Teesside Airport: Route to Aberdeen cut by Loganair

[ainsworth74]

The slow but steady decline continues at Teesside Airport, latest route to go is the very long standing route to Aberdeen which resulted from jobs in the off-shore oil industry:

Loganair has pulled out of Teesside Airport as it scraps its route to Aberdeen.

The Scottish airline has announced that it will be pulling the flights from May 10 later this year, following a review of its operations under new CEO Luke Farajallah. This means Loganair will no longer operate any flights from the Darlington airport.

The firm said the decision comes in response to customer feedback, with "decisive action" being taken in a bid to boost operational performance. Teesside Airport has said it was "disappointing" to see the airline pull routes across the country, with Aberdeen to Newcastle and Glasgow to Southampton also being scrapped. Airport chiefs say they are now "examining opportunities" for alternative airlines to provide the route.

[...]

Airline pulls out of Teesside Airport as route is scrapped

Teesside Airport is 'examining opportunities' for alternative airlines to provide the route

www.gazettelive.co.uk

I imagine by "examining opportunities" they mean "can we find anymore tax payer cash down the back of the sofa to chuck a bung at someone to prop up the airport".

I think that basically now leave the two/three KLM Amsterdam flights per day, along with Ryanair's flights a few times a week to places like Alicante, Faro or Palma. There's definitely going to be days where there's only two or three flights (all KLM) a day from the airport. Surely the end must be neigh and this waste of money can finally be put to bed. Also rather hilarious (if you don't laugh you'll cry) that the Metro Mayor (Ben Houchen) wants to spends loads of money on rebuilding the airport station as the airport continues to decline.

Having mentioned Houchen I wonder why he hasn't put out anything on Facebook about this latest news? He's usually so keen to talk about what's going on at the airport, indeed just this afternoon he was posting on Facebook about how "In just 5 years we've built it into the UK's BEST airport with fantastic holiday flights". No obvious mention of Loganair pulling out mind you...

 

[pug1]

See also the Doncaster Airport thread.

Airports are taken for granted in big cities, but in smaller somewhat downtrodden (in respective populous feeling) regions they are a source of local pride and an opportunity to escape to sunnier climes once or twice a year. Therefore, any mention of trying to ‘save’ or reopen an airport in those areas is a sure fire vote winner.

Unfortunately airports are not economic generators, they are facilitators and are a function of the economy of the regions they serve. For example, you will not get a major carrier into Teesside in the hope that one day the economy of The Teesside region grows to support it. You can subsidise these flights, but airlines ain’t charities and their overheads are huge and they sell a highly perishable product, like Qatar at Cardiff, once the subsidies run out they run off! Same predicament with Doncaster.

Unfortunately the local political leaders do not understand this, or they choose to ignore it. Hence the lack of a realistic appraisal. You’ll never teach ‘em though, nor will you be able to sway the local populace. Perhaps the ignorance is deserving of their wasted tax money?

 

[Blindtraveler]

For contacts, loganair are really really battling it all at the moment, they've had all sorts of problems and delays with introducing new aircraft, crew shortages and all manner of problems on their Scottish domestic network and the previous managing director departed at the front end of this year with immediate effect and a new one now in place no doubt wielding his broom. Whilst they are pulling out for now it would not surprise me if they return in future when things are more stable, always assuming there's an airport for them left

 

[route101]

Not surprised to see Glasgow to Southampton go as easyjet are on the route. Easyjet are going from 2 x a week to daily. I do worry easyjet will pull out from this route too!

 

[mpthomson]

The slow but steady decline continues at Teesside Airport, latest route to go is the very long standing route to Aberdeen which resulted from jobs in the off-shore oil industry:

Airline pulls out of Teesside Airport as route is scrapped

Teesside Airport is 'examining opportunities' for alternative airlines to provide the route

www.gazettelive.co.uk

I imagine by "examining opportunities" they mean "can we find anymore tax payer cash down the back of the sofa to chuck a bung at someone to prop up the airport".

I think that basically now leave the two/three KLM Amsterdam flights per day, along with Ryanair's flights a few times a week to places like Alicante, Faro or Palma. There's definitely going to be days where there's only two or three flights (all KLM) a day from the airport. Surely the end must be neigh and this waste of money can finally be put to bed. Also rather hilarious (if you don't laugh you'll cry) that the Metro Mayor (Ben Houchen) wants to spends loads of money on rebuilding the airport station as the airport continues to decline.

Having mentioned Houchen I wonder why he hasn't put out anything on Facebook about this latest news? He's usually so keen to talk about what's going on at the airport, indeed just this afternoon he was posting on Facebook about how "In just 5 years we've built it into the UK's BEST airport with fantastic holiday flights". No obvious mention of Loganair pulling out mind you...

They have just got FedEx flights that previously went into Newcastle, think there's 8 a week from memory. And it also needs to be remembered that Loganair has contracted significantly across its network, including from Newcastle and Glasgow with the appointment of a new CEO. Still don't think MME is viable as an airport, but the Loganair contraction isn't to do with the airport per se.

