Unfortunately the DTV name isn't bringing the punters to the recognised city location and I suspect although wait to be shot down, the majority of traffic is outbound and return not "auslanders" coming to visit the region. Do what Ryanair do? Newcastle South, Manchester East etc

Sorry DJ6 most people who visit Durham from outside of Europe come on organised trips...today is Tuesday it must be Durham.
The rebranding was a complete and utter waste of time and money in line with most other rebranding exercises.The only reason it was done was to show how dynamic and forward looking the management team were. Been there done it and got the push for saying the obvious. It's the emperor's new clothes syndrome.
Still back to the future how do you think that "Mike O'Donovan airline consultant" will handle the matter.
Just googled the name and he appears to be a comedian.............nuff said
I have just consulted my crystal ball and predict a change of management team by the end of the month.

It certainly wasn't overlooked by "Hughie" ;)

tubtruck Not sure what your point is re Ryanair & EMA cost other than the assumption of a gripe at no Paris CDG service from DTV which you would if available, patronise at any price. Unsure that fellow Teesside residents would subscribe to this view, but to bring MAN & EMA into an argument when overlooking the nearest two airports LBA & NCL ( I am not going to advertise here the many options available) is in itself very polarised & provides no real justification to your argument.

Airport Sues Over Airline Pull-out
 

I suppose if the airport wins then it'll be good publicity whereas if they lose it'll be disasterous publicity? Can anyone with a bit more knowledge than me about legal matters speculate as to whether or not they will win?

On a more personal note, the true scale of the problems hit home today - I could regularly see four + arrivals and/or departures whilst working down the old allotment, today whilst working there, I saw the grand total of 0.

I would have thought that bmi's legal people would have looked into the contract before baby pulled out, it maybe that DTV have held off going after baby whilst ever mainline remained with LHR, but now they have nothing to loose!

What would be really ironic if they did a deal with DTV to base or at least run flights through DTV on a W patern, if it was looking like it might cost bmi 12m, it might be cheaper to do a deal than coughing up 12m?

They should have stuck with DTV instead of moving the kit to BHX then not putting the aircarft in and leaving the door open for Ryanair, but that is bmi through and through, they spent millions on starting and pulling of routes all over the world that could and should have gone into growing the baby, which should by now be a good little scraper at junior school and not some mutant dwarf in the nursery and i wouldn't have had to join the bottom of another airlines seniority list, not that they have one but you get my drift.

Hopefully the Luffty strom troopers will get to work on the dead wood that starts as soon as you get above the management pilots, good to hear that baby is holding its own in 2009 and believe me ingnore what DTV and other anti baby posters say it would be welcome back at Teesside even if its only AGP, PMI, ALC twice a week.

Got to be cheaper than shelling out 12m and DTV would be daft not to do deal, it will be sorted "out of court" IMHO:cool:

I don't see anyone coming into Teesside at the moment even BMI under duress.The place is a ghost town with tumbleweed blowing down the runway. They even had to abort a landing this morning because the runway lights stopped working.

you don't need runway lighting to put a C152 down

If a new airline was to come into Teesside as a complete new startup what would the estimated startup costs be and what aircraft would probably be best?

Hundreds of millions and it is never going to happen.

The question really is what routes can generate traffic. LHR generated reasonable loads when the timings were right, but no-one is going to get slots at LHR. Gatwick would be the next favourite. I always thought that when bmibaby did Gatwick, that was the excuse for bmi to pull out and increase the frequency to Gatwick. It would have been a nuisance, but better than nothing, which is what we have now.

Can't see any new start generating passenger numbers.

Maybe someone like Air South West to Bristol could do something, there are a lot of potential connections there and it gives access to the South West.

Stansted would be a possibility, access to Kent, M25 and other connections. Someone like Ryanair could probably do it and make it work if the timings were right.

It is business travellers that generate the traffic and are prepared to pay for it. For years I paid bmi full fare for the convenience of flexibility and not having to sit in a car all day.

Maybe an air taxi service using VLJ aircraft might work, if the fares could be kept to business levels - £3-400 to somewhere like Northolt. They cost around £2 million have 4-6 seats, don't know what operating costs would be.

