The £6 passenger fee that left Teesside Airport going from Jamaican dreams to the brink of closure

Construction engineer John Johnson was a regular user of Teesside Airport back in 2010. Alongside Newcastle Airport, he would use the region's major two travel hubs for his weekly business trips to Southampton.

• EXCLUSIVE: Teesside Airport's 'hated' passenger facility fee to be scrapped within WEEKS

But in November of that year, his flight from Teesside would become more expensive by the sum of £6. It may have seemed a small rise in the scale of the cost of some flights, but it would have devastating consequences.

“It’s a bit of a rip-off. I think it is unfair to pass on the cost of a failing business to the customers," he said.

“It is great to have an airport on your doorstep, but they should be looking to improve the service by attracting more airlines, otherwise I can see them continuing to struggle. This charge makes me more inclined to use Newcastle.”

Many others felt the same way. The £6 passenger facility fee, paid using payment machines that did not give change, aimed to bring in much needed cash to an airport that was struggling and seeing dwindling passenger numbers.

It followed similar schemes introduced at a number of regional airports, including Blackpool, Newquay and Norwich. The then chief executive of Peel Airports, Craig Richmond, even claimed the fee would help secure new flights to Jamaica and Cyprus.

What transpired could not have taken Teesside any further away from the tropical beaches of the Caribbean. Passenger numbers tumbled further and the airport never came close to returning to profit.

“I understand some people might be quite incensed by this announcement given the economic climate. This is not an attempt to pad our pockets, we must do it to survive," Mr Richmond at the time.

“If I was a businessperson here I would much prefer to fly from an airport like this rather than Heathrow or Gatwick where, with all due respect, you are a widget in a big machine.”

But within days, Ryanair was considering the withdrawal of its service from the airport. By the following year they were gone, swiftly followed by Thomsons in 2013.

The airport's troubles over the last decade are well documented, but even as new flights have been secured in recent years, and money is spent on the terminal to make it a flying experience fit for the 21st century, the dreaded fee has remained.

But with a third Ryanair flight secured for this summer, despite all the challenges and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, within six weeks it will be consigned to history.

Andrew Bumby from North Yorkshire, was an offshore manager with Fugro UK on the day the fee was introduced. He said that it was “the final straw”, claiming that in future he would switch to rival airports, such as Leeds-Bradford, to avoid paying the fee.

Many others did the same, but the question now is will they return?