Introduction
Welcome to this years DTV Movements Annual Review! There's quite a lot of material to get through so strap in or use the drop down below to skip to your preferred content.
2017 additions:
Christmas is not normally the best time of year to be an aviation enthusiast, the industry tends to die a death and nothing happens for about three or four weeks; not last year. I got the 2017 review released by mid-December thinking the year had yielded everything it had to offer, then Super Break add five more destinations, Durham Aerosports cease trading, Loganair axe Norwich, the rail halt loses a platform/footbridge and some tosser sets fire to the caravans.
What we thought would happen:
So looking at last years predictions we didn't go into as much depth as normal because we knew a sizeable charter flight operation was coming and we figured this would beat anything we could conceive, sadly in the end it mostly fell through.
Reasonable Expectations (2018):
Green = achieved Blue = ambiguous Red = failed
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Construction - Break ground on something...anything!
We found out in January that multi-million pound infrastructure work would take place during 2018 for the planned housing, it is currently unknown whether or not the "shutdown" pending the outcome of the takeover affected this, but it may all be about to become null and void anyway. There was some extensive building work as you drive down the old access road to the left behind Serco, this qualifies I guess. An advertising board appeared during November calling it the "Lancaster Park". -
Air Operator - Gain a new resident air operator of any kind (excludes airlines) or any aviation organisation otherwise
A private charter operator utilising a single VLJ failed to materialise - otherwise the closest we came was my April Fools gag of Pascha Aviation, well done to Bob Spooner who spotted "Pascha" is Greek for Easter. Even Ando was fooled initially and got excited at the prospect of being able to charter King Airs!! In fact, the demise of PTT Aviation means we actually lost an operator, although the owner has stated his intention to set-up another school so it balances out. -
Passenger Figures - Any growth off the back of Loganair to be retained and not just a temporary boost
Growth across all areas bar aircraft movements which was consistently down, can't really complain at that all things considered!
What did happen:
The dispute between Peel and the Mayor escalated when he refused to sign over 500k start-up funding for new leisure flights "from two major operators", of which Balkan Holidays was one. The Mayor stated he wasn't prepared to hand Peel the money for nothing in return - we would have thought a full summer programme of holiday flights was a fairly good return but hey ho. The next day Loganair withdraw from DTVA despite Aberdeen performing strongly, stating aircraft leases as the reason (they must have known when they moved in the leases were due to end...and yet they managed to find one for Carlisle!?), and Peel took the opportunity to issue a corrective statement regarding the Mayor. After getting quite unpleasant things calmed down between the two parties when a non-disclosure agreement was signed as he formally submitted a takeover proposal.
Prior to this DTVA continued the terminal refurbishment with the creation of the new Premium Lounge. This was badly received as it was presented by the media as a new facility (rather than the existing one being brought in-house) with people questioning how bad the regular departure lounge must be in order to justify paying to upgrade and received it as just another attempt to extort money from passengers. However it is a like-for-like replacement of the Swissport-operated lounge with a marginally increased entry price but a lot more bang for your buck, so there is an established customer base and we can take solace in knowing they've more often than not been filling it to capacity since it opened so that's one in the eye for the critics. Presumably this will be cancelled if the takeover goes ahead but the north-south link road was re-applied for and subsequently approved with no changes to the previous incarnation that had expired. Unfortunately the only other development to materialise after this (it is thought that Peel were not wanting to make any further commitments on a facility that they are about to sell, which is understandable but also frustrating) was the closure of the St. George Hotel. Whilst a little sad ultimately no-one will miss it, the as yet unknown fate of the building itself is the bigger concern. The final thing to note is Super Break managed to operate only one (Seville) out of seven of their announced ad-hoc charters, although Iceland in February looks like it will go ahead.
Barely a week goes by without criticism towards the airport, and 99 times out of 100 it's usually best ignored as it's based on false beliefs yet nevertheless I feel a need to comment on one such example from some known keyboard warriors regarding the Great North Air Ambulance. They stated as fact the GNAA had been asked to leave by Peel. I feel obliged to clarify that this is absolutely not the case. We know Peel made a fair offer plus incentives to the GNAA, and they chose of their own free will to decline said offer in favour of a new location that would allow them to be their own landlords, which is their choice to make and fair enough. The advantage is we will have a hangar capable of holding multiple aircraft no longer being wasted on just a single one. Peel would have them remain if their circumstances changed.
