to take a chance with supplying flights. It is a chicken and egg situation but in recent months the airport has been a shambles in every respect. Globespan haven't helped anyone in recent weeks but it is not all their fault.They should make sure that all members of the airline are singing from the same hymn sheet instead of guessing what is going on and then inform their customers promptly and truthfully. If you are told the truth on delays then at least you can make an informed decision whether to travel with them again instead of hearing several different stories and immediately saying "never again"

[HeathrowDictator]

It still doesn't stop eejits thinking the "no waiting/no parking" signs and double yellow lines don't apply to them!!! You'd be amazed at the amount of cars/vans I see parked up at "Flagpole Corner" (Terminal left), presumably waiting to pick people up from their flights. I moved someone on today on my way home from work for being parked right in front of the new gates (where the bus was parked from when security was stepped up). The response? "I know it's no waiting, but I'm only here to pick someone up" !!!

I don't see Newcastle/Leeds/any other airport having the same problem whenever I've flown from there - probably because they don't physically allow Joe Public to get that close to the terminal unless they're in a pickup/dropoff car park.

If anyone reading this is thinking of using the old access road to pick people up/drop people off, please don't....it is an emergency vehicle access route amongst others, and I'm sure if your loved ones were on a stricken aircraft inbound, you wouldn't want the Fire Brigade held up by some &£$% blocking the access road.

<rant over>

-HD-

[BeaconInbound]

05 glide path

I hear the glide path on 05 has finally been approved by the CAA after initially being refused for inaccuracies in the calibration figures. At least its finally back!

Regards to the upper management, DTV is correct. I know a few members of staff at DTVA and the general feeling is that the people at the top have no idea how to run a ps up in a brewery, let alone an airport (not my words, however).

[N707ZS]

Heathrowdictator, I hear the days of parking near flagpole corner will soon be over as the powers are going to spend some money!!! Yes shock horror they are going to put in a new fence in-line with the edge of the current carpark across to the airside fence. There will be a gate with a key pad to allow restricted access. The gate from the carpark to the managment bunker and the George hotel will also have a keypad.

They are supposidly miffed at the Spar hotel opening a carpark for use by passengers who are able to walk to the terminal. With this new system they will have to walk back to the rounderbout and down the new access road.

[DTVAirport]

In response to carbheathot's last post - Peel paid absolutely nothing for an airport which is valued at £345m!

With regards to the new parking arrangements, I was at the airport today, and the new drop-off point was a shambles - it was one step short of gridlocked, very slow movement, vehicles reversing because they didn't know where to go and had ultimately ended up in the wrong place, no one knew what to do, everyone was as confused as Tommy Cooper on crack.

With regards to GSM, my Dad has been informed that tomorrows Alicante flight which he is booked on, has been delayed 7 hours!! Sorry, not delayed, the timetable has been changed!

[Bartrams]

DTV The future??

Some very bleak reading on this thread recently.

You can talk about (in no particular order)One north east,European grants,Peel holdings, Peel policies,airline delays,BMI potential withdrawls,GSM performance,ability of staff,lack of staff ,road signs,car parking...

I could go on but at the end of the day 20% reduction in passengers ,lack of services and an almost ghost like airport atmosphere tells the real story.There is almost an air of inevitability about the future of DTV and I'm not sure what we can do about it??