'Use it or lose it' - Durham Tees Valley airport warning (From The Northern Echo)

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'Use it or lose it' - Durham Tees Valley airport warning

8:00am Friday 5th August 2011 in News Photograph of the Author Exclusive By Joe Willis, Regional chief reporter

LOSING MONEY: Durham Tees Valley Airport.

THE man tasked with securing the future of troubled Durham Tees Valley (DTV) airport has issued a stark call for the region to “use or risk losing” the facility.

Craig Richmond, chief executive of Peel Airports Limited, admitted in an exclusive interview with The Northern Echo that DTV continued to lose money and passengers.

The Canadian said he was hopeful the airport would survive, but he added that business was tough and the parent company could not prop up DTV long-term.

He said: “It’s not a pleasant situation to be in. Certainly it’s not a situation that can continue indefinitely.

“I don’t know what the time frame is, but eventually if it can’t turnaround, something’s going to change.”

Mr Richmond, who took over the running of Peel in June last year, when Vancouver Airport Services bought a 65 per cent stake in the company, rejected claims that the owners were not working hard enough to secure new routes and airlines.

“I see letters sometimes where there is an inference we want it to shut or that we don’t care – nothing can be further from the truth.
Craig Richmond

He said: “I see letters sometimes where there is an inference we want it to shut or that we don’t care – nothing can be further from the truth.

“I have three airports and the other two airports have six million passengers, yet I spend half my time on Durham Tees Valley thinking what we can do.”

Peel also owns Liverpool John Lennon Airport and Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield.

DTV has been dealt a succession of blows in recent years, which have seen passenger numbers fall from about 650,000 in 2008 to predictions of only 200,000 this year.

The biggest setback came in 2009 when bmi baby cancelled three daily flights to Heathrow, Flyglobespan and Thomson cancelled their flights and Ryanair axed its service to Dublin.

The airport still offers regular services to Aberdeen, Southampton and Schiphol, in Holland, as well as seasonal charter flights to countries including Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Egypt.

Mr Richmond is hopeful of securing a new service later this year after lengthy talks with unnamed airlines, but he stressed that the airport needed the region’s support to show carriers they could prosper at DTV.

“What makes it easy for me to sell, and for my marketing team to sell the airport to airlines is when airplanes are flying full. This is an absolute case of use it or lose it.”

Finding a replacement for airport director Mike Morton, who left the company last month, is a high priority for the company, according to Mr Richmond.

However, changing the name back to Teesside Airport – as called for by Stockton South MP James Wharton – was not an immediate concern, he said.

Comments(47)

Kinninvie says...
9:15am Fri 5 Aug 11

If planes went where people wanted to go it would make a big difference.
I used to go from DTV to Dublin 5 times a year but the flights stopped.
There are thousands of people in the region who go to Corfu every season but we have to go to Newcastle because DTV dont have flights.