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COBHAM Aviation Services |
CONSORT Aviation |
DURHAM Aerosports |
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| No change during 2018 however we have learned that regardless of whether or not Cobham win or lose the imminent MoD contract for which they have tendered, the Falcons will be retired. Unfortunately for us the new contract is expected to include an increase in simulation training at the expense of flight training. | Following last years impressive start, the grouse estates that DTVA serve cancelled almost all of their events. Despite this, only September saw a decline in growth. | Shut down right at the start of the year for unfortunate reasons beyond the owners control not relating to the financial performance of the company. | ||
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EDEN Flight Training |
GREAT NORTH Air Ambulance |
IAS Medical |
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| Still performing strongly, they're happy with three aircraft but a fourth would not be overkill. | No change, still planning to move to Urlay Nook, not sure when though. | Felt like they did more flying for most of 2018, before slowing down a bit towards the end. A third aircraft must have been considered - perhaps the Learjet advertised on their website?! | ||
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PRIVATE Owners Group |
PTT Aviation |
SCENIC AIR TOURS North East |
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| No change, Hangar 3 West is still capped at their desired capacity which is far short of its potential. | Ceased trading in August. Had cut fleet down from 30 to 15 in a short timeframe and were looking for a co-tenant for their mini-hangar. | Business steadily increased as the relatively new company built a solid reputation. Added low-key flight training during the year which became their core business once PTT went under. | ||
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SERCO IFTC |
SYCAMORE Aviation |
THALES Flight Inspection |
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| No change. Their reputation is something to behold! | The two owners have parted ways and they have cleared out Hangar 1 but not necessarily vacated it, with the "original" Sycamore appearing to remain in some form. It appears they would return to DTVA on a contract-by-contract basis if they won one in Europe. | Assumed to be sufficiently busy as their aircraft seem to spend lengthy spells away. |
Passenger figures were mostly exceptional throughout the year, driven mostly by the revamped terminal building which is now the best of it's kind by a considerable margin and the flying public are starting to realise it. Continued marketing campaigns helped KLM figures whilst Eastern were able to maintain improved figures boosted by brief competition, although with a return to high fares and intermittent heavy unreliability we predict a regression for them during 2019 and we just hope they take action to reverse it and don't go back to 3 or 4 passengers per flight (more on that below). Aircraft movements were down and this is largely due to a reduction in flight training courtesy of the downsizing and eventual liquidation of PTT Aviation and Durham Aerosports. Mandatory handling continues to hold back our attractiveness to non-based GA, who hate such fees with a passion and will continue to so long as other airports can seemingly manage without enforcing it. That said complaining about the aircraft movement figures is being hyper-critical given the strong performance in other areas. The consequence of such good figures is it will be difficult to maintain increases during 2019 - there's only so much our current services can grow.
Not strictly related to passenger numbers - but ultimately will have an effect on them - is the current fortunes of Eastern Airways. We had an e-mail to the updaters earlier in the year enquiring about their cancellations, and Dave Rose gave a brilliant response that hit the nail right on the head:
"The simple truth about the Aberdeen flights is that Eastern have a monopoly, and it's frustrating to say the least. Last year, Loganair announced they were competing on the route, and cancellations dropped to very few (other than weather related), but once they had gone, it seems to be on the rise again. It's true to say in their defence that the J41s employed are getting very old, and expensive to maintain. They are robbing parts off donor aircraft at Humberside to keep them flying. Ultimately, the route needs a Saab 2000 on it, as they are very reliable and very fast, but not many were built, so it's a problem finding the right "fit" for the route. The oil economy feeds the flights, and fluctuates in a 2 year cycle depending on the oil price, although they are getting decent loads currently, with the aircraft regularly over 25 pax."
