Teesside Airport could help transport food supplies during the Red Sea crisis with a “massive” upsurge in cargo enquiries, a meeting has heard.

Airport general manager Steve Land spoke of cargo operations to the Teesside International Airport consultative committee. He said: “We’re still pursuing cargo.

“We’ve got a lot of positive feedback from operators, with perishables from Africa twice a week hopefully later this year. We’re still in discussions with them to bring aircraft into here.”

Councillor Heather Moorhouse, from North Yorkshire County Council, referred to events in the Red Sea, a key global trade route where commercial ships have been attacked by the Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group.

She said of the airport’s operations: “I am seeing that a lot of stuff’s coming from different places. Particularly now with the problem in the Red Sea, this is more important than ever.”

Mr Land added: “Now the cargo enquiries have increased massively because of what’s happened in the Red Sea. Now distributors are worried that the perishables will go off, the fruit, the flowers, the vegetables.

“They’re looking at airlines now. All good to go, just need the airlines.”

He said their head of cargo was “targeting the airlines and the cargo which he knows we can handle on our current runways”.

Vice chair Norman Douglas, from the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE), asked if it was possible to extend the airport’s runway. Mr Land replied it was “doable” but costly option with restrictions at both ends.

He said: “We’ve got a careful consideration for the length of the runway and the operations we can sustain now. Longer runways are nice to have but… is it worth spending the (money) to extend the runway for the business we would get in? That’s something we have to consider.”

He said this consideration would be for freight: “We would never extend this runway for passenger operations. It’s a balancing act whether we wait and operate the aircraft we can operate on this runway or take a chance, extend and attract bigger aircraft and heavier weight.”

He spoke of the airport’s future plans including the south side development, hydrogen refuelling station, hangar under construction with airline repainting company Airbourne Colours as a tenant, units to be developed, as well as the Willis Aviation Village: “They’re just considering their options of what they want to do.”

Mr Douglas asked: “What sort of timescale are you hoping? Are we talking about months, years, decades?”

Mr Land answered: “Can’t really put a timescale on it. If the demand’s there, we will build it. It depends what businesses want to be there.”

He also spoke of passenger numbers: “We have increased slightly from last year and again hopefully 2004 will bring the same increase on flights. We’re still working on talking to lots of operators for different destinations.

“We’ll be speaking to them regularly – Jet2, EasyJet, Ryanair, who already fly from here to increase their capacity. It’s something we are actively pursuing.”

Statistics showed passenger numbers increased from 10,941 in December 2022 to 12,904 in December 2023, though there were 25 fewer flights and only 12,330 available seats last month.

Cllr Moorhouse queried this: “We’ve had more passengers than seats in December. I don’t know how they’ve managed that.” Mr Douglas asked for more information and comparison data.

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The meeting was told of a 97% customer satisfaction for service through the airport. Chair Brian Robinson said: “I think the performance is really positive.” He congratulated the airport on aviation industry awards in the last year, including winning UK & Irish Airport of the Year at the TTG Travel Industry Awards.

Mr Land said: “The previous owners just led this place to rack and ruin, no investment and no ambition. Post-covid to the first normal year of operation, it’s fantastic to win two awards.

“The travel is going in the right direction. And hopefully, the first of many awards to come.”