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Jet2 is continuing to expand its operations in the UK this week, by releasing five new routes for sale at Newcastle Airport. The “recession busting breaks”, to quote the carrier’s official website, will take off in summer 2012.

Ian Doubtfire, director at Jet2, must be tired of hearing the sound of his own voice. The airline boss has provided commentary for almost all of Jet2’s recent press releases, which number fifteen for the month of June. Mr. Doubtfire, once again, was on hand to talk about Jet2’s expansion at Newcastle, noting that travellers who wished to escape the “hype surrounding Euro 2012” would find a holiday to suit their tastes at the Woolsington hub.

Contrasting with Jet2’s schedules for 2012 at other UK airports, Newcastle will soon find aeroplanes bound for Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean appearing on its runway. Routes to the Greek islands of Crete, Rhodes, and Corfu, Paphos on Cyprus, and Dalaman in Turkey will enter circulation on an unspecified date in 2012. However, given that Jet2’s new flights from Glasgow Airport begin flying in March next year, it is likely that the same applies for the airline’s upcoming routes from Newcastle.

Travellers may find that booking a package holiday with Jet2’s sister firm, Jet2Holidays, allows them to accrue greater savings than ‘going it alone’ and booking hotels, transfers, etc. separately. The holiday firm is offering a £100 discount on breaks booked before July 4 2011, which means that the price of a seven-night stay in Dalaman could be as low as £199 per person.

Dalaman and Paphos will be served twice a week by Jet2, while flights to Crete, Rhodes, and Corfu will operate on a weekly basis. Prices on the routes begin at £59.99 for a one-way journey.

Grimsvotn, a volcano in southeast Iceland, is the second volcano in as many years to create chaos in the European aviation industry, following on from the antics of Eyjafjallajokull in 2010. Grimsvotn, believed to be the most active of all the volcanoes in Iceland, caused more than 500 flight cancellations in Germany, Scotland, and Northern England, between May 23 and 25 2011.

Newcastle Airport, one of several UK mainland hubs affected by Grimsvotn’s tantrums, was forced to suspend flights to Heathrow Airport, Amsterdam in Holland, and Paris in France, on May 25. The development marked the second time in two days that flights had been cancelled, amid fears that the concentration of volcanic ash in the atmosphere could clog or erode jet engines.

Barra and Tiree airports in the Hebrides, Cumbernauld Airport in Glasgow, and Carlisle Airport in Cumbria, also endured extensive delays, while Durham, Edinburgh, Prestwick, Aberdeen, and Glasgow airports were forced to withdraw flights to a variety of destinations, including domestic routes to the south of England.

Metro, a free newspaper, indicates that British Airways and easyJet were among the airlines that suffered disruption last week. Planes arriving from the continent, or indeed, anywhere south of Carlisle, were redirected to airports with clearer skies, such as Doncaster’s Robin Hood. The Yorkshire hub “gained some aircraft” from Scotland and Newcastle, in order to meet the increased demand for flights.

A spokesperson for Newcastle Airport indicated that normal operations had resumed by the afternoon of May 25. However, delays during the previous day had caused a “hangover” for the hub, with “aircraft in the wrong places”, and departures occurring in a “more complicated fashion”.

Experts had voiced concerns that volcanic ash could return to the skies above the UK on May 27, potentially causing havoc over the bank holiday weekend. However, the eruption of Grimsvotn continued to subside, and was officially declared “finished” by the Icelandic Meteorological Office on the morning of May 28. The remaining ash was blown into the Arctic by strong southwesterly winds.

Newcastle Airport is currently operating as normal, but travellers with concerns about their flight should contact their travel agent or airline before departing for the airport.

Newcastle Airport faces an uncertain future, after a national newspaper revealed that the hub’s majority shareholders are desperate to sell their stake in the Woolsington hub.

Ownership of Newcastle Airport is split between two companies, namely, LA7, with 51%, and Copenhagen Airport, with 49%. The former is a consortium of seven local authorities in the northeast, including the councils of Newcastle, Gateshead, and Sunderland, while the latter is, as its name suggests, a Danish airport.

The Sunday Times claims that LA7 owes £320m on a loan taken out on behalf of the airport in 2006, a loan that, if the broadsheet is to be believed, must be repaid within the next thirty months. However, the holding company cannot afford to begin repayments, and has asked major auditing firm, KPMG, for assistance.

LA7 has refused to comment on “speculation”, but local news website, nebusiness.co.uk, intimated that the council group would not entertain “such a sale” at present. However, the news that Newcastle’s other investor, Copenhagen Airport, has already put its slice of the northeast hub up for sale, suggests that at least 49% of Newcastle Airport will change hands regardless of whether LA7 repays its £320m bill.

Macquarie Bank, an Australian company that funds Copenhagen Airport, has advised the Danish hub to ‘abandon ship’, and extricate itself from Newcastle Airport. While the bank has not revealed its motives, Copenhagen Airport’s escape could be attributed to the state of Newcastle’s finances: the hub saw profits fall by £5.6m between 2008 and 2009.

