Teesside International Airport: Publicly-owned airport reports lower losses than expected

Teesside Airport was sold to Ben Houchen’s Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) by Doncaster-Sheffield Airport owners Peel Group in 2019. The authority owns 75 percent of the holding company which owns the airport.

The airport has announced its EBITDA losses for 2022/23 were £2.26m, compared to £9.03m the previous year. Although loss-making, the results compare favourably to its original business plan which forecast losses of £5.04m for the year.

Revenue for the period doubled to £15m, boosted by the removal of Covid-related travel restrictions by the UK Government in March 2022, as well as an increase in freight handling and investment from aviation businesses located at the airport.

Tees Valley Mayor, Lord Houchen said: “These figures show that the airport is on course to meet its turnaround plan and it’s a further demonstration that I was right to secure a deal to bring it back into public ownership. Let’s not forget, if I hadn’t, it would now be closed, jobs would have been lost, our connection with the rest of the world would have gone and the site replaced with a housing estate.

“We know international investors arrive through an airport terminal, not a bus, and the wider knock-on effects for the economy of Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool are clear to see. Recent major investors into our area – including those at Teesworks – have named the airport as one of the key reasons they made the decision to come to our area.

“With the Airport Business Park ready and raring to go, I’ve no doubt it’s onward and upward for Teesside Airport.”

The Airport Business Park is a new industrial development on the south of the airport site which is expected to welcome tenants in early 2024. It was developed as a joint venture with Chris Musgrave and Martin Corney.

They are the property developers who were also selected as joint venture partners for Teesworks - the enormous regeneration project at the former Redcar steelworks site which has seen the duo accused of profiting at the public’s expense. Messrs Musgrave and Corney have consistently denied any wrongdoing.