2020 Annual Review
Welcome to this years Teesside Airport Movements Annual Review! Are you sitting comfortably? Because there's a lot of material to get through so grab a brew, sit back, and relax!
2019 additions:
We held back last years annual review as long as possible due to expecting two late announcements; the first - the return of the air show - was supposed to be on the 16th December and jumped forward to 1am on the 5th December of all times and was included. The second was the mass expansion of Eastern Airways with six new routes. This was initially postponed from October because of the snap General Election to Friday 13th December, only to then be pushed further to January, seemingly to make way for the announcement of the latest South-side development. More on both items further down.
What we thought would happen:
Well of all things predicted, Coronavirus was not one of them. The timing was unfortunate given recent expansion but that same expansion proved to be a bit of a cushion and not only were we one of very few airports to emerge with more than we went in, we were for however briefly probably the most successful UK airport, which is crazy!
We noted the Passenger Facility Fee was expected to be axed during the year but the pandemic has necessitated it's continuation for now. We also noted the potential competitive advantage of the new "Connect Airways" being co-owned by our own operator, Stobart. Unfortunately that new airline failed to materialise.
Reasonable Expectations (2020):
Green = achieved Blue = ambiguous Red = failed
-
Gain a new GA operator
Not GA but in Willis Asset Management we could not have hoped for a better new operator! -
Update road signs with new (old) name
Complete before the end of January!
What did happen:
Politics
First up was the start of the political wrangling as the Mayoral elections in May approached, with the airport being the obvious focal point for both main candidates. In early January the Labour candidate tried to expose poor financial performance during the first year under the Mayor's watch. Whilst the finances had declined considerably, the period in question only covered six weeks under the new regime with the sudden increase in annual loss being attributed to the removal of the income from the cancelled housing estate from the accounts.
Ben also vowed to invest £6m in our railway station, with most questioning the benefit.
Ultimately the elections were postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic.
Development
The South-side business park raised more questions than answers; after years of long drawn out projects ultimately amounting to nothing, this adaptation moved like a train, going from announcement>loan approval>contract awarding>breaking ground in little over two months without so much as a single architects drawing or blueprint released into the public domain, and vague descriptions otherwise.
On the last day of August it was announced that another round of terminal refurbishment was taking place, finishing off the areas that Peel didn't quite get to before the takeover including security screening and arrivals. This would later be dwarfed by yet another round announced in December - the largest yet, which will see a second lounge added, a restaurant chain will move in, a new coffee shop and a new cocktail bar will open, as will the old Duty Free store.
In November, work began on the Alpha taxiway, stands 12/13 and the Hangar 3 East apron and is a full resurfacing similar to the work carried out on the Cobham half and Hangar 3 West apron a few years ago. This area will experience increased demand as the airport becomes busier.
New Routes!
We were called to the press conference we had been waiting for in Hangar 1 on the 24th January - by coincidence a year to the day since the takeover was voted in favour of. Six new routes were unveiled courtesy of Eastern Airways. More information below in the "Company Watch" section.
February saw the Balkan Holidays summer seasonal charter to Bourgas doubled to twice weekly for 2021, unsurprising given much has been made of us being the best selling UK airport two years running (when compared to other single-frequency airports). The end of the month saw Eastern add to their growing portfolio of routes with a brave breakway from their usual business model as they hoped to take the bucket and spade crowd to Alicante, although COVID would have other ideas.
March saw the unfortunate demise of Flybe, luckily we were one of the lesser affected airports, with franchisee Eastern reverting to an independent operation again and managing to churn out a new booking engine in just two days. Our one Flybe route to Jersey was never really a Flybe route at all but rather a tour operator charter, so it was just a case of issuing a new tender to various airlines and was won by Eastern.
Post lock-down #1 we regained a London service after 11 years once again courtesy of Eastern Airways flying into London City, later switched to Heathrow in a very astute bit of business from Eastern, however we cannot stress enough that City is only suspended and the two can and should co-exist eventually.
