RYANAIR FLIGHTS FROM TEESSIDE AND HOUCHEN’S FLIGHTS OF FANCY

The news that Ryanair was returning to Teesside made the headlines earlier in the week.

Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen had this to say:

“Securing a low-cost carrier at Teesside Airport was a huge part of my 10-year turnaround plan, but with the coronavirus pandemic, I never thought we’d be able to secure one so soon into that rescue plan.”

Except he didn’t say that on Wednesday.

He said that on 29 October, and he was talking about the return of TUI.

Clearly he’d forgotten that he’d already attracted a low cost carrier (LCC) to Teesside when he made an almost identical statement about the arrival of Ryanair.

That more operators are offering flights to more destinations from Teesside is good news. If only Houchen could keep himself under control and stop yelling ‘Low Cost Carrier!’ and claiming the turnaround in the airport’s fortunes has now happened when it patently has not.

Teesside’s LCC needs to increase passenger movement from its current level to 1.5 million per year for the airport to become financially viable.  Ryanair is currently offering two flights per week to two destinations between June and October.

We’re not sure how many people Ben Houchen thinks you can put on one aeroplane, but to reach that target, the passengers will have to be squashed in fairly tight.

To achieve the airport turnaround an LCC needs to set up a base at Teesside, running scheduled flights all year round. Ryanair has not done that.

For now, during the summer, MME will be a destination airport for flights from bases in Europe, Palma de Mallorca and Alicante.

These Ryanair routes are, in practice, likely to operate akin to a charter service. Welcome news for local travel agents who can buy them up in bulk now and sell them on in package deals at a later date.

What we'll probably not be privy to is the details of the deal that's been struck between Ryanair and the airport.

It's not unknown in the industry for an airport to pay an airline a fee per passenger in order to attract them to introduce a service.

That would be public money.

These are temporary, introductory offer-type arrangements, and may only last a few months. If the airline turns a profit, it will then start paying its way.

Such arrangements are not uncommon at regional airports.

Is this what has happened at Teesside Airport? We’ll probably never know.

Have Houchen’s dreams of a turnaround come true?  Not yet they haven’t.

Will he ever learn to not overhype things?

Probably not.