LA7 is allowed to choose which company purchases Copenhagen’s stake, which will ensure that the day-to-day running of Newcastle Airport is kept in line with current standards.

The largest airport in the northeast, Newcastle, is taking steps to become one of the most eco-friendly businesses in the country. The Woolsington-based hub boosted recycling to 82% in 2010, according to news agency, Reuters, and achieved the coveted Carbon Trust Standard Award, an accolade that rewards companies who reduce their carbon footprint.

Bosses at Newcastle created an ‘energy policy’ late last year, which outlined the short and long-term goals that would allow the airport to operate in a sustainable manner. The eight-point manifesto included a 2.5% cut in energy usage by the end of March 2011, plans to upgrade lighting inside the airport terminal, and a 15% reduction in the hub’s carbon footprint within the next four years.

Of course, there is more to sustainability than light bulbs and emissions, and Newcastle has been encouraging holidaymakers to place their bottles and newspapers into special recycling bins located throughout the airport’s main terminal. The scheme’s success is perhaps best represented in figures: bosses claim to have recycled three tonnes of material since October 2010.

The airport’s quest to reduce the consumption of electricity got off to a flying start last year, courtesy of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull. During the volcanic ash crisis of mid-2010, the northeast hub was ‘powered down’ for a number of days, as flights were cancelled and customers stayed at home. The brief hiatus in flights lowered energy usage by 7%, significantly higher than the 2.5% reduction called for in the hub’s energy policy.

Simon Fisher, finance director at Newcastle, previously said that the airport takes its “environmental and climate change obligations seriously”. However, Newcastle is not the only UK airport to have improved its environmental karma in recent months. Bristol Airport has installed a wind turbine, while East Midlands Airport near Castle Donnington became the host of a new eco-awareness campaign, Climate Week 2011, in March.

Norwegian airline, Wideroe, has announced plans to increase flight capacity on routes from Newcastle International to the third largest city in Norway, Stavanger. From March 31 2011, the veteran carrier will add an extra flight between the two airports, increasing the service to a total of four per week, and introduce a new Bombardier Dash aircraft onto the route.

Founded in 1934, Wideroe is the Scandinavian equivalent of the UK’s Air Southwest – a predominantly domestic airline that serves small to mid-sized airports. Norway's far-flung settlements, such as the frozen archipelago of Longyearbyen, and the port town of Kirkenes, are connected to the Norwegian capital, Oslo, courtesy of Wideroe.

Wideroe, a resident at Newcastle for more than a decade, says that its upcoming expansion in the northeast will double the number of seats available on its Stavanger route, and cut the overall flight time by 25 minutes. The flight holds a unique position in the airline’s schedules being one of just ten routes operated by the airline to travel outside its native Norway.

Sverre Sletten, regional chief at Wideroe, was elated with recent developments. “We’re delighted to be able to bring in these big improvements to our Newcastle service.” Mr. Sletten said that his airline was “confident” that customer demand was high enough to support the capacity boost.

The Newcastle-Stavanger flight currently operates on Mondays, Fridays, and Sundays. However, the March 31 expansion will see an extra daily connection added on Thursdays. Wideroe will also alter the timetable of Monday flights, to give business travellers “a full day at work” before departing for the UK in the evening.

Stavanger, located in south-western Norway, is an archetypical port city, and the banks of central Vaagen Harbour are lined with recreational boats. The settlement is situated close to the Lysefjord, a 26 mile long fjord ringed by huge rocky slopes. The Lysefjord is alleged to be “as deep as the mountains are high”.

Newcastle International has joined Southampton and Gatwick airports, in becoming the latest hub to embrace social networks as a means of interacting with regular and prospective customers. The northeast hub has created the @NCLairport Twitter page, and unveiled a mobile-friendly version of its website, allowing visitors to check the status of their flight from anywhere in the UK. The airport’s website says that the new tools are part of a plan to “join up social media tools with customer service operations.”

The airport’s Twitter page has been online for just over a month, but it was only revealed to the world, via a press release on Newcastle’s website, on January 27 2011. The Woolsington hub is therefore, making a rather belated entry to the world of social networking, behind almost every airport in the UK, including local rival, Durham, East Devon hub, Exeter, and in Scotland, Prestwick.

A glance at the @NCLairport site reveals that road works, flight delays, and announcements regarding resident airlines form the majority of the airport’s ‘tweets’. However, the website has also drawn comments, both good and bad, from visitors. Some, like @misspipkelly, requested a “bar or an area with Sky Sports,” while others, such as @peterjnixon, were concerned that the departure lounge “wobbles” in the wind.

Newcastle has created a special ‘tweeting team’ to address customers’ concerns. “We look forward to hearing from (our passengers) to see how we can help,” explained Graeme Mason, planning director at the northeast hub.