October saw the triumphant return of TUI with a summer seasonal route to Palma, hopefully more will follow in time.
November brought a repeat of the January announcement as Loganair fulfilled their 2018 promise to return with five flights all of which are in competition with Eastern, much to universal confusion, although after discussing the announcement at a Friends meeting a few days later, it became clear it's nothing but good.
December saw more great news as Ryanair were announced as returning with two summer seasonal routes to Alicante and Palma, and again there appears to be hopes of more in future.
The last three announcements whilst very welcome and leading to many a sigh of relief, were all competing with existing services - that sounds like a complaint but what it means is we have multiple airline options to exploit plenty of proven markets that remain unserved in the years ahead.
Lockdown
The end of March saw the start of the first three month lockdown whilst the peak of the pandemic was dealt with across the world. In many respects we got lucky, not only did we have less to lose, regional connectivity services seemed to demonstrate the strongest resolve and we were one of very few airports to actually gain new business during the period, mainly from the wonderful news that major American behemoth Willis Lease Finance Corporation chose us as their European base, with their Asset Management subsidiary taking over Hangar 1 and 1A. Again more detail in the Company Watch section.
The Tees Valley Air Show was understandably cancelled, and a series of drive-in concerts were announced and later cancelled due to what turned out to be well founded fears over a second wave.
Towards the end of lockdown we received the reassuring news that KLM had signed a new five year deal with the airport, only for them to make Teesside the only airport in their network to lose service outright during the quieter winter period for financial reasons. We look forward to them resuming in February and we will be pushing it very hard to get it back to the record breaking performance of last year .
We were given a chance to catch our breath at this point as things slowed down a little bit.
In November we were placed into lockdown #2 and once again the airport didn't let it slow them down, firstly by maintaining a limited schedule to Aberdeen and Belfast compared with the full closure of the first lockdown. They also secured some partnerships with Rockliffe Hall and a new 10 year deal for resident Travel Agency Fairs-Lloyds. Eastern chose to maintain the lockdown timetable plus adding Heathrow from mid-December until the start of next year.
COBHAM
Aviation Services
In late September news broke that they have been purchased by Draken International. They had previously entered into a partnership with Draken in 2017 and it was thought the ex Spanish Navy Mirage F1s recently purchased at the time by Draken were earmarked as a Falcon 20 replacement. In last years review we reported they were actively searching for a replacement with a strong wing to mount pods as the Falcons only had three-four years left in them. The current consensus is that they are here for a while longer as the fleet goes through expensive re-sprays and long term heavy rebuilds.
EASTERN
Airways
Starting on 24th January, we were privileged to once again be invited to a press conference, this time in Hangar 1, where we were treated to the spectacle of the hangar doors opening to unveil G-CDKB to the tune of "Mr Brightside" - very effective! All that was missing was some pyrotechnics!!! Ignoring the relaunch of the existing Aberdeen, we got Belfast City, Cardiff, Dublin, Isle of Man, London City and Southampton - all safe routes that should be immune to failure (pandemics aside).
MD Tony Burgess impressed by not shying away from their poor reliability record leading up to that point. He fully embraced their issues and detailed how they were going to resolve them, which inspired confidence and sure enough in the months since the price structure has become competitive and their reliability much improved too.
Just over a month later on 26th February, the Friends group were asked to assist at The Riverside for another announcement - we found out in advance it was Alicante but were somewhat surprised when we walked through the door to be greeted by an Eastern Airways Stewardess - quite far removed from their business model but good on them! After doing our bit handing out flyers to the fans we were allowed into the game - difficult for Chris as he supports the opposition and had to sit on his hands throughout especially when the result went in his favour!! He also discovered the clubs Parmo buns are to die for, and when we were asked to repeat the task at the next home game against Nottingham Forest he was sure to order two!!
