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Newcastle Update

By Chris Smith

I wouldn't normally create a trip report for Newcastle, I tend not to visit these days as I always think you might as well go to Manchester and get the same mix of traffic on a much larger scale, but given the current state of the world you've got to take what you can get and I had to go to Durham so I decided whilst over that way I would carry on a little further and catch up on current events at our larger neighbour. When the airlines were placing their fleets into storage back in March, Newcastle like us didn't seem to be on the list of airports being used, however there seems to be an excess of Jet2 and TUI aircraft.

The layout remains the same around the south-side, with the main GA apron deserted other than two of the North East Flight Academy fleet of which one was needed. They are the flying school born from the ashes of PTT Aviation whose branding is still visible, as is that of NAL Engineering which seems the only faction of that firm remaining although Apex Global Investments seems to be an attempted resurrection. If anything was tucked in to the North West corner of the pier at the terminal or anything smaller than A320/B737 size then it went begging. Luckily what I've logged tallies perfectly with the excellent Jethro's Fleet Lists website which in turn ties up with what FR24 has on the ground. Three of the TUI were sporting Sunwing Airlines tails and I was surprised when TAWW went in the book, although I knew Jet2 would likely yield more and sure enough three went in. easyJet were conspicuous by their absence.

All in all a productive visit given it was a spur of the moment two minute blast around at about 6pm in the evening coupled with a global pandemic raging!