2021 Annual Review
Welcome to this years Teesside Airport Movements Annual Review! We've tried our very best to keep it as brief as possible (we don't want to lose your interest after all), but given the sheer volume of noteworthy items during the year, it is unavoidably lengthy!
2020 additions:
New Years Eve saw a whirlwind of a day, starting with Eastern Airways announcing the termination of Belfast City and ending on a more positive note as we learned Loganair were pursuing London Heathrow slots for a twice daily service and looking for at least one other route to justify the second aircraft this would require (which turned out to be Bristol).
What we thought would happen:
We were cautious not to analyse in too much detail knowing the ongoing global pandemic would ravage at least the first half of the year, pending the various vaccines taking effect.
Reasonable Expectations (2021):
Green = achieved Blue = ambiguous Red = failed
-
Expand leisure offering
Corfu and Faro (Ryanair) and Antalya (TUI) were announced during the year. -
Keep all suspended routes
The loss of the Eastern Airways routes was due to the base closure rather than performance, and with Loganair taking over most of them we've marked this blue for ambiguous. -
Willis to overtake Sycamore
They didn't in terms of aircraft processed, but this was largely down to the hangar works, plus their branded vans and engineers can be seen on a daily basis tending to our Loganair Embraers so presumably this is an expansion. -
RNAV approaches
Status unknown. -
Tees Valley Air Show to be planned
As expected the show was cancelled, but the organisers were actively making arrangements and didn't hit the abort button until the last possible minute. This is all we can ask and we extend our thanks to them for their efforts.
What did happen:
Celebrations throughout the year marked not only the 80th anniversary of the airport first opening as a military facility in 1941, but also the 40th anniversary of the Serco IFTC on Teesside - which moved in during 1981 from Stansted under the auspices of the CAA. The airport very graciously allowed the movements website and Friends group to organise a GA fly-in event to help mark the milestone, but unfortunately this had to be dropped due to the Hangar 3 West refurbishment. As it turned out the weather on the chosen date was poor anyway. Instead, we pressed ahead with our 2nd night-shoot following on from the hugely successful 2018 event, but once again the weather had other ideas and this has now been pushed to February.
Work continued apace on "phase one" of the superb terminal refurbishment aka "Ryanair Ready", although newspaper claims that it was "the first in 10 years" (later revised upwards to 20 years!!) is incorrect, and most readers will know we have had a best-in-class product since 2017 when the previous owners overhauled most of the terminal, only stopping when the takeover gained momentum.
Fun was had getting the local public to name the new airside bar - Chris thought he had it all sewn up with "Tea-Cider Bar"!! In the end a shortlist of four was put to a public vote, these were "Goosepool", "McMullen", "The Maple Leaf" and "Final Call", with Goosepool eventually winning it.
On 1st March, the new radar was finally switched on, a multi-million pound investment in our long term future by the previous owners. It is the only one of its kind in the UK.
3rd March was a huge day, more so for the region than the airport with the announcement in the annual budget speech that Teesport had been awarded Freeport status with part of the airport site included, and also the selection of Darlington for Treasury North (and since expanded to include the Department for International Trade and Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy). These two announcements have the potential to be a game-changer for the airport and if nothing else should ensure a London route is immune to failure. Anyone wanting to know what a Freeport is in an aviation context should watch the movie "Tenet" where the concept is clearly explained before the protagonist then decides to plow a 747 into one, in a real stunt (1) (2) using retired 747 "B-HMD"! Anyway back on topic...!
The end of March pleased enthusiasts and the public alike when it was announced the existing viewing area just right of the terminal was to be fitted out with an eight-foot raised platform, although this never happened as the viewing area permanently closed at the end of the year.
Some great news in April when the axing of the £6 Passenger Facility Fee was confirmed.
In May the return of Duty Free was announced with World Duty Free planning to move in, which will be the start of "Phase Two" of refurbishing the terminal.
The single biggest development of the year or any other year for that matter also happened in May - updater Chris finally scored employment with the airport as a "Multi-Skilled Operative" - or baggage handler in old money!!
June was what could be considered to be the return of our airport to an acceptable level of airliner activity, initially thanks to Euro 2020 charters courtesy of the Austria and Romanian national teams, but more so the well-hyped arrival of Ryanair. The middle of the month saw the first real controversy in a while with the introduction of a new car park tariff, very badly received despite the fact we remain one of the most competitive UK airports for parking. Arrogant types continue to park on the double yellow lines rather than paying a measly £2.50. Please all plug the fact you get two hours free if you use either the Café or Travel Agent as awareness remains low. The end of the month there was more controversy when an extra £10m in taxpayer cash was required for the airport.
