Teesside International Airport

A Definitive Timetable

As a new project and just a bit of fun, we're going to take a look at which variations of each type of airline operation was the definitive example of its kind from Teesside. The eventual goal based on our findings is to build two fictional timetables, one "idealistic" ignoring operator/aircraft availability and a second "realistic" to see how much of the first might be achievable in the current marketplace, providing of course this can be done without breaching our no-conjecture policy.

Judged on longevity, consistency and balance, here is the definitive winter independent I.T. charter programme.

Considerations

  • Unlike the based programme each route requires individual analysis, the tour operators need to be traced, as quite often what appears to be several attempts at a single route is often just one attempt with the airlines changing at regular intervals.

  • What we conclude as definitive needs to be able to stand up against a based low cost operation. The arrival of bmibaby caused some minimal dilution, but FlyGlobespan hit harder given their operation was exclusively leisure whereas bmibaby were more city routes than holiday destinations.

  • There are some limited series such as winter ski charters that will be dealt with separately. There are also a number of charters that were limited to just four or so rotations during the season, these have been excluded, if a route isn't strong enough to survive the full season then it isn't strong enough full stop.

  • Ignoring the fact that demand far outstrips supply in most winters, we expected to find a viable destination or two having criminally never been served during winter, but no, the ones we have had are right on the money.

I.T. Charter Routes (winter)

Spain

Alicante

Arguably the safest winter bet outside of the Canary Islands, as evidenced by the table below demonstrating twice weekly can be sustained (helped by the lack of a based charter programme during winter).

  72 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
Airways Holidays Northeast                                      
Airtours   Airtours MyTravel                
Thomson Holidays       Britannia Thomsonfly Thomson

Gran Canaria (Las Palmas)

There should be no questioning the viability of any of the Canary Islands during winter.

  97 98 99 00 01 02 03
Airtours Air Europa Futura Air Europa Iberworld

Lanzarote (Arrecife)

Another safe winter destination.

  98 99 00 01 02 03
Airtours Futura Air Europa

Málaga

Deserves to be tested in present times.

  73 83 84 85 86 87
Clarksons Dan-Air          
Intasun Airways   Dan-Air British Midland

Palma de Mallorca

The recent announcement of Ryanair extending their Palma service throughout winter was met with much bemusement given Palma shuts down during winter, despite this we have a strong history of winter Palma charters, even so this could be the only example of a route appearing on the definitive timetable, but not the idealistic one.

  72 73 82 83 84 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03
Airways Holidays Northeast Aviaco Dan-Air                
Thomson Holidays   Britannia                   Air Europa
Airtours           Air Europa Futura Airtours    

Tenerife (North and South)

Such is the strength of Tenerife during winter, that even Teide blowing its top shouldn't be enough to get in the way of a weekly service!!

  72 73 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 10 11 12
Unknown Spantax                                    
Wings & Horizon   Air Spain                                  
Airtours     Airtours Spanair              
                Futura                    
Thomson Holidays           Spanair Air Europa Britannia Air Europa Thomson

Omissions

The following destinations have been deemed too fringe for the definitive winter timetable - Naples (Italy), Rome (Italy), Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt).

In the next part we take a look at low cost operations.