A spanner was thrown into the works on 4th March when Flybe went pop, with Eastern being a franchise partner they would have to bring a lot of elements of the business previously overseen by Flybe back in-house and very quickly at that - which they achieved in an impressive three days! They needn't have rushed of course because on the 19th the COVID shut-down began with the suspension of Cardiff and Dublin followed by everything else a few days later on the 23rd.
Fast forward to June, and on the 4th the first details of Eastern's return emerged, but the best part was the addition of a flight to Newquay to take advantage of the "staycation" boom. Aberdeen and Belfast returned on 22nd June, followed by London City and Newquay launching on 6th July.
Unfortunately on 30th July the Alicante flight was suspended before it had even began, it's unclear whether or not they'll try again in 2021 but technically speaking the route has not been axed. The next day they announced Dublin would return on 25th September (although would later be pushed to Febuary 2021 due to restrictions in Ireland being extended), with Newquay made year-round with a peak season third weekly rotation and upgraded to the larger Saab 2000. Around this time Isle of Man was also suspended due to the cancellation of the Isle of Man TT, and with the 2021 event now also cancelled, it's increasingly unlikely they'll try again before 2022.
On 5th August a major announcement was the return of our Heathrow route for a 14th September start. The all important interline agreement still isn't forthcoming but the use of the former British Midland flight numbers was a great touch!
On the subject of dual London routes, in Summer 2005 there were 4384 weekly seats to London (3348 to Heathrow 3x daily A320 with bmi six days per week and 1036 to Gatwick 1x daily 737-300 with bmibaby), if Eastern manage to gain enough slots for 3x daily Heathrow, and London City returns at the previously planned twice daily Mon-Fri (assuming E170 on Heathrow and ATR in lieu of the Saab on City), there will be 2316 seats per week to London - so demand should easily outstrip supply! I've also done similar calculations for the dual Eastern/Loganair routes and the same rule applies to all of them!
September saw a very limited Jersey service introduced which Eastern Airways inherited from Flybe but unlike with Flybe it was not available as flight-only through the airline, it was exclusively bookable through the travel agent.
On 21st August it was announced that Aberdeen and Belfast were to be expanded to twice daily - although only Aberdeen made the jump due to extended restrictions in Belfast.
EDEN
Flight Training
An aircraft switch saw PA-28 G-AXZD replace Beech C23 G-BARH, seems spare parts were too hard to come by for the latter.
GREAT NORTH
Air Ambulance
Finally departed in August having postponed the move firstly to avoid disruption during the pandemic and then because the CAA initially blocked the move until an agreement was put in place between them and the airport to avoid interference with ILS traffic at less than five miles to runway 23. They continue to utilise a full ATC service. We would like to clarify once again that they were not forced out by the previous owners as has been mentioned in certain quarters, but rather they wanted to purchase land rather than rent it, which lacks practicality for any commercial airport.
IAS
Medical
They took on a deal with Belfast-based SERE Ltd which saw them adding that companies DA62 to their AOC whilst also inheriting a long term contract from the Isle of Man. They reintroduced G-CLOW back into their fleet but re-registered as G-IASC, previously operated on their AOC along with G-CWCD for Clowes Estates Ltd.
PRIVATE
AIRCRAFT
Owners Group
Those located in Hangar 1 had to vacate to accomodate Willis Asset Management.
SCENIC AIR
TOURS
and Flight Training
A minor revision of their name to reflect their expanded offering as a flying school in the wake of PTT Aviation's demise a couple of years ago. Towards the end of the year they added C150 Aerobat G-PHUN which could prove a very smart move, PTT Aviation discontinued aerobatic experiences as they couldn't make money from them, but with an aircraft that can perform regular training when it's not doing aerobatics will likely circumnavigate that issue, and with a lower cost per hour than their PA-28s they will open themselves up to new business.
SERCO
International Fire Training Centre
No significant changes.