I added that a lack of Jetstream 41 crews were also a factor, and I've since noted that BAe Systems have either stopped, or are in the process of winding down support for the type, hence the cannibalisation. It also doesn't help that the Jetstreams/Saabs etc are the last of their kind with (very strangely) no manufacturers producing aircraft with less than 70 seats anymore, with the exception of the ATR-42 which is reportedly more expensive to operate than equal sized turboprops. I often wonder if Eastern would have survived if the Flybe franchise opportunity hadn't come along, which has taken a large chunk of the costs out of the business as various departments have been absorbed into those of Flybe. To digress slightly it is a half-assed franchise arrangement, which would normally see the franchisee fully taking on the host companies branding, it's strange that Eastern have retained their website and painted only one aircraft. Ironically if Flybe succumb to their own well documented financial woes they may end up wiping Eastern out anyway...or present them with an amazing opportunity!! Despite the problems being experienced by them, the figures show they're holding their numbers, but ultimately unless they can address their problems the figures will drop.
| Commercial Aviation | ||
| Best Visitor | ||
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| G-OSRB | Boeing 727-2S2F(A)(RE) | T2 Aviation (2Excel Aviation) |
| Most Visits (05 each) | ||
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| G-CDKB | Saab 2000 | Eastern Airways |
| G-CIEC | Saab 2000 | Eastern Airways |
| G-JMCL | Boeing 737-322SF | West Atlantic |
| G-OSRB | Boeing 727-2S2F(A)(RE) | T2 Aviation (2Excel Aviation) |
| Best Livery | ||
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| SP-KP- | Saab 340AF | SprintAir |
| Business Aviation | ||
| Best Visitor | ||
| F-WWQA | Dassault Falcon 8X | Dassault Aviation |
| Most Visits (10) | ||
_RB.jpg) _RB.jpg)  |
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| G-SNJS | Cessna 560XL Citation XLS+ | Gama Aviation |
| Best Livery | ||
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| D-IMHA | Cessna 525A CitationJet CJ2+ | MHS Aviation |
| General Aviation | ||
| Best Visitor | ||
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| VT-NBF | Pipistrel Sinus 912 | Private |
| Most Visits (33) | ||
| G-FFMV | Diamond DA 42 M-NG Guardian | Cobham Aviation Services |
| Best Livery | ||
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| N755JG | Socata TBM 900 | Hallin Aviation Inc |
| Military Aviation | ||
| Best Visitor | ||
| H-31 / H-35 | Agusta A109BA | Belgian Air Component - 1st Wing (15/17 Squadrons) |
| Most Visits (16) | ||
| ZF264 | Short Tucano T1 | Royal Air Force - 1 FTS (72 Squadron) |
| Best Livery | ||
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| ZF378/RN-S | Short Tucano T1 | Royal Air Force - 1 FTS (72 Squadron) |
| Best Photograph | ||
| Aidan Williamson | ||
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| N360PZ | Dassault Falcon 7X | Corporate |
| Star Resident | ||
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| G-BVEZ/XM479 | Hunting Percival P84 Jet Provost T3A | Newcastle Jet Provost Group |
| Most Progressed Resident Operator | ||
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| Scenic Air Tours have taken the crown from their competitors [the still excellent] Eden Flight Training who won last year after positioning themselves as the primary on-site flight training school, however in a seemingly inspired move, Scenic took on two instructors from the liquidated PTT Aviation which allowed them to absorb most of that companies trade, and in the process placing the titular 'scenic air tours' as a minor income source as they now stand toe-to-toe with Eden. | ||
| Best Trip Report | ||
| Orlando / Miami | Dave Anderson / Dave Rose | |
| In Memoriam | ||
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*G-CIEC (2016) and G-OSRB (2017) are stock photos not taken during the timeframe of this review, as are all of the "In Memoriam" photos.
On the subject of statistics, we have seen a regression in resident aircraft...the figures don't quite compute I think in the past I must have included aircraft parts in the PWFU numbers! To mount a bit of a defence, we were punching above our weight off the back of the GA marketing campaign a couple of years ago, although it's the flying schools that have done the damage, either way the decline is over-excessive.
| 2018 Stats | Rolling Stats | |||||
| Dec 17 | Dec 18 | % +/- | Jan 10 | Dec 18 | % +/- | |
| Active | 37 | 34 | -8% | 41 | 34 | -17% |
| PWFU / Stored | 15 | 11 | -27% | 08 | 11 | +38% |
| Totals | 52 | 45 | -13% | 49 | 45 | -8% |
Looking at the 2018 stats page, there isn't much of note; we continue to see less Global/Gulfstream types than we used to, although there has been a surge in Challengers. The Nissan charter flights towards the end of the year were very welcome. Despite what felt like a quiet year the stats page has a fair whack of airframes listed on it.