The Twitter service, whilst providing users with information in ‘real time,’ can also be a liability for airports. Last year, Robin Hood Airport’s Twitter page, @dsa_airport, caused a media storm when a visitor was arrested on charges of sending “menacing” messages to the South Yorkshire hub. The man, Paul Chambers, threatened to blow the airport “sky high,” after bad weather forced the hub to close.

Newcastle Airport’s new mobile website is accessible from any internet-capable device at the usual web address.

From March 27 2011, travellers in the northeast of England will benefit from an extra daily flight from Newcastle Airport to Amsterdam Schiphol in the Netherlands, courtesy of Dutch airline KLM. The carrier says that the boost is a “tangible symbol” of KLM’s strength and popularity in the northeast.

KLM, known as Royal Dutch Airlines in the English-speaking world, is the oldest airline on the planet. The blue and white carrier is also one of just nine world airlines founded before 1930 to have kept its original name throughout its life, alongside Australian airline Qantas, founded in 1920, and ex-Soviet carrier Aeroflot.

History lesson aside, Newcastle is one of KLM’s largest bases in the UK, currently offering four daily flights to Amsterdam. The addition of a fifth rotation from March will boost KLM’s capacity on the route by a quarter over summer 2010. Newcastle’s planning director, Graeme Mason, referred to the expansion as a “strong signal of confidence” in the airport.

German airline Lufthansa has also showered praise on the northeast hub, according to Graeme. The director noted that only the December snows had prevented the airport recording year-on-year growth. The hub stands in stark contrast to its neighbour and rival Durham Tees Valley Airport, which has resorted to charging travellers to pass through security in a desperate attempt to survive the winter.

The flight boost at Newcastle will coincide with a general reshuffling of KLM’s schedules at the airport. Flight times on all Newcastle-Amsterdam connections will change at the end of March, with the earliest departure taking off at 06:05. Passengers can choose to return the same day from the Dutch capital at 21:55.

KLM has also pledged to improve the choice of flights available for travellers who want to travel on to Hong Kong and Dubai from Amsterdam.

Newcastle is about as far away from Barbados as you can get. One is an industrial city, famed for its bridges and the frequently unfortunate football team, Newcastle United, while the other is a Caribbean island, the type of haven that British super spies retreat to at the end of a Hollywood blockbuster.

However, Thomson and First Choice have taken steps to bring the two destinations closer together by announcing a new flight from Newcastle International to Grantley Adams Airport on Barbados. The route, which travels direct to the island, will begin in winter 2011, just as the snowfall begins anew in the UK.

Chris Sanders, aviation director at Newcastle Airport, referred to Thomson’s latest addition as “something a bit different,” noting the “excellent prices” available on the idyllic island.

The North East has never had a direct route to Barbados before, but Thomson flights from Newcastle to Cancún in Mexico, and the Dominican Republic in the Greater Antilles, continue to be popular with local travellers.

From Barbados Airport, holidaymakers can choose to join the Thomson Dream cruise ship on its voyage around the Caribbean. The vessel stops at Saint Martin, famed for its unusual airport, Grenada, Antigua and the Barbadian capital, Bridgetown, among others. Thomson claims that the Dream is one of the biggest cruise ships in the world.

Prices for the flight begin at £679 per person for a return journey. Tickets for the Caribbean Treasures and Tropical Delights cruises are priced between £845 and £1,409, and come with an inclusive £100 to spend on board the ship. The cruises typically last for 7-16 days.

At the end of October, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) published the results of its annual Air Passenger Survey.

The survey, undertaken every year since 1968, is designed to help aviation barons understand the “characteristics of air travel to and from the United Kingdom,” and details the results of more than 200,000 interviews with outbound UK travellers.

Questions ranged from the duration of holidays and the size of travelling groups, to a person’s annual income. The latest survey also introduced questions on environmental issues, such as carbon offsetting.

Passengers at 12 UK airports were surveyed, including four of the five London airports: Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, and Luton. Manchester, Newcastle and Durham made up the remainder of the English airports included in the survey.

In Scotland, the two largest airports, Edinburgh and Glasgow, were included, as were Inverness, Aberdeen and Prestwick.

Whilst the project will be of little interest to most people, the survey threw up some interesting statistics, especially with regard to the annual income of respondents. Leisure travellers at Newcastle are the “worst off,” to use the CAA’s phrase, earning an average of £37,663 per year.

In comparison, holidaymakers jetting off from Heathrow earn around £57,532 per year, the highest traveller salary in the country. The London hub also topped the wages poll in the business category, with the average executive departing Heathrow pulling in a salary of almost £80,000 a year.

On the topic of the environment, 60% of passengers at Gatwick and Stansted said that they understood the concept of ‘carbon offsetting,’ a scheme that encourages travellers to pay a higher ticket price to fund eco-friendly projects, such as new wind farms.

However, only a disappointing 6% of interviewees had taken the plunge and offset the flight they had booked, a figure that can only fall unless airlines and airports make a conscious effort to promote the scheme.

