[TownPlanningNE]

say what you like about Newcastle airport, but it has an impressive array of scheduled links on proper full service airlines.

Completely agree Johnny. Hopefully once the recession is over the growth can begin again and the masterplan can be implemented.

 

[johnnypd]

quick comparison -

Leeds-Bradford:
Pakistan Airlines - Islamabad
KLM - Amsterdam
BMI - Brussels, Edinburgh, Glasgow

Liverpool:
KLM - Amsterdam

East Midlands:
BMI - Brussels

Newcastle:
Air France - Paris
BA- Heathrow
Brussels Airlines - Brussels
Cimber - Copenhagen
Emirates - Dubai
KLM - Amsterdam
Lufthansa - Dusseldorf

Whike Eastern and Wideroe also go to stavanger which opens up scandanavia for connecting flights. and there's also on-off Aer Lingus flights to Dublin which will probably return when the economy picks up.

 

[Salif]

Exactly why the Government cannot be allowed to bully regional airports into cut backs. It is the North East's link to the world and not even a massive HSR network could replace that.

 

[Geordie Ahmed]

Great news for the Airport - now the Government needs to shove the plans of wrecking regional Airports up its arse

 

[bigchrisfgb]

Exactly why the Government cannot be allowed to bully regional airports into cut backs. It is the North East's link to the world and not even a massive HSR network could replace that.

Hopefully NCLE's masterplan will be started before the Government set up their own masterplan, and then it will be to late, Newcastle would of already expanded, HSR will be on it's way, and Newcastle will then have even more slots for flights going all around the world.

 

[johnnypd]

gaps i can see in our service would be a strong link to central or latin america - presumably through Spain. Let's say an Iberia flight to Madrid to open that up.

On top of this a direct flight to North America - we have a scheduled flight to Toronto with transat but it is only seasonal and they are a bit tatty as an airline. I actually think a link to Toronto, considering the extant link, may be easier to establish than a flight to a US city.

 

[Salif]

Great news for the Airport - now the Government needs to shove the plans of wrecking regional Airports up its arse

They'll shove it if we all make sure they know the outcome for them would be bad. If however we all roll over and do nothing they will continue to abuse their powers like the dictatorship they are. They must be stopped by any means necessary - a precedent of fierce opposition needs to be set for the next Government.

I'll give you the real reason for this plan to screw over regional airports. They can see other hubs (CDG, Schipol, etc) are winning a lot of business from the UK regions which is helping them to leave Heathrow behind. The Government wants to sabotage these links so we're all forced to use Heathrow to travel around the World. In their eyes we do not deserve independent International links and wants to force us to rely on London so they can feel important.

Remember, links from the North East to other countries develop trade and improve our economy. Plenty of this helps us to prosper and prosperous regions is bad for London.

 

[johnnypd]

They'll shove it if we all make sure they know the outcome for them would be bad. If however we all roll over and do nothing they will continue to abuse their powers like the dictatorship they are. They must be stopped by any means necessary - a precedent of fierce opposition needs to be set for the next Government.

I'll give you the real reason for this plan to screw over regional airports. They can see other hubs (CDG, Schipol, etc) are winning a lot of business from the UK regions which is helping them to leave Heathrow behind. The Government wants to sabotage these links so we're all forced to use Heathrow to travel around the World. In their eyes we do not deserve independent International links and wants to force us to rely on London so they can feel important.

Remember, links from the North East to other countries develop trade and improve our economy. Plenty of this helps us to prosper and prosperous regions is bad for London.

you may have a point there. heathrow is the world's connecting gate and this keeps london, and the businesses that are located there, in the centre of the world. but if we're going to Dubai or Paris or Dusseldorf for our connections then it's less people using Heathrow. The recent plan was explicit about favouring heathrow over, and to the detriment of, everywhere else. it's just another example of london centralisation by the UK elite. it doesnt matter what party they are in they follow the same line.

 

[Salif]

They'll follow the same line for as long as they're allowed to.

Everyone has their breaking point - if they keep this hateful bullying attitude going then as far as I'm concerned they aren't our Government and should be seen as an aggressive dictatorship who we need to fight off.

 

[kieron79]

They'll shove it if we all make sure they know the outcome for them would be bad. If however we all roll over and do nothing they will continue to abuse their powers like the dictatorship they are. They must be stopped by any means necessary - a precedent of fierce opposition needs to be set for the next Government.

I'll give you the real reason for this plan to screw over regional airports. They can see other hubs (CDG, Schipol, etc) are winning a lot of business from the UK regions which is helping them to leave Heathrow behind. The Government wants to sabotage these links so we're all forced to use Heathrow to travel around the World. In their eyes we do not deserve independent International links and wants to force us to rely on London so they can feel important.

Remember, links from the North East to other countries develop trade and improve our economy. Plenty of this helps us to prosper and prosperous regions is bad for London.

Very well put!

 

[hollow man]

Great news about the award, its a shame I dont get to use the airport more often. The last time I used it was about 5 years ago and it was quite a pleasant experience.

 

[Newcastle Historian]

Councils fear having to ‘bail out’ airport
Dec 16 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

A SPECIAL meeting will be held on Tyneside as cash-hit councils seek assurances their investment in Newcastle Airport is safe. Airport bosses will be asked for guarantees that taxpayers’ cash will not be used when a £300m debt is refinanced.

