A Teesside to London flight is ‘aspirationally’ important but still not financially viable, according to the Tees Valley Combined Authority.

At a recent TVCA overview and scrutiny committee, Cllr Brenda Harrison, a Labour member on Hartlepool Council, asked whether work was ongoing to bring back a London flight. Teesside Airport lost its link to the capital in May last year just 14 months after it was reinstated.

At the time, rising costs were blamed after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) granted permission for a 37% increase in landing fees. This meant the route to Heathrow, Britain’s biggest airport, was no longer viable.

However, the return of a London route is still on the cards if demand picks up. TVCA chief executive Julie Gilhespie said: “Trying to get back to a London flight is pretty high up on the agenda. That said, the bottom line is, it goes to the point about some of the other domestic flights, the amount of travel post-covid has still not returned to anything like what it was.”

She went on to add: “Aspirationally, it’s really important, we really want to see that happen. But to some extent, it needs to be market-led. Once we get to a point to demonstrate there is enough demand to put a flight on, we have numerous airlines who would be happy to put a flight on, but we have to get to that balance right. What we can’t do is subsidise it with huge amounts of public money.”

Tory Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen also stressed that the numbers had to stack up. He said: “We don’t think it’s wise to subsidise routes that as soon as the subsidy is pulled then those routes fail.”

He added that Newcastle Airport and Leeds Bradford Airport had both recently cut flights to Heathrow.

In December, it was announced that flights to Belfast and Dublin would be axed from Teesside Airport from March this year. This was another blow to the airport after LoganAir pulled its route to Newquay in Cornwall.

The latest accounts revealed that the publicly-owned airport’s losses had widened. While revenue grew from £4.8m to £7.7m in the year to the end of March 2022, increased expenses meant the operating loss rose slightly to £13.9m.

The airport’s managing director Phil Forster highlighted low passenger numbers for the majority of the year and the long-term impacts of the covid pandemic, which lasted longer than the industry expected.

Last year, the TVCA signed off a £20m investment plan for the site to help cover losses, create new jobs and help to bring in new flights. A £10m bailout was approved in July 2021 in response to covid pressures.