Try halfing that. Im not sure if the line has Pacers or Sprinters. Pacers are about 25 years old and Sprinters 20 or so years old. They are based on older technology though (Pacers especially) but nothing like 50 years old

The trains are owned by a leasing company, for Northern Rail's diesel trains it will be either Angel Trains or Porterbrook

The stock would most probably be bought by a leasing company, and if there was a guarentee the stock would be needed long term Im sure they would be interested in purchasing new stock

I bow to your expertise on trains. They just look and smell 50 yrs old. That excepted if you were running a bullet train into Teesside Airport Station no one would use it.
No one used the trains when they were new and now there is no access to the airport from the station it is a non starter .
Mind you when it becomes new housing or an industrial estate............

Gate Aviation?
 

Anyone know if Gate Aviation are setting up a handling station at Durham Tees? Their name seems to have appeared on the Airport website which is rather intriguing! Possibly for Eastern given they handle them at Newcastle? :suspect:

Gate Aviation already have an operation at MME, though I think its Passenger Handling/Diabled assistance rather than ramp work. But never say never.

Gate started at Newcastle, by handling Eastern Airways, but I can't see them opening up at MME just for one jetstream.

RTG!

Tipping Point Reached
 

The provisional May passenger figures are on another forum. They suggest less than 29,000 passengers in May which is 59% down on last year and 53% on the year so far. I think a loss of over 50% of passengers from last year which was down on previous years must bring Peel's investment strategy to a head and something has got to go. Either the airport or the management depending on what Peel's medium and long term goals are.

Paarmo The data is freely available from CAA :-
UK Airport Provisional Statistics: 2009 - 05 | Data | Economic Regulation
It would be unusual if the data recorded was not to become final.
Few observations :- DTV is "year on year" ranked at #29 in the UK, but based on May's performance then position drops to #32 - basically approaching the worst in the UK!, i.e it could not really get much worse. In reality the position may improve slightly over summer if more IT pax than say NQY but basically it's dire !
As for Peel as a whole then from a trading perspective they can not be pleased with their investment in airports, apart from previously noted large balance sheet losses posted in recent years then things don't look too good when their flagship LPL is down to #12, with DCS at #22. Cost cut's on the way?:(

I think the situation is way past cost cutting. Whenever costs are cut it is always the ground floor who bear the brunt but to take out enough jobs to cover the losses would mean employing another 200 people and sacking them along with all other staff to give a nominal figure the same as the losses. Not a realistic situation. Even selling the plot at todays prices if you could find a buyer would not cover the losses.

How can DSA be number 22???? Whenever I look at their arrivals they have about 5-6 flights per day??

I think nothing will be done at MME until next Summer by which time we should be clearing the recession and hopefully a new operator may be on board.

For the time being it's a case of hanging on and remembering that no other airport is enjoying good times at the moment and similiar airports like HUY, NWI and NQY are not expanding.

Yes but other airports have not lost 75% of their customers in 3 years. This is so spectacular that the Labour Government can't even come close to it in debacles.

I feel genuinely sorry for DTV.

Before I moved to the continent my work often took me to Dublin and after EI abandoned NCL only MME remained with FR. I must have taken at least 40 flights through it and each time it was a lovely experience. From check in to security and baggage (when FR didn't charge you the GDP of an African country for baggage) the whole thing was personable, efficient and generally...nice

It felt like a little regional airport but it felt like it could be something more

I hope DTV finds it market and doesn't lose out too much to NCL or LBA (the former continues to irritate me of late)

Surely there must be a low cost base out there for MME? Air Berlin perhaps?

Best of luck to any employees of MME who read these forums, they are a genuine commodity these days in airports...human

JKKne

It's the nature of northern folk to be nice. We're not in the rat race
that they have in the sarf.

Rat race
 

Is that why we're losing it, then? :}

What really annoys me about the situation at the moment is not the idea that we are too nice to compete in the present climate but the inability of senior management to generate any extra business. For the past 5 years MME management have visited every airline exhibition and conference in the world and the feedback given is that these jollies were always that "we are discussing all options with many carriers". Push has now come to shove and these positive discussions with many carriers have disipated into thin air. Question...did they actually speak to anyone in the airline industry or was it a chat with stewardesses on the flights?

paarmo, for as long as the Peel Airports people insist on taking up legal cases against airline customers (bmibaby at TeesSide, easyJet at LPL about their move into MAN and a really silly legal dispute with a tour operator) then I think the prospect of new airlines rushing to take up any opportunities at their airports will be very limited. No other airport group has taken actions of this nature and until the idiot responsible for these cases is removed from the company, I suspect that other prospective airlines will steer well clear. It is bad enough investing money in new routes to find that they don't work (despite everyone's best efforts) but it is beyond the pale to find your supposed partner airport then suing you when things don't work out. The reputation which Peel is developing in the industry is more than enough to put operators off. Fix that problem and you might be at the start of a long road to fixing the problems which DTV - and to a lesser extent DSA and LPL - have.

Off next month for my 12th in a row non MME flight from down the road, great shame what has happened to our now "Go Nowhereport ".

Flightrider,
If someone signs a contract you do expect them to fulfill that contract. ( See HMG v National Express) If Ryanair feel you are not fulfilling your side of the contract then they would be the first to employ their lawyers. The problem seems to be in the drawing up of the contracts which appear to have been open to interpretation. Learning curve ...employ competent solicitors not in house practioners.
Tubtruck...you and me both but the big Geordie Satan is quite efficient nowadays although quite souless.

Flightrider, paarmo: come on guys, it's nothing to do with ineffective marketing or ill-advised legal campaigns, it's quite simply that the airlines persuaded the government years ago that air transport could go on growing indefinitely and the government and investors bought the argument, but now we're seeing that those predictions were wrong - at least temporarily and almost certainly in the longer term too. Take a look at Humberside, Doncaster, Southend, Manston, Lydd and many others - all with grandiose plans, all struggling to get any additional traffic (or any traffic at all). It's not a DTV problem it's a national (if not global) problem.
NS

Flightrider you make a valid point, however “the devil is in the detail” and DTV now find itself in a situation which in no small part arises from poor management resulting in any number of bad decisions being made over recent years.
In good times it is much easier to make money, but when, partly for the reasons you note, the bubble bursts & the going gets tough, then even IF there were individuals capable of standing up to the task, DTV now has the added problem that falling pax no.’s without external support are undermining it’s continued viability.

been watching this site for a couple of years. It does appear that the local management get a lot of flak. Is it not the area that can't support the airport ?

NO! They need flak, but never seem to get shot!