See also the Doncaster Airport thread.

Airports are taken for granted in big cities, but in smaller somewhat downtrodden (in respective populous feeling) regions they are a source of local pride and an opportunity to escape to sunnier climes once or twice a year. Therefore, any mention of trying to ‘save’ or reopen an airport in those areas is a sure fire vote winner.

Unfortunately airports are not economic generators, they are facilitators and are a function of the economy of the regions they serve. For example, you will not get a major carrier into Teesside in the hope that one day the economy of The Teesside region grows to support it. You can subsidise these flights, but airlines ain’t charities and their overheads are huge and they sell a highly perishable product, like Qatar at Cardiff, once the subsidies run out they run off! Same predicament with Doncaster.

Unfortunately the local political leaders do not understand this, or they choose to ignore it. Hence the lack of a realistic appraisal. You’ll never teach ‘em though, nor will you be able to sway the local populace. Perhaps the ignorance is deserving of their wasted tax money?

It appears to be an elected mayor type issue, unfortunately. and it doesn't appear to matter what party they're from. Populist policies that make no financial sense whatsover. You can also add the Conservative's N Yorks candidate to that list, with his spellbindingly stupid plan to buy the Grand Hotel in Scarborough from Britannia in order to rejuvenate the town...

 

[ainsworth74]

They have just got FedEx flights that previously went into Newcastle, think there's 8 a week from memory.

Yeah there's also Draken who operate out of Teesside as well providing training for the RAF. Ironically it's probably more successful for these side gigs than it is at being a passenger airport!

And it also needs to be remembered that Loganair has contracted significantly across its network, including from Newcastle and Glasgow with the appointment of a new CEO. Still don't think MME is viable as an airport, but the Loganair contraction isn't to do with the airport per se.

Yes good points, along with those of @Blindtraveler, regarding Loganair's own internal strife. Though I suspect if it was a busier route it would not be on the chopping block! I wonder how much of influence on this decision the decline in usage has had? Looking at CAA data in 2022 there were 21,000 passengers between Teesside and Aberdeen and in 2023 that had declined to 14,000. We've only got two months data for 2024 available on the CAA website so far but they show further declines in that January 2024 was 728 (compared to 1,761 in January 2023) and February 2024 was 760 (compared to 1,709 in February 2023).

Now, if Loganair weren't having their other issues perhaps they'd have kept the route going anyway but those numbers (and they will know what March and April's loadings are like along with advance bookings) aren't exactly a ringing endorsement either! With now two years of continuous decline with no sign of turning it around I wouldn't be surprised if they would have cancelled it anyway. Surely they can't be making money with only 750 odd passengers a month? That would suggest that in February the average loading was 13 passengers per flight!*

*One flight each way per day = 58 flights, total passengers was 760. 760 divided by 58 = 13

It appears to be an elected mayor type issue, unfortunately. and it doesn't appear to matter what party they're from. Populist policies that make no financial sense whatsover.

Absolutely. It's totemic for Houchen certainly and was probably one of the main things that won him the election in 2017 and re-election in 2021. It's also the only thing he can really point to as a success (sort of, it's not as mired in scandal as Teesworks but there's a whiff around the airport) this time around.

These sort of airports feel a lot like the last bank branch in the village. Everyone seems like the idea of having a bank branch or a post office in their village and get very upset when the last bank standing or the Post Office tries to close that branch. But the reason they're being closed is that all those people who are up in arms about losing that amenity never actually use it! They do their banking online, they don't send parcels or letters anymore, they do their car tax online, their passport online, etc etc.

Same thing with airports. Lots of people seem to like the idea of a local airport and will vote for someone who says they'll save/re-open their local airport. Do they then go on to use their airport? No, the figures quite clearly show that they do not! But the idea of it is so alluring

 

[YorkRailFan]

I'm always surprised that Teesside remains open as an airport for passengers and commercial (non-military) cargo considering Doncaster-Sheffield, which had more flights, was closed. Teesside suffers from competition from the far larger Newcastle, and Teesside simply doesn't have a large enough population in its catchment area to self-sustain itself, unlike how Leeds-Bradford and Liverpool can despite competition from the far larger Manchester.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Speaking to a former neighbor of mine today who is also a bit of an aviation crank, he watched an interview on an enthusiast Facebook page or similar with Logan heirs new chief executive who basically said that it's a situation of cut back to the basics and stabilize it and then see where they can expand. I suspect that t-side might come back whereas the likes of Southampton probably won't if easyJet have a daily service established by then and doing well with it which they of course will as they will be a little bit cheaper

 

[Red Onion]

I do wonder if Eastern may take up this route as with them having an Aberdeen base it shouldn’t pose any crewing or basing issues. I suspect this would come around should they opt to also pick up the Newcastle flights, which they have previously flown.

 

[Cloud Strife]

Surely they can't be making money with only 750 odd passengers a month?