STOBART
Jet Centre
Adopted "Jet Centre" on the radio instead of "Consort" early in the year, only to then change again to "Aviator".
THALES
Flight Inspection
Moved into Hangar 3 East during October.
WILLIS
Asset Management
Led by former Sycamore founder Kevin O'Hare, they have certainly delivered the goods in the short time they've been operational!
Their first Teesside contract saw the arrival of ex SAS Scandinavian Airlines Boeing 737 LN-RRN, of course the next one would impress significantly more!!! Fiji Airways at Teesside?! Who would have thought it!?
On the one hand their timing is impeccable given the sheer amount of surplus airframes currently in the world, on the flip side no-one is buying aircraft parts at the moment. Willis' arrival also made up for the airport failing to win any aircraft storage contracts at the start of the pandemic where most others succeeded.
Passenger Figures
The passenger figures are unmeasurable and in all likelihood that will remain the case throughout next year too. Worthy of praise are our aircraft movement stats which were in decline before the pandemic yet either side of lockdown there were a few healthy increases.
Click here to view our passenger figures page.
Visiting Aircraft
Nothing much to note, the non-existent hunting season saw most bizjet types lacking, although the PC-24 is rapidly becoming a popular mount! The airport clearly struck a deal with a training organisation during the year...we saw 67 visits from 20 SR20/22 models by the 3rd December. PC-12s were immune from the decline even with regular contributors European Aircraft Private Club with their OO-PC* range staying away. The visit of a Fleet Air Arm Merlin on 12th October was very welcome given the rarity of the Royal Navy in our neck of the woods.
Click here to view our 2020 statistics page.
Resident Aircraft
| 2020 Stats | Rolling Stats | |||||||
| Dec 19 | Dec 20 | % +/- | Jan 10 | Dec 20 | % +/- | |||
| Active | 33 | 32 | -3% | 41 | 32 | -25% | ||
| PWFU / Stored | 10 | 12 | +18% | 08 | 12 | +40% | ||
| Totals | 43 | 44 | +2% | 49 | 44 | -11% | ||
* The above table does not include temporary winter only residents.
Our picks of the years best visitors as judged by Dave Rose.
| BEST VISITOR | ||
| GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
_DR.jpg) |
_DR.jpg) |
_DR.jpg) |
| DQ-FJF | M-STAR | ZS-DDT |
| MOST VISITS | ||
| GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
 |
_AP.jpg) |
 |
| G-FFMV (28) | G-AWOT (20) | G-BXLY (16) |
| BEST LIVERY | ||
| GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
_AG.jpg) |
 |
 |
| M-STAR | 2-CLRK | D-CHRA |
| BEST PHOTOGRAPH | ||
| GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
 |
 |
 |
| Superb composition and exposure - Well Done Andy | Great light and composure - Nice one Brad | Fantastic late afternoon light - great shot Richard |
| THE "BORING WEDNESDAY AT WORK" AWARD - SPONSORED BY COSTA COFFEE... | ||
 |
||
| A superb shot to the east from the ATC Tower by Steve Curtis | ||
| IN MEMORIAM | ||
 |
 |
/GJECP_CS.JPG) |
G-BXLY is an archive photo, as is the second Flybe, with the third Flybe taken at Birmingham.
***Announcement!!***
Next year in association with the Friends of Teesside International Airport we will be introducing an Outstanding Achievement Award including the presentation of a trophy and framed aircraft photograph! Applicable to companies resident at the airport for a minimum of 12 consecutive months (with takeovers/mergers/rebranding etc resetting the clock to zero), the movements team and Friends committee will decide a shortlist of candidates which will then be presented to our respective audiences in a poll to decide the winner!
Another great year for photographs - a huge thank you to all contributors as always! The page got too big to edit and had to be split into three, next year there will be a page per quarter.
Click here for our 2020 photo albums.
