Services soar but still a risk of turbulence

Oct 16 2007 by Hugh Lang, managing director of Durham Tees Valley Airport

EARLIER this year I wrote in the Evening Gazette about the nature of the rapidly changing air travel industry and the scale of the challenges we had faced at Durham Tees Valley Airport.

This was both in terms of our own business and the impact of national developments, including terrorism alerts, additional security requirements and, of course, the decision by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown to double Air Passenger Duty.

Well, those changes have certainly continued apace.

On the positive side, we have come through the impact of the decision by bmibaby to withdraw its services.

We now have flyglobespan well-established at Durham Tees Valley, providing a wide range of services throughout this summer, now moving into a substantial winter programme, and already selling strongly for summer 2008 including a new service to Cyprus.

In addition we have one of our newest airlines Wizz, with its flights to Warsaw, underlining the opportunities for services into the expanded European Union and Ryanair now operating into Barcelona-Girona as well its well-established Dublin link.

Looking at the wider development opportunities for the overall airport site, we now have planning approvals in place for the development of the North Side Business Park and associated facilities and we have recently gained agreement that, in the longer-term plans for the large area south of the runway, we can explore opportunities for a wider range of business developments.

So a lot of good news, but also some major challenges, perhaps the most important being an issue affecting all UK regional airports - the future of services to Heathrow.

The bmi link between Durham Tees Valley and Heathrow has always been one of the keystones in the development of the airport - not just in terms of providing a rapid and reliable service into London but in accessing the worldwide airline network.

The charges levied on airlines operating into Heathrow - together with other airports such as Gatwick and Stansted - is decided by the Civil Aviation Authority and are fixed for a five year period, with the next due to start in April 2008, exactly the same time as the European ‘Open Skies’ policy will provide an opportunity for all EU and American airlines to move into the transatlantic market.

Regional services are, therefore, facing a double whammy - proposals from the CAA which could see charges at Heathrow rise by as much as 70% and ever-increasing pressure on slots.

Then, of course, there is the fact that the charging system at Heathrow, almost unique amongst major airports, means that the price for a jumbo jet can be the same as for a small regional aircraft.

Would it matter if regional air services into Heathrow disappeared?

Well, it certainly would for areas such as the Tees Valley.

After all 35% of those using the Heathrow service then go on to link with other European or intercontinental flights-and for many of our major companies, who operate in global markets, this is absolutely vital.

Take that link away and those same companies - and indeed others considering future investment decisions - would inevitably start to look elsewhere.

That is why the fight for the future of the links between Heathrow and the regions is not simply about the commercial interests of airports but the whole future of the UK economy and the Government’s ambitions to see areas such as the Tees Valley, and indeed the whole of the North-east, play their part in bridging the North-South divide.