Soaring early success ground to a halt

IT was the then Cleveland County Council which had the vision and saw the commercial potential of the former RAF base at Middleton St George.

When the RAF station closed and was put up for sale in 1963, the authority stepped in and bought the site and opened a civil airport.

Passenger operations took off in 1964 when a Mercury Airlines service made the 90- mile journey from Teesside to Manchester.

For 30 years, the airport remained under public control, with first Durham County Council joining Cleveland.

That changed with the abolition of Cleveland in 1996, when the airport was divided among the six local authorities – Darlington, Durham, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Stockton.

For that time, the airport and its passenger figures continued to grow. Flights to Manchester were followed by those to London Heathrow, operated by British Midland in November 1969, and Amsterdam, in 1989. There were others too – across Britain and Ireland, mainland Europe, and even transatlantic flights.

But the fortunes of the airport significantly changed in 2002 when a commercial operator was sought to run the airport.

Six authorities sold 75 per cent of their shares for just £500,000 to Peel Airports Limited.

Peel promised to invest at least £20m over the next five years and had grandiose plans to double the size of the airport, the number of jobs and the passenger numbers.

The airport was controversially renamed Durham Tees Valley in 2004.

So far, Peel has invested more than £30m on the roads, car park, runway, lighting, security and most strikingly a new terminal.

Passenger figures, which were about 700,000 when Peel took over, rose too, peaking at 917,963 in 2006.

But the airport bore the brunt of the problems in the industry. Competing against Newcastle to the north, and Leeds Bradford to the south, airlines left Teesside.

Peel had attracted business from low-cost airlines bmibaby, Eastern Airways, Ryanair and Wizzair and, buoyed by success, unveiled £56m plans for a hotel, air freight operation and business park which could support 2,500 jobs.

Just as quickly as success had come, some airlines began to pull out – most significantly bmi, which flew to London and had been key to the renaming of the airport.

Passenger figures dropped to a 35-year-low and now number less than 200,000 annually.

It led to Peel, a controlling share in which had been sold to Vancouver Airport Services, introducing a £6 passenger facility fee to stem the flow of £1.6m annual losses. So far the money has paid for repairs to the roof.

Yesterday, Peel announced it was putting the airport up for sale, saying it no longer fits the company’s strategic plans.

A community facility borne out of conflict

IN the coming months, some emotive language will be used about the battle to save Durham Tees Valley, but this is an airport borne in a real war in which hundreds of young men lost their lives.

The control tower at the then Middleton St George airport

In July 1934, as the Royal Air Force began to expand, 250 acres at Goosepool near Middleton St George was identified as a suitable site, despite its marshy nature.

Work began in 1939, with men unfit for military service being bussed in from across south Durham to drain the farmland.

Eighty of them alone worked at the railhead, unloading the hardcore, shale and slag – by-products of the region’s heavy industry – needed to fill the marsh.

Four men died during the construction work.

RAF Goosepool formally opened on January 15, 1941, the most northerly bomber station in the country. Its first planes were Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys of 78 Squadron, that were immediately pitched into battle in the skies over Germany.

In early May, the airfield suffered its first fatalities when all five crew members failed to return from a raid on Bremen. The people of the area saw first hand how brutal war was when, on August 13, a Halifax stalled as it was about to land after a raid on Berlin. It crashed in flames into farmland at the edge of the runway, and the crew of seven all perished.

After a young commanding officer called Leonard Cheshire had spent seven months in charge at Middleton, the Royal Canadian Air Force moved onto the airfield in October 1942.

The Canadians created legends. The first was Andrew Mynarski. Rather than jump to safety from a stricken Lancaster when he had the chance, he stayed aboard attempting to save his rear gunner, Patrick Brophy. He was consumed by flames, but, by chance, Brophy was thrown clear when the plane crashed.

The second was William McMullen, the pilot of a dying Lancaster. Rather than jump, he too opted to stay with his craft, fighting to avoid it crashing into a Darlington estate. It ploughed into a field, saving the residents, but McMullen lost his own life.

After the war, Middleton St George became a training airfield.

Military flying ceased on April 20, 1964, and the airfield was transferred to local councils which soon began civilian flights.

Nearly 50 years later, the wartime hangars still remain and the Officers’ Mess is now a hotel.

Outside it is an 8ft statue of Mynarski which The Northern Echo helped erect in 2004 on the 60th anniversary of his sacrifice.

It is in memory of “the forgotten hero”, and the hundreds of other young men who gave their lives flying out of RAF Goosepool.