Teesside Airport has announced its first profit in more than a decade, but bosses admit ‘significant financial and operational challenges’ still remain.
The airport, which was taken into public hands in 2019, made a pre-tax profit of £308,555 in the year to March 2024.
It comes after years of the site recording losses, including of more than £10m during Covid.
But bosses have admitted the airport is “not out of the woods yet” and that “significant financial and operational challenges” remain to ensure its sustainability and future.
The departure lounge was busy with passengers ready to board the TUI flight to Mallorca as Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen spoke to the media this afternoon (Tuesday, August 13) afternoon.
But once passengers had boarded the Balearic-bound Boeing 737 the airport’s challenges were clear to see as the terminal was left eerily quiet in the middle of the summer holidays, with a 30-seater Eastern Airways flight to Aberdeen the only remaining service of the day.
Lord Houchen said hitting profit was “huge” for the airport.
He said: “With all the new flights, all the investment in the terminal, the new jobs, it’s all incredible. But it’s only sustainable if you can get back into profit.
"So having gotten to today two years ahead of schedule in our ten-year plan, it’s a great signifier not only to the plan but to all the incredible people that work at the airport who put the effort in to get us to this place.
“We’re not necessarily there yet there are still some issues down the road. It’s a difficult industry to be in with aviation - there’s issues around delivery of aircraft and we’re trying to get more carriers in so there’s still a way to go.
“But this is the thing everybody was saying – you’re getting more stuff, you’re spending more money, but at what stage does it become sustainable and start to stand on its own two feet? So today is a really important day on that journey.”
Neither Lord Houchen, nor airport Managing Director Phil Forster would put a number on how many passengers a year are needed for the airport to be sustainable, but both said they hoped to hit one million in the coming years.
Asked whether he thought the airport now had a solid future no matter who is Mayor, Lord Houchen added: “Getting to this point takes away the personality but it also takes away to some extent, the direct link with me which means that the airport is the airport, it has its own MD, its own incredible staff and it can allow itself to run as a business and grow as any other airport would.
“Even if you have an anti-airport or really aggressive anti-airport mayor, okay that can cause its own problems, but from a business point of view then it’s much more sustainable, it becomes much less political because then you’re not arguing as much about the political priorities of should we be spending money on this rather than this.”
He hinted that flights to Tenerife, which he pledged prior to his re-election as Tees Valley Mayor earlier this year, could take off as soon as next summer.
A new ten-year plan will be drawn up going forward, which is expected to see a greater focus on freight and commercial activities as part of the airport’s operations.
“I think given the journey we’ve been on people understand the nuances that it’s a balance between passengers, real estate development, business investment and that new plan will give us a more balanced projection.
“What that will naturally do is mean we won’t need as many passengers to maintain that sustainability, but that’s not going to dampen our ambition on trying to break that one million passenger mark which would be the panacea for passengers that we’ve never seen before at Teesside Airport.”
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Managing Director Phil Forster added: “I think it’s a huge step in the right direction, we’re not out the woods yet but I think what it really shows is testament to the work that’s been put in, to the whole direction, the dedication of our shareholders, the TVCA.
“Who would have thought five years in we would be standing and saying the airport is back in the black. Five or six years ago you could have said would the airport even be here.
“It’s a historic day, but certainly we’re not there, we’re not out of the woods fully, there’s still a lot more work to do.
"I assure the Teesside travelling public that the airport will be doing all it can to ensure that we get the airport fully turned around.”
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