The big news of July was when Esken (formerly Stobart Aviation) handed back - free of charge - their 25% shareholding in the airport to focus on London Southend Airport. Carlisle has closed to all but residents and is for sale, and Southend has lost all commercial passenger flights so you can fully appreciate their need to consolidate. The Mayor set-up a charitable trust called the Teesside Airport Foundation to take on Esken's 25% stake, which includes the requirement for a referendum should the airport ever be placed up for sale again.
In September Operations Director Shaun Woods left the airport. Starting in 1985 he progressed from baggage to Duty Officer, Operations Manager then Airport Director, finishing in the same role but rebranded as Operations Director. He has been very helpful and accommodating to the enthusiast community via this website so please all join us in wishing him all the best for the future.
Also in September a fuss was made over the 1st visit of an Embraer "E2" due to a Leeds flight being cancelled and their passengers merged with ours. It was initially thought to be a 1st visit to the UK but PH-NXB had already made one prior visit somewhere. Still, the excitement was well justified and in common with the MAX/NEO, the engines are massive and the interior like something out of Star Wars! Embraer would steel the show again at the end of the year when their KC-390 Millennium military transporter would visit on a cargo charter, possibly a 1st UK visit other than the 2018 appearance at Fairford and Farnborough. Much was made of the near-£14m loss during the month, obviously attributable to Covid yet the naysayers wasted no time in using it to question the viability of the airport, supporting a theory we've had for years - that they're not happy during the bad times, and even less happy during the good times! But the worst blow of the month and year, was on the 25th when long time resident Grumman AA-5 G-BBSA crashed on takeoff following engine failure leading to a stall, critically injuring the three occupants. One of my (Chris) jobs was to guard the wreck and patrol the fenceline and chase any photographers, and whilst on the day this wouldn't have mattered one jot given the circumstances, such a tasking could have put me in conflict with my photographer friends within the aviation community - thankfully all of the cameras that appeared belonged to the press and you guys were all very respectful and stayed away, to which we extend our gratitude.
October got off to a good start for our community when the return of the fabled rooftop viewing terrace was announced as part of the latest round of terminal refurbishment. Eyebrows were raised (and subsequently treated and shaped) when Duncan Bannatyne announced a new express spa in the departure lounge. The consensous is that most people will have had all that kind of stuff done before arriving at the airport, but I don't suppose Mr Bannatyne would be where he is today if he didn't know what he was doing so we're sure it will be a success.
The year became far quieter toward the end, until on 2nd December, a story appeared in the local press reporting the airport were in talks with Amazon over a Fulfilment Centre to be built on the south-side. If correct, this would be "MME4" in keeping with Amazon's policy of naming the facilities after the nearest airport; after MME1 (Darlington), MME2 (Bowburn) and MME3 (Wynyard). The long rumoured and ultimately inevitable air freight operation would also support NCL1 (Gateshead) and probably several Yorkshire facilities too. Duty Free opened on Tuesday 21st and appears to be doing good trade in its first few days even with limited flights, which is great!
DRAKEN
Europe
Rebranded as Draken Europe (formerly Cobham Aviation Services and FR Aviation before that). Purchased 12x Dutch F-16s but it is thought these are destined for the USA, so the dream of based fast jets will have to wait a little longer!!
EASTERN
Airways
Announced: Nil
Axed:
Aberdeen, Alicante, Belfast City, Cornwall Newquay, London
Heathrow, Southampton
Initially axed Alicante, Belfast City and London Heathrow, and later Aberdeen and Southampton too. At that point we just assumed Cardiff, Dublin, Isle of Man and London City were also terminated, having only been suspended prior to that. These are all perfectly viable routes that were not given time to bed in under normal trading conditions. Eastern will return in 2022 on the summer Jersey contract.
EDEN
Flight Training
Expanded with the acquision of another PA-38 Tomahawk, "G-BPES".
IAS
Medical
Sold their King Air 250 G-IASB (which has an executive fit and thus not best suited to air ambulance work) to Prestige Skyhawk, the aircraft carries out charter flights and additional work for IAS all under their AOC and crew.