The recent rise of the Air Passenger Duty is likely to exacerbate low interest in carbon offsetting by making plane tickets even more expensive, adding up to 50% to the cost of a long-haul flight to the West Indies or South Africa, for example.

Other figures of note include the size of travelling groups: almost 80% of passengers interviewed at Aberdeen were “singletons,” compared to 35% at Manchester Airport. Southwest of Aberdeen, Prestwick Airport was host to the largest family groups in the UK, with 8.4% of families boasting five or more members.

To read a summary of the CAA’s report, visit the official website. The results are also available in tabulated form (.pdf), if you are feeling brave.

Thomas Cook, the self-proclaimed ‘best-known name in travel’, is to expand its base at Newcastle International Airport from mid-2011, adding a fourth plane and reintroducing flights to the Bulgarian city of Bourgas.

A press release on the airport’s website reveals that Thomas Cook will now be able to offer 300,000 seats on 54 flights.

Speaking about the expansion, Thomas Cook CEO Ian Derbyshire thanked the “people of the northeast” for showing “great loyalty” to the airline. “This underlines our commitment to Newcastle Airport,” Ian explained.

The new plane will add 70,000 seats during the peak summer season, allowing Thomas Cook to put on more flights to eight ‘sun and sea’ destinations.

Routes to Larnaca and Paphos in Cyprus, the Canary Island of Tenerife, locations on the Spanish Balearic Islands, Ibiza, Mahón and Palma, and the cities of Izmir and Dalaman in western Turkey will all benefit from extra seats in 2011.

Bourgas (also Burgas) in eastern Bulgaria is perhaps the most surprising addition to Newcastle’s books, as an earlier route to the city from the northeast was unceremoniously cancelled sometime in 2010.

Newcastle’s chief, David Laws, referred to the expansion of Thomas Cook services at the airport as a “fantastic coup” and a “tremendous boost” for the local area.

Thomas Cook will be hoping that its new routes and Newcastle’s 75th birthday celebrations will help deflect attention from a recent travel guide faux pas, in which the holiday company described Glasgow as ‘deprived’ with high levels of violent crime and rampant substance abuse.

Bourgas is not yet available for booking on the Thomas Cook website, but tickets for all routes due to be expanded next year (Larnaca, for example) can be purchased online.

Those living in the north east of England with a penchant for travel may be disappointed to hear that budget airline easyJet is reducing its service from Newcastle airport.

All is not lost, however, since rival airline Jet2.com is doing its best to increase its presence at the airport.

At present easyJet has five planes operating out of the north east’s largest airport but plans are afoot to reduce this to three in the coming months and to keep it at three for next summer.

The services to Murcia and Rome will be axed this winter, along with cuts to other routes. The communications manager for easyJet, Sarah McIntyre, said that the cuts were part of a review of operations throughout the UK and reflected customer demand. Although there will be no loss of jobs for cabin crew or first officers, around eight fewer pilots are expected to work out of Newcastle. They will be offered a transfer to another of the airline’s hubs, with the added possibility of part-time working.

Jet2.com, the budget carrier based at Leeds Bradford airport, is, on the other hand, increasing its operations out of Newcastle and will now be the airline to offer the biggest range of foreign destinations from the airport. New destinations for summer 2011 include Toulouse, Alicante and Faro, whilst old favourites Krakow and Prague are being reintroduced this winter.

Jet2.com expects an increase in passenger numbers next year of 40% and for this reason will be adding a new 737 to its Newcastle fleet, bringing the total number of Jet2.com aircraft at the airport to five.

Despite having to endure one of the toughest years in its 75 year history, suffering volcanic ash disruption as well as the effects of a recession, Newcastle Airport was still able to celebrate its 75th birthday in style.

Costing only £35,000 pounds to build, and opened on the 26th of July 1935, Newcastle Airport is currently one of the UK’s leading international hubs, recently adding a route to Dubai in the UAE.

The airport has seen its passenger volume increase massively in the last 20 years, especially after it was given its own metro station which links the airport to both Newcastle and Sunderland. This, combined with the invention of the package holiday, has seen the airport go from strength to strength in recent times.

Speaking at the celebration, Dave Laws, the airport's chief executive, said: “This year is very special for Newcastle International as we reflect on our incredible history and take a positive look forward to an exciting future.”

Some of the major airlines used the airport's celebrations to demonstrate both their support for the airport and their promotions. One of these was BA, who offered a limited number of £1 flights between Newcastle and London, with each flight catering for 75 passengers.

Some of the day's more spectacular events included the owner of Jet2.com, Philip Meeson, landing a classic 1930s plane, the Dragon Rapide, as well as Emirates landing one of its new Boeing 777-300ERs, with all the spectacles enjoyed by visitors on a special viewing platform built for the day.

Jet 2 had good news recently for travellers in the North East of England as it announced five new routes from Newcastle airport as part of its schedule for next summer. The chief executive of the airport, Dave Laws, said that its partnership with the budget carrier “goes from strength to strength”.

