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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.