Passenger numbers up at Teesside Airport but room for improvement
Passenger numbers are up on last year at Teesside Airport – but monthly figures show they need to increase quickly if ambitious targets are to be reached.
Statistics released by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) showed 14,216 people moved through the terminal at Teesside in April. Revised passenger targets were unveiled in 2021 to account for pandemic impacts – with Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen saying he was “confident” the publicly-owned airport could welcome more than 400,000 passengers through its new terminal this year.
The original pre-pandemic 2019 masterplan forecast a best-case scenario of 1.4m passengers in 2022 with a low cost carrier on board. A more modest projection from the first plan envisaged seasonal/regional growth bringing in 314,000 passengers in 2022.
A post-covid business plan was unveiled last September with a target of one million passengers by 2026. April offered the first early indication of Teesside’s performance for the summer season – with airports around the UK busy for the Easter getaway.
Its 14,216 passengers put it on a rough par with the likes of the City of Derry (12,810) and Norwich (17,814) but below Exeter (27,154), Cardiff (54,334) and Leeds Bradford (251,780). Newcastle clocked 310,941 passengers. Airport officials say the levels seen across the year would take the tally to more than 170,000 – the highest number seen at Teesside for more than a decade.
But the early trajectory would bring Teesside in below targets set out for 2026. The airport was given a £10m bailout last year to cope with pandemic pressures after recording a £13.8m loss in 2020/21.
It suffered a blow last month when its Heathrow and Southampton routes were axed – with high landing fees at Britain’s busiest airstrip blamed before a row broke out. Output targets and key performance indicators were redacted in last September’s revised airport business plan.
Mr Houchen said it was “no secret” the past two years had been extremely tough for all airports. The Conservative mayor added: “But it’s been great to see passengers rushing back to our terminal and backing their local airport once again.
“While April’s figures were 506% up on this time last year, we’ve still got a way to go before I’ll be happy with where we need to be. Ryanair increased their routes along with the addition of Corfu coming back just last week and Balkan have added their flights back to Bulgaria.
“Most of our flights are going out full and we’re getting nothing but positive feedback from customers while other airports are in chaos. Teesside people spoke, they said they wanted their airport back and we’ve proven: ‘give them the flights they want, and they’ll use it’.”
Teesside’s passenger business plan aims to hook in North-east passengers who use Leeds-Bradford, Newcastle and Manchester for their flights. CAA data from 2019 showed more than 1m passengers “spilled from” the region to other UK airports. The plan also hopes new airlines and routes will create demand themselves.
The Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) transport committee is due to meet next Wednesday