There's a bigger picture, a functional airport will have a positive ripple effect throughout the rest of the TVCA

Rather a lot as the company said that customers in the EU 27 were no longer placing orders with them because of Brexit...tariffs regulations, delivery issues etc. etc.So be careful what you wish for comes to mind.

Airlines move back into Teesside.
 

Well done to Ben and Stobart. Good news. :ok:

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/ne...-this-morning/

Beefer - you're such a wind-up merchant. You know this contract was sorted by Peel, and has nowt to do with the Mayor or Stobart (other than providing a photo op!).

Departure tax is still in place - think the Mayor said it would be around for a while (till the airport went into profit?)

Lack of push back tugs was causing a bit of congestion on Saturday. The A 340, which later flew direct to San Francisco filled stands 1 and 2, previous one parked nose in, Jetstream 41 not as big a problem was on 5 so when you try to fit an A 320, KLM 175 a Challenger and a Global things got a bit tight. Don't know if its lack of equipment, staff or both.

Talking of large aircraft I wonder if anyone remembers a Martinair DC-10 that flew a cigarette charter to RTM way back around 1980? I remember my firm chartering that aircraft and seem to remember it was the first visit of the type into MME.

The only other one around that time would have been a Laker Airways one I have seen large photos of them in the airport. The later Dock strike produced the Merchantman and CL 44 shuttle every space rammed with a box of fags. Gulf Wars and Balkan war provided many wide body aircraft with weekly 747, DC10 or Airbus. And an Antonov 124 with some urgent tank spares.
Most planes you can think of have been in so the airport can handle them, hopefully the management team will be good enough to go and get them without being hindered from outside interference. We have one of the largest army camps in Europe just down the road.

Were those cigarettes Rothmans by chance, Expressflight?

Yes they were, both factories now gone.

Indeed they were. I think perhaps it was a lorry drivers' strike, but could have been a dock strike, and we organised an 'airlift' of around 60 tonnes a day if I recall correctly. It was all organised at very short notice and I sent a new employee up there in one of our aircraft to run the operation. Considering he had been with us only about a week he did remarkably well. We flew a similar operation out of SEN as Rothmans/Carreras had factories in Darlington and Basildon at that time.

Given the flurry of activity in and out of LHR by Flybe, could they be candidate to resurrect the London link? I could imagine a Teesside London link being stronger than London Newquay surely.

I would personally love that and agree that the local demand would be better but there are a few other things at play here:

• Newquay-London is subsidised by the government to the tune of £5 per passenger each way.
• Newquay is over 5 hours on the train to London, Darlington>Kings Cross is less than half that
• Teesside is already linked to a hub airport, FlyBe have no competition at Newquay (apart from Aer Lingus to Dublin for N. America)
• There will ge a good deal of outbound tourist traffic from London>Newquay, more than would be coming to Teesside
• Unless FlyBe have any spare slots at Heathrow, they would need to find £30m for a slot pair

March CAA stats:
Terminal passengers: 11,106 - down 7% v prior year
Aberdeen: 1,555 - down 37%
Amsterdam: 9,554 - up 6%

Amsterdam shows year-on-year growth for the 18th month in succession and (at 112,985 passengers in the past year) is doing better than any time since 2008 . Aberdeen down again due to the extra Loganair flights last year and still a bit down on March 2017.

Rolling 12 month passengers: 138,480

Do KLM operate routes to ' Sun ' destinations, I just wondered as seeing how at Teeside they seem to do well, would they be a possible provider , for example to Palma and Alicante.
(I'm not up on the various facts about airlines or the industry, but I have a keen interest, plus having been bombarded with emails from Ben the Mayor I've been keeping an eye on this thread ).

Or would TUI come back?, Can anyone remember what their loads were like on the bucket and spade routes?.

I.did also read the comment above about rail, but I think a Heathrow link , is more about for example a family with young kids, not taking the car , but struggling from kings cross either to Paddington to catch the Heathrow express, or the Tube , and various changes on that, with heavy luggage. Not really an attractive idea.
Wheras with a direct LHR link and a tie up with another carrier perhaps , then would that be viable ?.

Also Flybe themselves showed that map with their Aim, DTV and DSA and HUY they all on there , as future links to LHR.

I would have thought there must be very few families with kids and luggage who would be using fullfare airlines from LHR.

Fair point, but the point I was making that the above argument about the train is all well and good , but pretty sure , given it was a good seller with what was it British Midland? .
That to have a direct shuttle link to LHR, is not only good for the region , but we cannot be certain if prices would increase , Post Brexit on KLM .
But the idea back on point , to get on a plane in Teeside or Doncaster , ABZ etc etc , and simply move to another part of the terminal without carting luggage on the underground, which isn't exactly a quick journey out to Heathrow. So in answer to the post above the only good rail connection is that which GWR are taking over .
But it's still not as convenient as landing directly at the Airport, from.which your onward journey leaves .
Flybe clearly think so, why else would they release the map and their onward plan to serve , DTV, DSA, HUY and I think LDY the others I cannot recall.

I do feel sorry for folk who had a decent airport, and slowly watched it being ruined by those running it .
Here's hoping all that public money is worth the investment.

MME - LHR - MME

Dream on folks