The additional services will please both leisure travellers, who will have a good choice now of traditional summer sun destinations as well as city breaks, and also business travellers. Jet2 is now the carrier offering the highest number of international destinations from Newcastle International.

The new routes are to Krakow, Prague, Toulouse, Alicante and Faro. Travellers from the North East wishing to fly to Toulouse, Krakow and Prague previously had to travel much further afield in order to find flights.

Flights to Prague start as early as this Nov, meaning that travellers wishing to see how picturesque the city looks in the snow or to do some Christmas shopping at its famous Christmas market will not have too long to wait.

Flights to all five new destinations are already on sale and prices to all destinations start at £29.99, inclusive of taxes, for a one-way ticket.

Reasonable package deals are also available from Jet2’s sister company, Jet2holidays, starting at £199 for a three-night city break or £249 for a seven-night sunshine break in Spain or Portugal.

Another bit of good news is that it is not only travellers who are set to benefit from Jet2’s new schedule: 30 new jobs will be created as a result, bringing Jet2’s Newcastle workforce to 150.

Get your Santa hats at the ready, because budget airline, Jet2, has announced a new Christmas shopping trip from Newcastle Airport to New York. Beginning at £359pp, the all-inclusive return trip departs on the 2 and 9 December 2010. Bosses anticipate ‘huge demand’ for the route, which is the first of its kind from the northeast.

Christmas is six months away, but most department stores will be selling plastic reindeer and tinsel underpants by the beginning of October. UK airlines have also been planning ahead, with Thomson announcing new routes at Glasgow for summer 2011, and a capacity boost at Robin Hood during the same period.

Jet2 is no different. The airline’s new flight to New York is marketed for Britons who traditionally spend their Christmas holidays abroad, or people who want to combine the stress of festive shopping with a wander around one of the world's most famous cities. The airline’s package holiday arm, Jet2Holidays, is organising the trip.

Newcastle Airport boss, Dave Laws, called Jet2’s new route a ‘dream’ – ‘spending the festive season in the City that Never Sleeps is a dream for many people, but Jet2 is set to make this an affordable reality.’ Mr. Laws went on to commend the ‘continued expansion’ of the airline’s services at Newcastle.

Jet2 operated a similar route out of Leeds Bradford in 2008, which performed better than expected. The airline remains open to the idea of an expansion of its Newcastle-New York route if forward demand is sufficiently high.

In related news, Newcastle Airport is celebrating its 75th birthday with a year of events. The northeast hub will host a number of ‘rarely seen’ aircraft on 26 July, before sponsoring further activities at the famous Sunderland Airshow.

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Drivers in the northeast have taken umbrage over new parking arrangements at Newcastle Airport, branding the scheme ‘disgusting.’

The airport removed its free drop-off zones on the 26th April in favour of a ‘pay as you stay’ car park, which has a mandatory charge of £1 for the first 20 minutes. The fee might sound small, but taxi drivers who spend all day driving backwards and forwards from the airport have been hit with hefty bills.

Poor advertising of the scheme has only confused matters, with many motorists unsure of how, or where, to pay. One cabbie described the scheme’s debut as ‘chaotic’ and ‘disgraceful,’ and called for the airport to provide more information notices, warning travellers of the recent changes.

Newcastle continues to operate a free car park, but travellers fear that it is not located close enough to the airport to be of any use to customers with special needs. Disabled people, for example, or those with cumbersome luggage, will be forced to use the airport’s new parking zone, however expensive it may be.

David Mathewson, a local man, was worried about the charges, ‘I’ve been in the drop-off zone 30 minutes. It’s going to cost me a fortune. It’s beyond me why they’ve brought in this new system.’ Other drivers were concerned that the removal of ticket machines prevents them from recouping parking fees from employers, as no receipts are produced.

Airport bosses have defended the scheme, citing increased demand as the impetus for the changes. Newcastle’s free parking area is now located near the long-stay car park, a 3 minute walk from the main terminal.

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Flustered passengers have been granted a reprieve from lengthy summer queues, after Newcastle Airport introduced a security fast-track service. The new scheme, which costs just £3 per visit, will allow pass holders to skip the traditional security avenues in favour of a streamlined ‘Fast Track’ lane.

Since the beginning of this year, airport security has endured seismic changes to protocol, the rapid installation of peculiar machines, and more column inches than a footballer’s wife, but for all their fancy computers, airports have done little to still the beating heart of the uninitiated traveller.

Airport bosses are always looking for ways to turn security proceedings into a minor inconvenience, a few minutes of boredom on either side of that holiday in sunny Spain.

Intrusive cameras may not have been the best way to win over the public, but airport security is slowly becoming sufficient to tackle all but the most sophisticated threats. The trick now is to make it faster, and more responsive to customers’ needs.

