Teesside-2
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Teesside
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Can’t disagree. I have to keep reminding myself that even though things are improving for entry into the UK, there are still significant and different requirements for each destination country. It’s a complicated picture....
I thought the MME KLM service had relied upon business travellers from the oil/chemical related industries transferring onto the network, and the rest just filled up the cheap seats. I would expect they have a very good idea of where they make their money and adjust the schedule accordingly.
Join Date: Dec 2020
Location: UK & Estern Europe
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WizzAir would make an excellent addition to Teesside, especially if they customise the timetable to the UK leisure traveller, like they have done with the base that is due to open at Cardiff... However I don't see them opening a base there anytime soon, but a few routes from their European bases for example in Warsaw, Krakow and Budapest could possibly happen?
WizzAir were expanding at a crazy rate in the UK last year, but I think they got their fingers burnt with the UK lockdown, and while travel was allowed within Europe earlier this year, the UK was late to the party and many existing routes from their other UK airports are only now just re-opening.
Also the Cardiff base was due to open in April this year and has been put back to summer 2022.
The airline seems very keen to expand its new base at Gatwick as/when slots brcome available, and I also read somewhere (it could however be rumours), they had applied for slots at Manchester and additional ones at Birmingham. So they seem to have a lot cooking in the UK, so think WizzAir at Teesside if it ever happens, will be some time away.
Airlines like WizzAir will also drive an extremely hard bargain to get them to fly from Teesside, and it all depends if the airport would be willing to lower the fees to what they would demand.
The airline is also extremely ruthless, if routes do not achieve the bookings they demand, they will not hesitate to pull a route or withdraw from an airport at a moments notice. They are the kind of airline that will not gradually ramp up growth, they expect full aircraft from the word go!
WizzAir were expanding at a crazy rate in the UK last year, but I think they got their fingers burnt with the UK lockdown, and while travel was allowed within Europe earlier this year, the UK was late to the party and many existing routes from their other UK airports are only now just re-opening.
Also the Cardiff base was due to open in April this year and has been put back to summer 2022.
The airline seems very keen to expand its new base at Gatwick as/when slots brcome available, and I also read somewhere (it could however be rumours), they had applied for slots at Manchester and additional ones at Birmingham. So they seem to have a lot cooking in the UK, so think WizzAir at Teesside if it ever happens, will be some time away.
Airlines like WizzAir will also drive an extremely hard bargain to get them to fly from Teesside, and it all depends if the airport would be willing to lower the fees to what they would demand.
The airline is also extremely ruthless, if routes do not achieve the bookings they demand, they will not hesitate to pull a route or withdraw from an airport at a moments notice. They are the kind of airline that will not gradually ramp up growth, they expect full aircraft from the word go!
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: UK
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I am not sure that if Wizz do turn up at Teesside, we will see them running Eastern European routes - there just is not the Polish/Romanian immigrant population like we see in places like South & West Yorkshire and of course post Brexit, there will be less migration in the future. Prague did 2,800 pax a month in 2004 with BMI Baby and Warsaw did around 2,600 pax a month in 2007-2008 (Wizz I think) but these are the only Eastern European city routes that has done any sort of numbers through Teesside in recent times.
Amsterdam apart, Teesside does not have a strong history of flying to city break type destinations and only Dublin (coming next year) Rome, Paris and Cork have demonstrated any sort of demand for at least a twice weekly service. But that was all in the past, maybe places like Budapest or Gdansk could work these days?
As for the holiday routes, the unserved places that have regularly done more than 10k pax a year out of Teesside in the past 20 odd years are (in order): Tenerife, Ibiza, Malaga, Las Palmas, Mahon, Arrecife, Dalaman, Reus, Gerona and Bodrum. I guess these will be the sort of destinations where any new airline would be looking at. Unfortunately all of these are served by both Newcastle and Leeds Bradford so there is the danger of getting into a price war.
Amsterdam apart, Teesside does not have a strong history of flying to city break type destinations and only Dublin (coming next year) Rome, Paris and Cork have demonstrated any sort of demand for at least a twice weekly service. But that was all in the past, maybe places like Budapest or Gdansk could work these days?
As for the holiday routes, the unserved places that have regularly done more than 10k pax a year out of Teesside in the past 20 odd years are (in order): Tenerife, Ibiza, Malaga, Las Palmas, Mahon, Arrecife, Dalaman, Reus, Gerona and Bodrum. I guess these will be the sort of destinations where any new airline would be looking at. Unfortunately all of these are served by both Newcastle and Leeds Bradford so there is the danger of getting into a price war.
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Durham
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Maybe if Ryanair don't take up some of the holiday routes mentioned, Wizz maybe are the airline that could fit in to operate out of MME. I believe their nearest base is Doncaster so having one in the centre of the NE might just work, there must be a good proportion of people using NEW/LBA and living in the Tees area would certainly return to MME if the flights restarted.
Join Date: Dec 2020
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Now Wizz Air have created a UK registered company, they are not just flying to Eastern Europe...
Their new Cardiff base does not fly to a single East European city, they fly to Larnaca, Sharm El Sheikh, Corfu, Crete, Faro, Palma, Alicante, Tenerife and Lanzarote. IF Teesside were ever considered a base for Wizz Air, I would imagine a similar kind of route network.
They are basing a single A321 at Cardiff, I would imagine an A320 might be more suitable for Teesside.
From Luton and Doncaster they are also flying to beach destinations in countries like Turkey, Malta, Croatia Bulgaria and Italy.
Their new Cardiff base does not fly to a single East European city, they fly to Larnaca, Sharm El Sheikh, Corfu, Crete, Faro, Palma, Alicante, Tenerife and Lanzarote. IF Teesside were ever considered a base for Wizz Air, I would imagine a similar kind of route network.
They are basing a single A321 at Cardiff, I would imagine an A320 might be more suitable for Teesside.
From Luton and Doncaster they are also flying to beach destinations in countries like Turkey, Malta, Croatia Bulgaria and Italy.
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: England, UK
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The website cock-up the other day revealed a number of password-protected pages for prospective airlines, and Wizz were as good as confirmed as you could see a marketing campaign had already been created
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: UK
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For those who have not seen it, here is a link to the airlines mentioned in the website "cock-up":
It does look like these are marketing pitches more than anything more serious so maybe it is best to look at them in that frame of mind. However, you can't fault the airport for ambition.
It does look like these are marketing pitches more than anything more serious so maybe it is best to look at them in that frame of mind. However, you can't fault the airport for ambition.
As Tigertanaka says, no harm in trying and you can sort of make an arguement for all of them to at least be serving the north-east, if not MME. If anything, Binter looks the odd one out unless their approach has changed - Lille is the northern outlier on their network - Vueling already serve NCL, but we don't know how old the 'data' is.
Last edited by SWBKCB; 15th Oct 2021 at 19:50.
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Binter strike me as a rather good choice for MME to target. They are expanding into longer range routes with their new E2's and seem to be looking for unserved (and underserved) markets from the Canaries
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Pute speculation on my part but doesn’t this sound like the airport needed a cash injection, the TVCA were happy to stump up their share of the cash, Stobart/Esken couldn’t/wouldn’t find the money (or any charge against their shares would have made the shareholding worthless) so effectively handed back their 25% of the business?
Join Date: Mar 2013
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They might not have put any money in but a 25% shareholding in Goosepool 2019 would typically mean that Stobart would be committed to their share of the day to day funding (even if it were only on paper) beyond what had already been put in place for the running of the airport.