Highlights were the announcements of large-scale regional connectivity programmes, the return of the largest European tour operator TUI as well as Ryanair, the arrival of Willis Asset Management, the return of London, initially City then Heathrow and the largest terminal refurbishment to date.
Click here for our annual media coverage.
We launched our Airport History pages during the first lockdown which Chris started in January 2019 to alleviate the boredom experienced whilst recovering from a dislocated patella!! As far as we know, it's the first time the full history of the airport has been documented in one single location, but with gaps in our knowledge, as well as the inevitable errors as pre-digital age data becomes blurred over time, constant refinement is needed, so for the benefit of posterity, anything you may be able to contribute will be received with open arms! During 2021, we have a project in the works that will make all of this history even more accessible.
Website Visitor Statistics
The number of unique views of the website per month, excludes repeat viewing.
| MONTH | VISITS |
| Jan | 56,318 |
| Feb | 55,994 |
| Mar | 65,147 |
| Apr | 57,271 |
| May | 49,900 |
| Jun | 43,604 |
| Jul | 54,546 |
| Aug | 55,174 |
| Sep | 65,397 |
| Oct | 58,135 |
| Nov | 56,218 |
| Dec* | 55,186 |
* 2019
To reach such a large audience across the globe is so thrilling. We are nothing without our viewers and we extend our thanks to all of you!
Thank you also to those who give credit to the website when benefitting from the information provided, there was a marked improvement in 2020, it's only courteous and a very small ask, so we appreciate it!
It's proving harder to write this section these days; we don't want to reduce the review to just a series of recaps but it's difficult to present this segment as something other than opinion which is not what it's about.
Reasonable Expectations (2021)
-
Expand leisure offering
As it stands we have five holiday routes to look forward to (six if Eastern have another go at Alicante - they haven't said they won't!) but only three destinations, we would like to see this offering grow. -
Keep all suspended routes
With COVID-19 likely to persist throughout most of 2021, it may be unreasonable to expect all currently-suspended services to make a return next year, however given they are all high demand routes, it is reasonable to expect them to remain suspended and not axed outright. -
Willis to overtake Sycamore
Sycamore processed 12 airframes in six years at Teesside; we challenge Willis to top that within their first year! -
RNAV approaches
We understand our new radar is compatible with this innovative new technology, as one of the last airports still to adopt it, we would hope to see the owners not neccessarily complete a transition to RNAV approaches during 2021 but certainly indicate their intention to. -
Tees Valley Air Show to be planned
We hope they proactively make arrangements to make it happen in 2021, and that the virus won't prevent it.
We couldn't have hoped for a better year in normal times, let alone with a pandemic raging. We have truly excelled and we extend our credit and thanks to the airport authority and all involved. The year has been terrific mostly off the back of announcements, so 2021 will be better from the fruition of these announcements alone. We have some exciting projects in the pipeline ourselves, and all being well we will be able to reward your patience throughout the pandemic more so in 2022 than 2021 - although if the various vaccines start to kick in we might be able to squeeze in a follow-up night-shoot toward the end of the year now we have Willis and a resident Jet Provost to build upon the first one - no promises just yet though!
From Dave, Dave and Chris:
Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!!!
Disclaimer
The three main updaters have often discussed the negatives surrounding opinion and rumour/conjecture relating to Teesside International Airport and have agreed it should be excluded from this website. All of our previous annual reviews have been moderated by one or both Dave's to remove any and all such material and to ensure the airport business is analysed from a neutral perspective. This can be difficult given our hobby is often rumour-driven, and discussing what might or might not be happening in the future could be considered a large part of the pastime, but ultimately we endeavour to avoid any such items with the exception of any information provided by official sources that lacks replicable evidence.
Credit and Thanks
Written by Chris Smith, "TAM Awards" judged by Dave Rose, edited and ratified by Dave Anderson and Dave Rose. Thank you to Richard Bowater, Steve Curtis, Andy Gibson, Andrew Povey and Brad Simpson whose photographs have been used in this report.