Durham Tees Valley Airport

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Durham Tees Valley Airport
IATA: MME - ICAO: EGNV
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Local Authorities and Peel Holdings
Serves Tees Valley
Elevation AMSL 120 ft (37 m)
Coordinates 54°30′33″N, 01°25′46″W
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
05/23 7,516 2,291 Asphalt
01/19 - disused 2,427 740 Asphalt
10/28 - disused 3,700 1,128 Asphalt

Durham Tees Valley Airport (IATA: MMEICAO: EGNV) is an airport in North East England, located 10 km (6 miles) east of Darlington, about 16 km (10 miles) southwest of Middlesbrough and 39 km (24 miles) south of Durham. The airport is also easily accessible from Cleveland, Newcastle, Stockton, Sunderland, Hartlepool, Redcar and York.

Durham Tees Valley Airport is one of the UK's smaller airports, but it is rapidly expanding, and a number of scheduled and charter flights are operated from here.

Previously called Teesside International Airport, it was renamed on 21 September 2004 as part of a redevelopment plan in a move unpopular with many local residents.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Past

Durham Tees Valley was a RAF base, RAF Middleton St. George (known as RAF Goosepool until 1941). In 1963, the decision was made to close the airfield, and it was sold to Cleveland County Council who developed the site into a commercial airport. Princess Margaretha of Sweden opened the international passenger terminal in 1966. The airport has since been developed as a regional airport for the North East of England, and has expanded successfully ever since. For an in-depth look at the history of the airport, visit the DTVA History Timeline

[edit] Future

Stockton Borough Council approved plans for a £56 million expansion plan for the airport on 6 December 2006, and the plans were then handed over to Stockton's counterparts in Darlington, who also approved the plans on 12 December 2006, meaning work can begin.

The plans include an extended and refurbished terminal, with improved baggage handling and check-in facilities, lounges, office space as well as retail and restaurant facilities. Also, a Cargo and Maintenance Village will be built along with nine additional aircraft stands and 4,500 car parking spaces.

A separate planning application was also approved by Stockton and Darlington, but this requires further approval, the second plan being for an 18,600sq metre business park with a 100-bed hotel, public house and restaurant.

[edit] Present ownership and status

The airport is owned by a consortium of local authorities (Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool & Redcar and Cleveland borough councils), but the main shareholder is Peel Airports.

Peel Airports also own Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield and Sheffield City Airport.

Durham Tees Valley Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P518) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers and for flying instruction.

[edit] Transport

Sky Express Bus Service
Enlarge
Sky Express Bus Service

A new bus service, the Sky Express, was launched in May 2005, connecting the airport with Darlington's train station and town hall, operated by Arriva North-East. Travel is free for passengers with a valid air ticket on the day, or £2 without. The service runs hourly throughout the day.

Arriva also operates services 20 and 74, the 74 runs from Hurworth and Neasham to the airport, and the 20 runs from Middlesbrough to the airport.

Whilst the airport has its own railway station this is only served by two trains a week. Taxis are available directly outside the airport terminal.

[edit] Recent Events

Between 14 September 2006 and 7 November 2006, the airport went through the most dramatic and memorable changes in its history. On 14 September 2006, the airport's largest operating airline bmibaby announced they were to terminate their Durham Tees Valley Airport base operation by early November 2006, thus leaving the airport with significantly fewer scheduled services. However on 5 October 2006, less than one month after bmibaby's announcement, Flyglobespan announced that they are to base two aircraft at the airport from Summer 2007, flying to Alicante, Faro, Ibiza, Jersey, Mahon (Menorca), Málaga, Nice, Palma, Pula (Croatia) and Tenerife. The Tenerife South route had already been announced for winter 2006-07, but will now continue into the summer 2007 base operation.

Flyglobespan currently have two Boeing 737-700's on order and it's strongly rumoured that one of these along with one of the airlines existing Boeing 737-600's will be the equipment used at the airport.

Additionally, Irish low cost carrier Ryanair has announced a new route to Barcelona Girona from 13 February 2007, and the Polish-Hungarian low cost carrier Wizz Air has announced a new route to Warsaw from 28 July 2007.

It is also strongly rumoured that the airport's largest charter operator Thomsonfly will be terminating their own base operation, but in a recent twist of events, part of the rumour is that if the base operation is discontinued, the airline will still operate from the airport through what are called "w" patterns, whether all the routes involved in the base operation will be flown in this way though remains to be seen.

On the Thomsonfly web site, the Monastir route has been dropped in favour of a new route to Varna, and the flight number of the Ibiza route has been changed, so it is likely that the airline is not by any means fully abandoning the airport.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

[edit] Scheduled Winter 2006-07

[edit] Scheduled Summer 2007

[edit] Charter Winter 2006-07

[edit] Charter Summer 2007

  • BH Air - Bourgas
  • bmi - Reus (starts Summer 2007)
  • Iberworld - Lanzarote, Palma
  • VLM - Jersey (starts Summer 2007)
  • Onur Air - Bodrum, Dalaman
  • Pegasus Airlines - Dalaman
  • Spanair - Alicante, Ibiza, Palma
  • Thomsonfly - Alicante, Bourgas, Corfu, Dalaman, Ibiza, Mahon, Malaga, Palma, Paphos, Reus, Tenerife South, Varna (tarts Summer 2007)

[edit] Cargo and Freight

  • TNT Airways - Hanover, Liege (sometimes Cardiff and Liverpool)

[edit] General Aviation

[edit] Light Aviation and Flight Training

The airport is one of the more General Aviation friendly bases in Northern England, with no handling charge for GA aircraft under 2 tonnes. The Cleveland Flying School and St George Flight Training are based at the airfield, where it is possible to undertake basic and advanced flight training.

[edit] Business Charter

Northern Aviation operate two Beech Super King Air B200's as charter aircraft from Durham Tees Valley Airport. Cleveland Flying School operate a number of Cessna and Piper aircraft and a single Bell 206 JetRanger on Northern Aviation's behalf.

[edit] Other Operators

Durham Tees Valley is a significant base for FR Aviation, who have a fleet of Dassault Falcon 20's based at the airport. FRA's Durham Tees Valley aircraft fly electronic countermeasure flights for the Royal Air Force and other NATO airforces.

Flight Precision is a Durham Tees Valley based FRA subsidiary who operate four Beech Super King Air B200's.

The Great North Air Ambulance has a single McDonnell Douglas MD902 Explorer based at the airport and the Police have the North East Air Unit based here in the form of a Eurocopter EC-135.

[edit] Passenger and Cargo Statistics

Number of Passengers Aircraft Movements Cargo
(tonnes)
Cargo
(1000s lbs)
1998 664,093 66,246 1,483 3,269
1999 742,201 59,904 3,070 6,768
2000 754,989 54,829 3,113 6,862
2001 750,089 57,638 2,648 5,837
2002 683,947 51,151 1,103 2,431
2003 712,394 51,527 853 1,880
2004 808,000 45,500 980 2,160
2005 906,000 51,000 985 2,171
Source: A-Z of World Airports [1]

[edit] External links