Traditionally, fast-track services were reserved for people who can afford to purchase a business-class ticket. Gatwick, for example, has an executive queue-jump scheme, as does Heathrow. Newcastle’s new £3 service is an important step forward for travellers, but it is by no means the first airport to extend fast-track services to the public.

Leeds Bradford and London Luton, for example, have operated a similar service for a number of months. The main exception is that Newcastle will allow children under-5 to use the fast-track service for free, providing that they are not checking-in alone. The fast-track service is located inside two kiosks close to the security search area.

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Christmas brings out the worst in people. Whether it is overindulgence, impromptu spending sprees, or smuggling thousands of hooky cigarettes past Newcastle Airport security, somebody always winds up in trouble.

The latter might seem like a silly joke, something to tide you over the frosty New Year, but Newcastle is no stranger to yuletide crooks, having reclaimed millions of cigarettes over the past five years, and enough fake medication to stun a diplodocus.

On Christmas Day 2009, border staff arrested six people, who were trying to smuggle 20,000 cigarettes and 200kg of rolling tobacco through airport security. Estimates put the total unpaid duty at £33,000.

Her Majesty’s officials were not impressed – “A haul like this would have defrauded the Government and the taxpayer out of vital funds for services, as well as undermining genuine manufacturers and shops plying an honest trade.”

December’s incident recalls a similar event in 2005, when security staff found two million cigarettes inside 146 suitcases, all arriving from Tenerife.

Earlier in the week, around 80,000 Sildenafil tablets were also seized from crates bound for Newcastle Airport. The tablets replicate the effects of Viagra, but officials noted that smuggled medicines are often counterfeit or otherwise damaging to human health.

Such a large haul of Sildenafil could have netted the culprits around £300,000 on the black market. The pills have since been destroyed.

Airport bosses have pleaded with would-be criminals to rethink their cheating ways, and consider that drug and cigarette running is often a piggybank for larger criminal activities, such as terrorism and people trafficking.

Newcastle International airport has been celebrating recently, after receiving two industry awards in the space of just 24 hours. First, they were awarded the accolade of Best UK Airport by BATA (British Air Transport Association) at a ceremony in London, followed closely by being named as the most punctual airport in the UK, for both departing and arriving flights, by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority).

Chief Executive at the airport, Dave Laws, was delighted to be recognised by fellow industry members, at a time when there seems to have been nothing but bad news for the aviation industry due to the recession.

Carriers such as BA, Flybe, and Thomas Cook were quick to add their praise for the airport, with Dave Laws being singled out for praise for having “consistently led with complete distinction”.

As far as punctuality is concerned, the league table for the three months from July to Sept 2009 shows that the airport’s performance was at the highest ever level for both charter and scheduled flights. When delays did occur they were shorter than the national average by eight minutes. Operations Director at Newcastle Airport, Will Dougherty, puts the success down to the airport, the airlines and passengers pulling together.

Despite these difficult times, the airport announced this week that several new services would be running as of next summer. These include flights to Burgas in Bulgaria and Izmir in Turkey. Emirates airline will soon also be rolling out a new service to Dubai which, it is hoped, as well as pleasing leisure travellers, will also open up new business opportunities for the region.

Eighty five percent of charter flights from Newcastle Airport arrive early or on time, according to figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The result is a good 17% higher than the national average.

Officials were overjoyed with the news, hailing it as a significant improvement over the previous year.

The CAA defines an on-time flight as "early to fifteen minutes late" – an odd definition, but one that few officials would argue with. The study recorded a minimum of 80% punctuality at all ten monitored airports.

Dave Laws, chief executive at Newcastle, was full of praise for his staff, "this is excellent news for the airport. It is testament to the considerable efforts of colleagues that we are continuing to outperform our competitors."

The CAA has rejected claims that airline punctuality is commensurate with the volume of passengers travelling through an airport, a figure that has dropped significantly over the past few months. Aircraft movements are at their lowest since September 2003.

Despite a hectic bank holiday weekend, with airports besieged by holidaymakers and blighted by ongoing industrial action, few delays were reported at major airports. The CAA’s survey gives credit to the officials and staff members that helped get tourists in the air.

Overall, UK airports increased timely flights to 82%, the highest level in fourteen years.

The CAA made special mention of Heathrow and London City airports, after the pair achieved the biggest improvement in aircraft punctuality, reducing delays and boosting on-time performance by an average of 15%.

Jet2, a budget airline hailing from Leeds, has been embraced as a hero, after offering to expand its operations at Newcastle Airport.

As the rest of the country struggles to offset the damage caused by Ryanair’s promiscuity, Jet2 has bucked a trend that has already cost Robin Hood its winter livelihood, erased hundreds of jobs at Manchester, and cost the Irish some 60,000 tourists.

Beginning in summer 2010, the airline will offer five additional routes – Dalaman, southwestern Turkey, the Canary Isles, Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, and two Mediterranean flights to Crete and Paphos, Cyprus. The airline has also adjusted the frequency of flights to Tenerife and Lanzarote.