LOGANAIR
Announced:
Bristol,
Esbjerg (via Aberdeen),
London Heathrow, Southampton
Axed:
Bristol, Jersey
They announced a London Heathrow service on 18th January, which began in March, taking over from previous operator Eastern Airways. Initially once daily, it soon increased to twice daily followed by a third rotation, although the latter ended up being very ad-hoc and was quietly dropped for the winter timetable. Heathrow required a second based aircraft and we learned early on that they were looking for at least one, if not two routes to occupy the aircraft - this turned out to be Bristol which was announced on 8th March for a May start, lasting just one summer season having not been given a chance to bed-in under normal trading conditions and with minimal advertising. April saw Dublin axed, before being re-announced in August for a May 2022 start. In June the fabled interline agreement with British Airways was finally completed - although it turned out to be a codeshare not an interline which is by far more favourable as it offers more benefits and protection (although there are many reports of people not being able to book where they want, with people connected to our community having to fly from Leeds to get to Naples, and use our KLM instead to get to San Francisco). This was followed by another new route to Southampton in early September to replace the Eastern Airways service and to replace Bristol as an extension of the Aberdeen service, and like Bristol, a perfectly viable route. In October they announced the extension of the Aberdeen service to Esbjerg following the recent oil and gas charter flights. In the past Eastern have advertised similar extensions to the likes of Bergen, Stavanger and Wick, but with the hassle of an aircraft change, this new service will be far more convenient.
PRIVATE
AIRCRAFT
Owners Group
Hangar 3 West closed on 10th September for conversion into a freight handling centre, the aircraft were forced into open storage pending completion of new-build sheds at Britannia Corner. Unfortunately AA5 G-BBSA was lost in a very nasty accident on 25th September.
RYANAIR
Announced: Corfu, Faro
Axed: Nil
With the addition of Corfu and Faro Ryanair enjoyed their largest summer ever on Teesside as far as destinations go, although not in terms of frequency given Alicante was previously 3x weekly alongside a daily Dublin and 3x weekly Gerona - will that change in 2022?! Just prior to the start of their first service in May, Teesside was selling 8% better than other UK airports! 27th February saw some confusion as Ryanair and the airport celebrated the extension of Palma throughout winter, only to revert back to summer-only just four days later, and since chalked up as a glitch in the system. They announced a short-notice Faro flight off the back of Portugal being about the only holiday destination added to the green list, although this proved premature given it was back on amber by the time the route started, but the good thing about Faro is it's one of the most resilient leisure routes available. The UK average on-time performance for Ryanair over the summer was 85%, we achieved 93%!
SCENIC AIR
TOURS
and Flight Training
No significant changes.
SERCO
International Fire Training Centre
Celebrated their 40th anniversary at Teesside during the year. They moved in from Stansted in 1981.
STOBART
Jet Centre
Will be rebranding following the exit of Stobart.
THALES
Flight Inspection
Unaffected by the Hangar 3 refurbishment, they'll keep their bit.
TUI
Airways
Announced: Antalya
Axed: Nil
Doubled their summer 2022 portfolio with the addition of Antalya, Turkey. Perhaps a slightly odd choice given Bodrum and Dalaman (maybe even İzmir) are considered more popular. Should the airport achieve its ambitions of a more rounded and complete holiday programme, a switch to a more resilient Turkish destination might be necessary, but until then it should do very well.
WILLIS
Asset Management
A quiet year due to the Hangar works.
Passenger Figures
Difficult to summarise given the circumstances but generally exceptional. Aircraft movements and Aberdeen are expected to exceed pre-pandemic figures, which is incredible.
Click here to view our passenger figures page.
Visiting Aircraft
We've done surprisingly well for bizjets this year, especially at the higher Challenger/Global/Gulfstream end. A couple of airframes exceeded 20 visits over the year, this is unusual and consistent with the spike in aircraft movements on most of the monthly CAA figures. On the military side, there were increased Typhoon movements following the retirement of the Tornado, and the Fleet Air Arm had an unusually high presence with a Wildcat and two Merlin - three more than we would usually get from them!
Click here to view our 2021 statistics page.
Resident Aircraft
| 2021 Stats | Rolling Stats | |||||||
| Dec 20 | Dec 21 | % +/- | Jan 10 | Dec 21 | % +/- | |||
| Active | 32 | 31 | -3% | 41 | 31 | -24% | ||
| PWFU / Stored | 12 | 12 | +/-0% | 08 | 12 | +50% | ||
| Totals | 44 | 43 | -2% | 49 | 43 | -12% | ||
* The above table does not include temporary winter-only residents.
