According to G-INFO, G-CIHD (VH-XNE) and G-CIHE (VH-XNF) have been registered to Eastern in the last few weeks.

Are these to enter service now after 6 years of being down and out?

The petro-chemical industry has kept KLM going for years with more renewables lately, otherwise it will by pretty generic - and there's a Mayor with an election next May :ok:

Well I hope the Mayor has a big cheque book! Hopefully all the new routes work out. The London flights do look they could be up against it though with the train times to central London.

Mayor is trying to get a government department to move to Teesside. There are/was a number of tec companies in the area.

I think many govt depts. now have rules against flying domestically, especially where there isn't a clear time/cost benefit over the train.

I am sure the Cummings procedure will vote for the plane instead of the train.

Plane against the train from Teesside to central London, probably a dead heat. It all goes down to cost of tickets, interesting!

The trains are no faster today compared to 15 years ago when 150,000 pax regularly flew LHR-MME. Of course this was not all O&D traffic as there would clearly have been some connecting traffic and environmental concerns are clearly higher up the agenda today than they were then.

As oldart says, price is key. For business people wanting to get an early train from Darlington to London for a pre 10am arrival you will be talking £100+ one way in standard class (in normal times), with the trip back (fixed time) costing £50-£100 so £150-£200 for the return journey. A standard open return on the train is well over £300.

Wonder if the mayor will dig deep into his magic ,never ending money fund and offer free car parking in light of Newcastle announcement?

Also you get on the plane people settle, might go to the toilet and it lands at the other end. The train, it stops and starts all the way people coming and going and possibly without a seat standing in the isle and then someone might nick your luggage on their way out.

It already is free for 3 hours compared to £3 for 10 minutes. We seem to be crossing between threads here.

Teesside already offer free parking upto 3 hours and have done for years. I see no reason to change that really, longer stays are about the same level.

And six pounds to go through the departure gate.... :ok:

Indeed, though it has been committed to being removed in the future, I dare say the £3 drop off fee won't be when the Airport returns to profitability...?

I understood that most rail users sit down, get out the smartphone, tablet or laptop and don't move. After all the trains have power sockets and free wi-fi. The annoying ones are those who hold long phone calls revealing their personal or company secrets. The big advantage of the train is frequency, 2-3 trains an hour.

After the first three hours, how does MME compare for parking?

I had assumed that they were taken for spares, but registering them would seem that may not be the case?

Thats what I thought too. From pictures from last year they’re fairly beaten anyways.

I had a conversation with an Eastern engineer last year he said some of the airframes nose legs have been damaged and are beyond economic repair. Perhaps the Australian two are in better condition, or it might be just a bit of paperwork.