Member Article

Peel Airports hits back at petitioner claims over Tees Valley Airport

Peel Airports, which owns Tees Valley Airport, has hit back at recent petitioner criticism, branding recent claims as ‘nonsense’ and ‘potentially very damaging’.

A statement released today read:

“The reality is that all smaller airports such as Durham Tees Valley need to find new ways of generating income .If they do not they will not survive and already a number—for example Blackpool, Plymouth and Manston—have closed and Cardiff and Glasgow Prestwick have had to be effectively ‘nationalised’ by the Welsh and Scottish Governments.

The airport Master Plan is all about looking at all the opportunities for generating income which can support and hopefully expand air services and it is particularly unfortunate that these comments are being made at this time when a major step forward in delivering the Master Plan has just been achieved, with planning approval for the £10million link road which will open up development opportunities on the Southside of the airport, with the potential to create 3,000 jobs and contribute £11million a year to the local economy.

The suggestion that plans for a limited amount of housing will threaten the future of the airport are totally unjustified. In fact the housing proposals included in the Master Plan are a limited element in the overall strategy for generating the additional revenue needed to secure the future of the airport.

The air industry has changed dramatically as a result of the economic recession…now the low cost carriers concentrate on a relatively small number of airports. We have to recognise that reality and that is why the Master Plan sets out the strategy of concentrating in the immediate future on sustaining our existing scheduled services, working as hard as possible to attract new scheduled services primarily meeting the needs of the business community and expanding our private flying activities.

The suggestion that it’s all doom and gloom is simply not true—take for instance the success of the KLM service to Amsterdam, providing a vital link to the global travel network, with access to over 200 destinations in every part of the world. That service is performing very well and we have a very strong relationship with KLM.“