It depends what they were using for the route, but to give an idea, the ATR-42 will use about 150 litres of fuel for every 100km flown. It's about 300km, so at current prices, around £1 a litre, they'd spend in the region of £450 for fuel. With 13 passengers a flight, it gives a fuel cost of around £35 in fuel costs per passenger. Loganair flights rarely come out at less than £100 each way, so while they might not have been making money, they also might not have been losing a lot of it. Landing fees aren't very expensive for such aircraft too.

The issue is rather that they need to cut back and focus on their strength, which is connecting places within Scotland as well as very high yielding destinations like Stavanger and Esbjerg. Aberdeen-Teeside is marginal at best, whereas they can and do make a lot of money on their internal Scottish connections. I've seen one interview with their CEO, who says that they need to ensure the schedules on their Scottish network, which have been suffering lately.

 

[ainsworth74]

Fascinating thank you, I honestly wouldn't have expected the figures to pan out like that!

 

[mpthomson]

I'm always surprised that Teesside remains open as an airport for passengers and commercial (non-military) cargo considering Doncaster-Sheffield, which had more flights, was closed. Teesside suffers from competition from the far larger Newcastle, and Teesside simply doesn't have a large enough population in its catchment area to self-sustain itself, unlike how Leeds-Bradford and Liverpool can despite competition from the far larger Manchester.

It's about catchment areas and populations, normally considered as a 90min drive by most airlines. Teeside is entirely covered by LBA and NCL in that regard, which is why few airlines want to fly from it. There is no additional population to tap into, so they won't put on additional flights from there and moving flights to there from LBA/NCL actually lowers their catchment population, so they aren't going to do that either. Feeder flights to AMS are a slightly different issue.

DSA has exactly the same problem, although it's LBA/MAN/EMA in that case.

 

[pug1]

It's about catchment areas and populations, normally considered as a 90min drive by most airlines. Teeside is entirely covered by LBA and NCL in that regard, which is why few airlines want to fly from it. There is no additional population to tap into, so they won't put on additional flights from there and moving flights to there from LBA/NCL actually lowers their catchment population, so they aren't going to do that either. Feeder flights to AMS are a slightly different issue.

DSA has exactly the same problem, although it's LBA/MAN/EMA in that case.

Exactly this, it’s why you might see the Loganair and Eastern Airways taking subsidies from airports like Teesside to operate new route, but notice they are all swiftly dropped as soon as the freebies run dry. The major airlines don’t want to know.

The Aberdeen service has been long running because of the offshore oil and gas sector necessitating the rapid deployment of workers who are usually travelling on company expense, therefore they can charge a lot for a ticket and Eastern Airways I believe are profitable with just a small handful of passengers on their flights for this reason. This work is however drying up.

Ryanair have been running some flights to Teesside from popular outbound tourist destinations, there is some limited scope for those type of flights to appeal to the local populace, but they are at the whim of Ryanair and they aren’t afraid to drop an airport from its schedules as it sees fit. Note that Ryanair have a base at Leeds and have just opened another at Newcastle.

Back in the early 2000’s there were plethora new start low cost airlines entering the marked, you also still had the traditional IT Charter operators. Simply put, there was a lot to go around! The reason Peel purchased Teesside was because Bmibaby were interested in opening a base there, and the local authority owner wanted a private sector operator to come in and run it. Unfortunately, Bmibaby found the demand for their services was lacking and despite agreeing to base extra aircraft for rebates and generous advertising subsidies, they pulled out. Peel took them to court for breach of contract and losses incurred and they won.

The truth is just too unpalatable for the local people and popularity seeking politicians for them to consider the hard facts on this. It’s why they offer to spend millions on these schemes rather than actually completing a full and frank appraisal of the situation.

 

[ainsworth74]

The truth is just too unpalatable for the local people and popularity seeking politicians for them to consider the hard facts on this.

This local person does not consider those facts unpalatable and wishes that their fellows would catch up to the reality that it's a dead airport walking!

 

[Cloud Strife]

Fascinating thank you, I honestly wouldn't have expected the figures to pan out like that!

Neither did I until I actually checked them! It's quite astonishing how efficient planes are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_aircraft#Example_values . as some like the Airbus A321neo are coming in at less than 2L / 100km per seat, which is on par with a 2.0L modern car with four passengers.

This goes a long way to explain why Loganair are able to sustain such a dense network of internal Scottish flights, and shows that one of the real issues in aviation is with the generally miserable and annoying passenger experience rather than the actual airline costs.

 

[DanNCL]

I do wonder if Eastern may take up this route as with them having an Aberdeen base it shouldn’t pose any crewing or basing issues. I suspect this would come around should they opt to also pick up the Newcastle flights, which they have previously flown.

They are picking it up. Schedules loaded from May 20th, initially once a day. Only the Teesside route, not Newcastle.

 

[Red Onion]

They are picking it up. Schedules loaded from May 20th, initially once a day. Only the Teesside route, not Newcastle.

I did see they had picked it up, I do suspect they are looking at Newcastle or have already done so and ruled it out.