Newcastle believes the move will create one hundred direct jobs, with a further three hundred expected in the coming months. Airport bosses hailed the recent news as a “significant boost” to flagging customer numbers.

Jet2 chief, Philip Meeson, was pleased to have fostered a meaningful relationship with the airport, “we see the North East as having real growth potential for our leisure business. The new jobs will hopefully show our renewed commitment to this great region.”

A further five flights are being offered at sale prices – Cork in Ireland, Corfu and Rhodes in Greece, the ancient city of Split, Croatia, and Pisa, Italy. Each flight is due to commence in summer 2010.

Unfortunately, with industrial action almost guaranteed over the bank holiday weekend, airport officials may have a hard time getting passengers onto any planes at all.

The new journeys (as well as several sale items) are available on the Jet2 website. Flights from Manchester, Edinburgh, and Jet2’s hometown, Leeds, are also available.

Newcastle Airport has had its wings clipped quite considerably this month. It has faced a sad and shocking blow, but one very much in keeping with the sadness a recession brings. Plans were drawn up and ogled over by everyone at the airport and in the surrounding area for a brand new 360-metre runway to be constructed at the site to the north west of the city. These plans are now finding their way into a nearby drawer though and are officially being considered merely, “useful documents”.

Hope for the expansion of the airport couldn’t have come at a worse time, as the number of annual passengers fell by over 600,000 in 2008 to a figure of just 5 million. This might seem like an acceptable number, but with the rising costs of everything from electricity to heating, the airport was struggling to generate more revenue. Newcastle Airport simply can’t afford to expand now and it told MPs in government this month that plans have been temporarily put on hold.

The aviation industry has been suffering a great deal in recent years. If it’s not the recession biting at its heels, such as in this case, then the environmental groups are a constant thorn in their side. Even though BA have announced they will keep their flights from Heathrow to Newcastle, there is now strong Westminster support for a new high-speed rail link between the capital and the north east, which might make life even more stressful for Newcastle airport.

Calls for the expansion of Newcastle airport have been given significant cross party support from Labour, Tory, and Independent councillors in the South Tyneside region. The airport currently handles 5.6 million passengers a year but, with predictions that by 2030 the region will be attracting more than a million visitors a year, pleas are currently being made for it to expand.

John Anglin, the Labour councillor, has said that the region needs a first class airport to boost national and international trade which will in turn safeguard jobs for the entire region. He added that it need not be at the expense of the environment and that cleaner fuel and energy options need to be found.

The Conservative councillor, David Potts, said that any expansion must take into account the views of the local population and added that he hoped that a Newcastle to New York route would be introduced as part of the expansion, something which had been mooted previously by American Airlines.

Independent councillor, Ahmed Khan, was equally enthusiastic about the trade benefits that an expansion could bring, citing Manchester airport as proof that a regional airport can become a global hub.

Chairman of the pro-aviation group, Flying Matters, added his support to the expansion plans, saying that once the world comes out of the current recession, only those countries with first class airports and connections would be in a position to benefit from the predicted growth in trade and visitor numbers. He added that without such expansions it will be jobs rather than goods which are being exported from the North East.

Newcastle Airport has recently bought Samson Aviation Services Ltd for £450,000 as part of the plans for re-developing the area south of the airport. Proposals for the re-vamp include a visitors' centre with viewing area, a business park, and expansion of the Aviation Academy run by Newcastle College.

Samson Aviation has been operating for 15 years from its 50 acre site and has built up an extremely high reputation in the aviation services sector. Newcastle Airport wants to “build on that success”, according to Dave Laws, the chief executive of the airport, with the intention of transforming Newcastle into “one of the country's foremost bases for private aircraft owners”. Currently the private terminal is used not only by businessmen but also by the likes of footballer, Michael Owen, and pop stars performing at the city's Metro Radio Arena.

Newcastle Airport will celebrate its 75th anniversary in two years' time and it is hoped that the original terminal building, previously owned by Samson, will be restored to its former 1930's glory. It will be turned into a visitors’ centre with outdoor viewing facilities, something which the airport has been without since 2003.

As with all proposals for the redevelopment of airports, not everyone in the area is happy with the plans. Local residents are concerned that the additional traffic, noise and pollution will have a negative impact on the community and that wildlife will be disturbed. Supporters of the £20 million project are keen, however, to point out that the development is vital for the continuing success of the airport and that some much needed extra parking will be created, along with 1600 jobs for the local community.

If you are planning on flying out of Newcastle airport, you may want to look away now! With three close shaves in less than one month, an investigation is now under way to see exactly how close the airport was to witnessing a fatal incident.

All three near misses, or “airprox incidents” as they are known in the industry, took place between late March and early April. The first was just before midday on March 19th, when an Embraer 145 en-route to Copenhagen and a Boeing 777 on its way to Glasgow almost collided, thirty miles from the airport.

In the middle of the afternoon on March 21st, two Newcastle-bound Boeing 737s had a near miss just five miles away from the airport.

