Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and Tony Burgess, MD of Eastern Airways, this morning announced the airline is starting six new routes from Teesside International.
Friends of Teesside International Airport were at the press conference held in a chilly Hangar 1 at the airport where the new routes were revealed. They are:
Isle of Man – a Seasonal service, starting on 30th May to coincide with the Isle of Man TT
Cardiff – a Daily (Mon-Fri) service starting 10th February (relocating from Newcastle)
Belfast City – a daily (Mon-Fri + Sun) service starting 9th March.
Dublin – a daily (Mon-Fri + Sun) service starting 9th March.
Southampton – a 2x daily service starting 9th March.
London City – a 2x daily service starting 27th April.
Aberdeen – this existing service will see additional flights from 10th February.
Eastern Airways will be opening a line maintenance base at Teesside, and basing three aircraft here to service the new routes. This should see improvements in reliability.
The addition of a London route went down particularly well, giving Teesside a link with the capital once again.
Ben Houchen stressed we “need to make sure we use these flights. There is scope to add more rotations on the routes if they sell well.”
He also commented that “Discussions with low-cost carriers will become more fruitful in the coming weeks” in the hope of more route announcements soon!