Click here for our 2018 photo album.
Click here for our annual media coverage.
Website Visitor Statistics
We're averaging around 50k unique hits per month, and around 3.6 million repeat views! That's around 1600 daily visits (unique) or 120k (repeat)...crazy!! The upshot is the website is still going as strong as ever, which means we are as appreciative as ever - a huge heartfelt thank you from both Daves and Chris.
Night Shoot
2018 saw our first Night Shoot event as a belated 10 year celebration of this website. I suspect both Dave's felt a little pessimistic when I first pitched it but I managed to convince them it was worth doing and I dare say they were surprised at just how successful it was!! We continue to receive a lot of requests regarding a follow-up event, for those interested it had been agreed amongst the updaters that we couldn't offer anything different and therefore couldn't improve on the event, plus owners and operators might not have the motivation to turn out again so soon, so we placed it on indefinite hold - however - on the day the three of us made that decision there was a FoDTVA meeting on the evening where two members asked about the next one, we explained our decision but they were able to put across a convincing counter-argument as to why we should at least look into it, so in the near future a poll will go out on the home page and the results will dictate what happens. One option is a short-notice "Snow Shoot" should enough fall over the winter.
The expectation was the Mayors takeover attempt was going to extend well into 2019 and that the period of dormancy would continue and it would be even quieter than we're accustomed to, it was a relief when it all came through in December and one way or the other will be concluded in January. We will have a new radar installed by mid-year, that is a major investment and can be taken as a strong sign of commitment by Peel should the deal fall through. On the subject of ATC, we revealed earlier in the year of some investments, one of which is the afore mentioned radar, the other two items were 8.33kHz frequency spacing and RNAV approaches. The 8.33 is postponed because the RAF Tucano fleet are not compatible with the new format and the airport have agreed to hold off until the Tucano fleet is retired in October. The RNAV it seems may have been some duff info, I don't have a full understanding of how it all works but it seems there may be a problem with RNAV not working outside of controlled airspace. The final note on ATC is the managed closures, they have already reduced significantly and more often than not are down to just one per day, they will soon cease entirely as more staff get their radar validatons (a nine month process). It is also worth noting they are not exclusive to us and Gatwick has had them recently! 2019 will see a downturn in movements due to the above mentioned Tucano wind-down, thus ending almost daily movements, as it is unlikely the replacement Texan will venture this far north east from their base at Valley in north Wales. Also gone from March is the Tornado GR4 fleet, which will be very sadly missed but from a movements point of view we should start to see like-for-like F-35Bs!
Going forward, we are happy enough with the future regardless of who ends up owning the airport. Should Peel remain we have been told the 2021 guarantee to keep the airport open will simply fall away the same way a product warranty would, and that it's the press and politicians who have falsely presented it as a notice of closure. Whilst we never doubted the airport would remain open, a slight concern was the terminal building might close, but we have been assured the cost saving to be had is not sufficient enough to justify it, a conclusion Glasgow Prestwick are said to have just reached having considered stopping passenger operations. We will continue to refer people to the “Your Questions Answered” PDF document on the dtva.info website (or click here), which conclusively and definitively puts to rest all doubts surrounding the airport, it is also worth remembering that Peel did not need to release this document, no-one held a gun to their heads…they did so by choice.
Until we know how the land lies regarding ownership, we have restricted the reasonable expectations for next year as follows:
Reasonable Expectations (2019)
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Takeover to conclude
Regardless of the outcome. -
Passenger Figures
Positive terminal pax and aircraft movement figures.
What with Loganairs expansion plans and a leisure airline almost basing a summer seasonal aircraft with us, 2018 is the year we should have been made. We can only hope that we can pick up where we left off from around 2020 onwards, and let it be known in no uncertain terms that if not for external factors, pure bad luck and politics, Peel had fixed what was broken, and we would have had a full-blown resurgence on our hands.
Sorry for the length of the review! I can normally sense after completing this page that it's an enjoyable read, but this year it feels like a bit of a slog, so well done if you made it to the end!!
From Dave, Dave and Chris:
Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!!!
Written by Chris Smith, "The Oscars" judged by Dave Rose, edited and ratified by Dave Anderson and Dave Rose. Thank you to Aidan Williamson, Richard Bowater and Matthew Ness as well as all three website updaters whose photographs have been used in this report.