Just over two weeks later on April 8th, a military aircraft almost hit a Saab 200 on its way to Aberdeen airport twenty miles from Newcastle. This is not the first time military aircraft have been a cause for concern in airprox incidents near the airport. In December 2007, an investigation was launched after an Emirates plane flying to Dubai had a close shave with a military aircraft. This was the seventeenth incident involving military aircraft in the area.

The UK Airprox Board investigates fewer than a hundred such incidents a year and only a small percentage are officially classified as being a true collision risk. Many are technical matters which are ultimately deemed not to have put the public in danger. There is, however, a concern amongst the travelling public that the growth of regional airport traffic is making the skies a busier place which will lead inevitably to a greater risk of mid-air collisions.

If you live in the north east and are involved in the gas and oil industry, you will be pleased to know that Eastern Airways have started flying direct to Stavanger, Norway's energy capital, from Newcastle. Stavanger is also one of the European Capitals of Culture for 2008, so this new route will no doubt appeal to the leisure traveller as well.

This route is the first direct international route to be introduced out of Newcastle by Eastern Airways. The flights will operate each weekday, leaving Newcastle at 09.50 and arriving in Stavanger at 12.40 local time. The return flight will depart from Stavanger at 13.10, reaching Newcastle at 14.00 local time. Prior to the introduction of this service, travellers from the north-east flying to Stavanger had to go via Aberdeen. There are currently direct services operated by Eastern Airways from Newcastle to Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Southampton and the Isle of Man.

Stacy Hall of One NorthEast said that the new route would not only improve “accessibility to international business routes” but also “encourage inbound tourism”, both of which are likely to have a beneficial effect on the region’s economy.

Newcastle Airport has come a long way from its humble beginnings back in 1935 when it opened with little more than a grass runway and a hangar. Early in the new millennium, a £27 million extension was opened by Tony Blair and by 2005 it was the fastest growing regional airport in the country, with over 5 million passengers a year flying to 86 destinations. Currently a new Business Park and luxury hotel are being built.

Motorists are outraged after free waiting time at Newcastle airport was cut to just five minutes. Following the five minute cut-off point, drivers will then be charged upwards of £1 for waiting in the airport’s pick-up/ drop-off point.

The changes have angered local taxi drivers who have said that it is ‘virtually impossible’ to leave the parking area in just five minutes. According to Paul Irwin, managing director of Eastcoast taxis, the reductions throw “one hell of a hurdle” in the way of taxi companies serving the airport. He said that five minutes is not enough time to locate the passenger for pick-up and then get out of the airport, given the amount of traffic usually waiting to leave the car-park. He added that if the waiting time is not increased, car-park charges would end up being passed onto passengers, which is less than ideal.

In response to the complaints, bosses at Newcastle Airport have argued that the new exit and entry points now allow vehicles to pass through the car park more quickly, justifying the reduction. George Nesbitt, Head of Car Parking at the airport, was in agreement, saying that the investments made to the car-park would allow the same number of people to be processed free of charge as when the waiting limit was ten minutes. He said, “(for taxis) I’m confident that five minutes to drop off is very achievable and five minutes to pick up, if the customer is waiting, is also achievable.”

The waiting time reductions began on June 1st.

Passengers at Newcastle International Airport are being urged this summer to take more notice of security regulations forbidding them to carry liquid items in their hand luggage. It has been revealed that bottles of liquid have become a serious administrative problem for security officials at the airport, who estimate that they confiscate approximately 800 bottles of prohibited liquids each day. This amounts to approximately 400 litres of liquid each year worth an estimated £1000 and enough to fill a full sized swimming pool.

The tightened security restrictions came into play in August 2006, following the arrest on August 10 of a number of Britons accused of a terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives on board aircraft travelling across the Atlantic. However, hundreds of passengers using Newcastle Airport each day still seem unaware of the restrictions, causing security teams to spend up to ten hours every day disposing of and recycling the liquids.

According to security officials at the airport, the most commonly confiscated items are bottles of water, carbonated drinks, suntan lotion, toothpaste and shampoo. Other passengers, however, have been forced to part with more valuable items such as vintage champagne or bottles of spirits. Now that the holiday season is in full swing, security officials wish to ensure passengers are clear on the rules when packing for their flight. Peter Snell, the airport’s landslide operations manager, has advised passengers to put liquids, gels, creams, lotions and aerosols into the luggage holds where possible. He added that if passengers do need liquid items on the flight they should ensure they are in containers of 100 ml or less and in a resealable transparent bag for easy checking by security staff. Passengers unsure of liquid regulations should check the Department for Transport guidelines before embarking on their trip.

Ryanair are to operate a regular service between Newcastle International and Oslo, which is to commence in September 2005.
You can get up-to-date news on the airport and its developments on the <a href="http://www.newcastleinternational.co.uk/Corporate/News.htm" target="_blank">official news pages</a> of the website.