North Tyneside Council has agreed to hold a special cabinet meeting next month amid concerns they could be asked to hand over extra cash to Newcastle International Airport in a few years. Tyneside councils are the majority shareholders behind the airport, and as such have benefited from multi-million pound pay-outs in previous years.

Controversial former airport boss John Parkin secured the last £80m dividend in 2006, three months before he was suspended. Mr Parkin received a bonus worth nearly £6m, eventually reduced to £2m, for bringing about the bumper payday.

Just three years later the council is eyeing up a refinancing deal which is expected to be nowhere near as profitable, and could cost councils.

The airport has some £300m of debt, built around loans which are due to be refinanced within three years. Councillors are worried that when airport bosses sit down with bank managers to restructure the debt they may find bad news waiting for them. If the banks do not offer good enough terms, councillors say, councils need to be told if they will then be asked to help recapitalise the airport.

One councillor told The Journal the meeting had been set up to seek reassurances that “the council will not have to bail out the airport” at a time when local authorities are cutting spending.

Changes in the value of the airport have also prompted concerns from the Audit Commission.

The Government’s council watchdog told Newcastle City Council in its annual audit letter to adjust the documents which underpin its financial planning as a result of airport changes. Last night Graeme Brett, chairman of North Tyneside’s finance sub-committee, said the meeting was needed to clear up issues regarding the airport’s debt. “We need a much clearer idea of what will happen when it comes to refinancing the loan.

“As a shareholder it is important we know what is happening here, what the liabilities are for us and for Copenhagen Airports.”

A spokesman for South Tyneside Council, the lead authority on the airport, said: "When the original refinancing took place we knew that we would need to refinance at the end of 2013. “The Board and airport management team have a strategy in place which will lead to a successful refinancing at the appropriate time."

A Newcastle City Council spokesman said: “We are not reviewing our commitment. The airport is a vibrant international airport which is critically important to the city and to the economy of the region. “We do expect the dividend to be lower than it has been in previous years because of the recession and we are taking this into account in our medium- term budget plans.''

 

[AngerOfTheNorth]

I think this all ignores the fact that we need to reduce the level of aviation within the UK overall.

I'd simply ensure that all flights from UK airports are international. If we can get rid of the hundreds and hundreds of internal flights we currently have (purely because the rail servies aren't good enough) then we'd save huge amounts of pollution and both regional and international level airports could continue to link us up with other major cities.

 

[geordiejon]

I think this all ignores the fact that we need to reduce the level of aviation within the UK overall.

I'd simply ensure that all flights from UK airports are international. If we can get rid of the hundreds and hundreds of internal flights we currently have (purely because the rail servies aren't good enough) then we'd save huge amounts of pollution and both regional and international level airports could continue to link us up with other major cities.

That is a nice thought but is a bit unrealistic. I mean it is highly unlikely that any high speed rail will ever go further north than edinburgh nor would it go to south west or even Wales IMO- it simply wouldnt be profitable. Then how on earth do you expect someone to go from say Bristol to Aberdeen? Or ro get to Shetland Islands?
The reason Newcastle has a lot of domestic flights is simply because the trains are generally slow and in a world of increasing hypermobility people need to get about. We will not get HSR to Newcastle till the 2020's I reckon and what till then? If you need to go to Heathrow what do you need to do if there are no flights? You have to drag your bags around get on a slow train- probably down to Leeds (of course changing in York more than likely) get on a HSR train (when that comes that is) and then get to London- i reckon still nearly 4 hours not even getting to central, and then changing.

Unitl HSR is up and running or even planned for defo- Newcastle desperately needs to maintain its domestic flights too especially our crap roads up here.

 

[TownPlanningNE]

^^ Totally agree, the domestic flights are vital and will be until a better alternative comes along.

 

[AngerOfTheNorth]

Okay, maybe not all internal flights, but they should certainly be looking to phase them out.

Maybe I'm the only one that thinks this way, but climate change is infinitely more important than whether we can get enough flights going in and out of our airport to persuade a couple more businesses to open yet another new call centre here.

Besides, the current plans that the government has involves stopping regional airports expanding, not forcing them to contract. Don't get me wrong, I'd happily see a ban on expansion on all UK airports, including Heathrow.

And Jon, the train to London is direct and takes almost exactly three hours to Kings Cross. And if you wanted to go to Heathrow, surely you'd be doing so in order to fly internationally? In which case my idea of simply having more international flights would be better - you'd have a much higher chance of being able to fly from Newcastle to the international destination direct, saving even more time.

 

[Newcastle Historian]

It would be intersting to see the Newcastle Airport passenger numbers shown the same way (graphically) as these from Leeds Bradford Airport.

Even if not shown the same way, are the figures for Newcastle available over a similar range of years, for comparison?

Apologies if these have already been given in an earlier post!

 

[Dan_NUFC]

Any good?

 

[TownPlanningNE]

You'll probably find a lot of the airports experienced similar levels of growth over the same time frames. However all of that came to an end as the recession took hold. Hopefully things will start picking up again soon though.

 

[Newcastle Historian]

Any good?

Yes, perfect, thanks very much!

It is interesting to see how much busier an airport Newcastle is, than Leeds Bradford. Their best year is about equivelant to our worst!