The speed of new services from Teesside Airport is becoming quite breathtaking with BmiBaby (still British Midland to me) adding to the goodies from Ryanair.

The news that BMI are starting flights to Belfast (daily) and Geneva and Malaga (weekly on Saturdays) is a major boost to the Airport and the region generally. Prices are sensible too and well worth investigating in detail on www.bmibaby.com

As with all things internet, it's well worth spending some time browsing and being flexible with your dates to get the best value. Generally though, you're usually looking at under £50 (one way including taxes) which is a massive improvement on the disgustingly inflated prices which were common in airlines until not that long ago.

Ryanair too are bringing a blast of fresh air to travel, and they're even cutting prices over the next couple of months, a massive benefit to people who are restricted to school holiday dates. Have a look at www.ryanair.com and their flights from Teesside to Dublin are too good to miss. They also have some interesting deals with Hertz car rentals which are well worth a look.

The big change that all this will bring is in the attitude of the general public to travel and airports. Instead of being an elitist activity, or an annual treat, more people will see European travel especially as an affordable and regular part of their lives. It's worth remembering too that it works both ways and that our part of the world becomes much more accessible for business and leisure travellers.

I suspect, though, that this is just the start and both BMI and Ryanair will expand their destinations and frequencies from Teesside.

With the recent news that using a mobile phone while driving is going to be an automatic offence, it's good to see that the range of hands-free kits is widening. I'm trying out some gadgets at the moment and I'll report back in the next column.

Published: 01/07/2003