TCX seem to have the usual flights, though in fact due to the 3rd based aircraft not operating through NCL on mondays and tuesdays, has there not been a slight reduction in flights?

November CAA provisional stats out now, Dubai 3% up on last year at 11614, which I make out to be just under 70% loads.

I think were quite a few flights using the lower capacity aircraft....which would change the load factor figure

Flybe have applied to operate a scheduled service between Guernsey and Newcastle

source...CAA licencing notices 8/12/09

Councils fear having to ‘bail out’ airport
 

From the Journal - anybody understand what this means?!?

JournalLive - News - Today's News - Councils fear having to ‘bail out’ airport

What this is basically saying is Newcastles debt needs to be refinanced in the future (either extending terms with existing banks or go to new banks to pay off the existing ones). But like everyone at the moment deals on loans/mortgages/finance are not as good as they once were.
Therefore as part owners the councils might have to put some more money into paying for the future debt.

I dont think it helps that the newspaper article is talking about "bailing out".
In addition i dont think Newcastle airport will find it difficult to strike a deal on its debt.
The only thing that slightly concerns if its true is the value of the debt at £300M which appears on the face of it to be a lot for an airport the size of Newcastle.

But overall its stating what everyone knows, debt finance is more costly now, but I cant see there is much to worry about for the future of Newcastle.

Simply put, the local Councils own the airport, but in a similar way to how you or I might own a house: i.e. with a large 'mortgage'. When the current 'mortgage' deal runs out, payments on a new deal are possibly going to be much more expensive. The Councils would need to find this extra money, but with less funding from central government and lower council tax receipts etc are understandably worried.

Heaven forbid the councils have to put some money into the airport! They have taken enough out of the airport over the years! The bulk of the debt is from money raised to pay the councils for Copenhagen’s 49% stake in the airport, they then let JP refinance the airport paying them another £80m and himself a few million, could have been more if the present management had not stepped in! This is on top of the dividends they have received over the years and still are receiving, not bad for an asset that was given to them by the government for nothing!

I'm still trying to find some info about the restructuring of the flying school and in particular Northumbria Helicopters if anyone knows please!

This debt refinance, is actually quite straight forward.
You have a sucessful airport that has grown to an extent that it's deemed worth to a banker is more than it's balance sheet value. It's shareholders agree to realise the additional value in the airport by raising additional borrowings against this. So say the increase in value is £100M then you take out a 80% loan over 5 years, interest only, on say an £80M advance.
The fundamental business concept is that the capital raised will be put back into the business to generate additional revenue to service the interest and raise capital towards clearing the debt when it becomes due.
However instead you have a devious MD and a bunch of greedy shareholders who "snaffle the funds advanced" by the paying of a dividend to themselves & a reward bonus to the MD, then the model becomes more vulnerable as the pressure then comes back on the airport to secure growth through it's own resources to repay both the interest and ultimately the £80M advanced.
It may even be worse in that the loan terms may be that some or more of the interest was not paid but "rolled up" into the £80M resulting in a much higher amount becoming due at the end of the term.
Now the problem with this scenario is when airport revenue growth projections don't materialise, as in a recession, banks are not lending money & indeed ideally wish to limit their debt exposure by calling in their loans at the first opportunity. Predictably the airport has insufficient funds available to make repayment and no other lenders are at hand to advance a sum of money to cover the debt, and ironically even if there were, their valuation of the airport as security will now also have decreased resulting in even higher finance costs.
Now the question I ask is when Mr Greedy & gang of shareholders snatched at the money initially, then were they acting in the best interests of the airport or simply lining their own coffers? No need to reply !:sad:

....or do the rate payers of the North East who supported the airport through rates and taxes for decades deserve some return on the investment?

Apart form direct funding for a long time what about roads, Metro and infrastructure that Tyne & Wear and Northumberland have paid for.

Not a justification just an observation.

Airport Timetable Jan 2010
 

Airport have updated there timetable.

It states to contact MANX2 with regards to jan flights.
Are MANX2 still going to be operating the ncl iom service?

The Manx2 website still has NCL flights. They probably haven't provided the details to AOG.

The Bergen flights are not in the timetable either, this should also have been noted.

NHL New Management.
 

Northumbria Helicopters Limited is now under new management. Neil Clark has sold all shares to Ashley Graham. Scott Dixon has replaced Mark Robinson as Chief Pilot. A/C New R22 G-DOGI, G-MOGY has been overhauled, G-MAVI is planned to be full time at Carlisle and R44 G-CDXA is the main AOC (Charter) machine. 2 CPL(H) courses have just been completed. Scott is now an FE (Flight Examiner). NHL plans to move back to Echo near the police unit in January into new portacabins.

KNIEVEL77 have you done your PPL(H) yet?

Thanks Musket, so if Scott is now Chief Pilot and FE, who are likely to be their instructors now (I believe you are an instructor, will you be operating from their base in Newcastle)?

Having just sold my Lotus Exige, I intend to pay them a visit with a view to completing my PPL (H) by the end of 2010.

I'm not familiar with Ashley Graham but I always found Neil more than helpful having had many dealings with him via my job.

Good to see Scott is still there!

Although Neil has sold his shares is he still part of the company?

Thanks again for the info.

Libra Holidays have ceased trading, will this affect NCL in any way, i.e. how big was their capacity from NCL?

libra
 

Yes it will affect not so if they had any flights just for them but they did buy seats from jet2, tcx and others

Just the one diversion from the south today I take it?
BAW164 20:45 TEL AVIV LANDING AT 21:00

Just wondering if anyone would know why two of the LHR-NCL flights were cancelled today? I was due to be on one of them (17:30), unfortunately it was canned 1.75 hours before departure so I'd actually just arrived at the airport to check in.

Not sure if I am entitled to claim compensation for this since no-one could tell me why the flight had been canned. Doesn't seem to have been any severe weather at NCL today and Heathrow was OK so a bit of a mystery...?

Cheers.

PS Thumbs up to BA ground staff who were very helpful in rebooking my flight.

Eastern have some changes in January

SOU reducing to 1 daily M-F
ABZ increasing from 4 to 5 daily M - F