IT would be very sad if Durham Tees Valley Airport were to close to passengers.

It would be sad because jobs would be lost. It would be sad because its role as an “economic driver” is important, and it would be sad because of the signal that it would send out about the Tees Valley’s economy.

Yet it is impossible to ignore that the airport is finding life difficult in the recession – passenger numbers have fallen dramatically.

The market is deciding whether Kevan Jones, the Durham North MP, is right and DTV is forced to concentrate on freight. Equally, though, if freight were the answer to all the airport’s difficulties, you would have thought that the market would already have led the airport managers to that conclusion.

Before the market makes a final decision, though, it should be noted that even as things stand, the airport provides an important service for offshore businesses – which make up one of the Tees Valley’s most successful sectors – and it provides a vital connection to Amsterdam, which is one of the world’s great hubs.

When the recession comes to an end, the airport offers great potential to help re-float the sub-regional economy.

Just having an airport says something about the status of a subregion.

Without it, the Tees Valley would be overshadowed by Newcastle and Leeds.

In future, as public sector cuts continue to bite, our jobs will increasingly depend on manufacturing goods for export – look at Nissan, SSI, Nifco and, one day, Hitachi. Therefore, every door for overseas trade needs to be available and wide open, and there can be no better door than an airport.

It is to be hoped, therefore, that DTV, along with all the other local businesses, can struggle through until the upturn, and if any politician or authority can assist it, so much the better.