Our picks of the years best visitors.
| BEST VISITORS | ||
| GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
| COMMERCIAL KINDLY JUDGED BY SWISSPORT |
||
_BS.jpg) |
_CS.JPG) |
_CS.JPG) |
| G-XATW | G-POWH | YR-ASA |
| BUSINESS / GENERAL
AVIATION KINDLY JUDGED BY JET CENTRE |
||
_DR.jpg) |
 |
 |
| N121RS | CN-SRA | T7-CAPE |
| MILITARY KINDLY JUDGED BY DRAKEN EUROPE |
||
_AG.jpg) |
 |
_DR.jpg) |
| 10-0052 | XE688 | FAB2855 |
| MOST VISITS | ||
| GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
| COMMERCIAL | ||
 |
_TH.jpg) |
 |
| G-OSRB (05) | G-CIXW (03) | G-CLSN (03) |
| BUSINESS AVIATION | ||
 |
 |
 |
| G-JSNS (11) | G-KION (09) | N542MP (04) |
| GENERAL AVIATION | ||
 |
 |
 |
| G-FFMV (38) | G-BXLY (22) | G-AWOT (21) |
| MILITARY | ||
_AG.jpg) |
_AG.jpg) |
_AG.jpg) |
| ZM336 (18) | ZM333 (15) | ZM335 (11) |
| BEST LIVERY | ||
| GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
|
|
 |
 |
| G-XATW | HB-IVJ | G-FRRN |
| IN MEMORIAM | ||
 |
||
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EI-REM, G-BXLY and G-FFMV are archive photos not taken during 2021, XE688 taken at RAF Leeming.
Click here for our 2021 photo albums.
Not news as such but an article in Issue 94 of Airports of the World magazine focused on Teesside International Airport and was written by a "Chris Smith" - I wish to make clear this was not me, and given it featured conjecture, I am keen to distance myself from this article.
Click here for our annual media coverage.
Website Visitor Statistics
The number of unique views of the website per month, excludes repeat viewing.
| MONTH | VISITS |
| Jan | 50576 |
| Feb | 46303 |
| Mar | 63081 |
| Apr | 69270 |
| May | 71041 |
| Jun | 69254 |
| Jul | 67925 |
| Aug | 58699 |
| Sep | 55242 |
| Oct | 52801 |
| Nov | 54784 |
| Dec* | 55888 |
* 2020
During the year we said goodbye to Dave Rose, who left the updating team for reasons relating to the airport but not the website itself, per se. His contribution over the years is appreciated beyond words and should he ever wish to return he is of course more than welcome.
The airport have made no secret about their desire for more leisure routes as well as cargo and over the next 12 months we will almost certainly hear - if not see - the outcome of those efforts. The Mayor has also been talking up the south-side of the airport, but given the history of this site over multiple owners, until any large scale construction takes place to get excited over this would be to 'cry wolf'.
Reasonable Expectations (2022)
-
Expand leisure offering
This will be a rolling expectation until such a time we match the previous peak, which including non-based w-patterns was the approximate equivalent of 3.66 based [holiday] aircraft. -
Keep all Loganair routes
Every route we have with Loganair is a safe bet and as such there is little reason for them to fail. Any airline launching a route during the pandemic should be doing so with the confidence that it will still work in a greatly reduced marketplace, otherwise, why launch it? -
GA Development
It had occurred to us that GA have not been mentioned at all in any plans since the takeover, and the two accidents in a short timeframe has not helped their cause, and given they are now al fresco for the foreseeable future, we wish to see this important avenue of revenue developed somehow.
Even with Covid holding us back there's no pretending it hasn't been a great year, we'll feel more comfortable once the Mayors promise of profitability within three years comes true given low cost operations are known to not make money for anyone other than the airline, but right now it would be wrong to not enjoy the moment.
From Dave and Chris:
Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!!!
Disclaimer
The 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 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 our pastime, but ultimately we endeavour to avoid any such items with the exception of any information provided by official sources that has no replicable evidence.
Credit and Thanks
Written by Chris Smith, edited and ratified by Dave Anderson and one senior airport employee to remain anonymous. Thank you to Dave Rose, Brad Simpson, Richard Bowater, Andy Gibson, David Thompson, Aidan Williamson, Tom Henderson, Andrew Povey and Stuart Reid whose photographs have been used in this report.