I beg to differ, but surely the question from airlines point of view in basic terms is simply what routes are likely to generate a "profit", having regard to the differing overhead profiles in taking account whether to base or run the "w". I'm sure that DTV could fill any number of Loco seats achieving high LF's to the "bucket & spade" destinations peak holiday season but outside these then for me the "Jury is out". In a tight market with the level of competion from established operators at LBA & NCL then I simply can't see the attraction to any operator at present unless they are prepared to take a long term view assisted by grants & a very strong balance sheet.
On the other side I'm sure DTV's appraisal of profit is more geared to footfall & getting volumes of punters through the concessions.

Yes of course it is about profit, but I am talking about long term and ensuring there is sufficient traffic to keep aircraft viable all year round, whether based at MME or elsewhere. If there aren't sufficient people travelling it will never make a profit. bmi longterm must have made a fortune out of Teesside.*

If DTVA only goes after the holidaymakers who only travel once or twice a year, that is hardly sustainable. Surely the core has to be business travellers. To be fair, they don't spend in the concessions so less income for DTVA. You have to think the long term business plan for Peel is to build something else....

For me Newcastle is dreadful to get to, there are always problems on the A1 and there are going to be long term roadworks on the Western Bypass this summer, making a bad situation much worse. If going to London, it is pointless driving to Newcastle, as I could drive direct quicker or get a train. If driving to Leeds, it's an hour and a half in the car and I'm well on the way, might as well just drive all the way.

*Brings to mind how to make a small fortune out of aviation - start with a large fortune...

Please get your facts right before posting tosh...The FRA Falcon 20 did not get the relevant visual references and so went around (since the RVR at the time was 600m with a very low cloud ceiling that doesn't suprise me!!!!!). At no point were the runway lights not working!

Honestly, posts like this don't help the place!!! :ugh: :ugh: :ugh:

Does anybody think if an airline even a new startup came to teesside and used a q400 or something like that do you think it would work?

78 seats wouldnt be that hard to fill surely and alot of the time they say you only need to fill 50% of the aircraft to operate at a profit? Could do a LGW link and flight to paris a flight to bristol even edinburgh or aberdeen possibly even manchester could work? its about £50 to get to manchester airport on the train and takes 3 hours!

What is the obsession with startups at MME? Someone got a bet on somewhere?

Beaconinbound why did the Falcon end up at RAF Coningsby after his go around? Was this a planned diversion or a cunning plan to pretend to abort?

PS I have a bet on Easyjet starting up in May and linked it with Boro staying up. Got wonderful odds . Just shows what Bookies know.

I think T3 are quite safe on MME-ABZ. Flybe tried a Q400 on NCL-ABZ & that didn't work - I think about 20-30 on each flight, not enough yield for a Q400.

Unless Loganair finds more Saab340s from somewhere, I think T3 will have sole preserve on ABZ.

Of course, prefectly possible a Q400 would work on other MME routes.

Just needs an airline with some money that is prepared to try it....

I think that facts have to be faced.The Heathrow connection is gone and will not be returning unless BMI are given a Government subsidy to continue. In the present economic climate I think that fat and no are the chances. Politically something could be worked out but I don't think it is enough of a vote generator as most of the people using the flight on business did not fall into the category of natural Labour voters. In any case it only generated about 10% of the passenger totals at it's and the airports height and virtually no income for the main part of any airport nowadays ,the retail sector.
The way forward for most regional airports in the next 3/5 yrs has got to be mass transport to the "despised" bucket and spade resorts.
The once weekly flights to ALC and TFS generated almost as many passengers as the Heathrow flights and 10 times the income for the airports parking and retail outlets.
Locos do not have the confidence of the family holiday market in the numbers which the locos would have you believe but the major holiday companies still have a loyal following which is growing after last year's failures in the airline industry. People who are booking 9 months in advance want to be sure that their holiday with their kids is going to take place and be able to afford staggered payments through travel agents.
I do think that people can have a superior attitude when they decry hard working people who travel once a year to a popular holiday destination as being merely "bucket and spade" passengers and not really worth the trouble. They are the cash cows for any regional airport and should be wooed and encouraged along with the major holiday companies who carry them.
Mind you I have always wondered why it costs £80 more per person to fly from a small regional airport than from Gatwick. If it is merely extra fuel then the price of fuel must increase in the school holidays as that is when the flight supplements are greatest.