Newcastle International Airport is the North East’s gateway to the world, the largest airport in the region serving over 5 million passengers a year in 2019. Some of those passengers are holidaymakers, some are business passengers, and some are taking low-cost or domestic flights. The airport serves a diverse mix of passengers, but it serves an equally diverse array of airlines, including scheduled carriers such as Lufthansa, Emirates, British Airways, Air France and KLM, as well as leisure and low-cost carriers Jet2, TUI, Ryanair and EasyJet. With 18 different airlines currently flying from Newcastle International Airport, it has a deserved reputation as a well-maintained airport facility with great infrastructure in place.
It is also conveniently located, just off the A1, with good connectivity and a Metro direct light rail link from Newcastle city centre that has been in place for decades.
In short, this is an airport that leads the way that others follow.
Where other airports have followed Newcastle International Airport led the way, under the helm of Nick Jones, Chief Executive, and owned by a public-private partnership of seven local authorities and an investment firm, InfraBridge, formerly known as AMP Capital.
“That mix of local and regional knowledge, expertise and financial backing is a key factor in the success of the airport,” says Richard Knight OBE, COO of the airport.
The airport leverages that knowledge to provide the highest levels of customer service and operational excellence, making itself the number-one choice for the region, while offering an exceptional range of destinations. This is why the airport won two awards in 2022 and is able to get 98% of its customers through security in under six minutes, while the other 2% are through within 15 minutes.
“Our people are friendly and efficient. Nobody wants to queue, so we make it as easy, efficient, and punctual as possible,” Knight says. “Customer service has been a real push for us. We have won awards for being punctual, and that doesn’t happen by accident. It is down to hard work from the team.”
Newcastle International Air-port has remained a resilient business through 9/11, volcanic ash clouds, and the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing it to invest in its own facilities and prepare for oncoming challenges.
“We are at the forefront of the sustainability agenda, building a solar farm to generate our own electricity that will be live in March 2023,” Knight tells us. “We were the first airport to get electric airside buses. We will achieve net zero by 2035, a project that is a key driver for the airport.”
A Diamond Anniversary
However, Knight is the first to admit that Newcastle International Airport has not achieved all of this alone, and the airport values the essential partnerships it is built on. When we speak to Knight, the airport is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its partnership with the TUI Group and its parent companies.
“It is 60 years of a partnership that works. Aviation has changed a lot in that time, but the partnership has endured,” Knight says. “When we realised the 60th anniversary was coming up there was a real passion within the team to celebrate that. We sourced old magazines and brochures, old uniforms, we even bought stuff off eBay, and made a video with TUI staff and customers, past and present.”
The video included the airline’s Managing Director, who talked about flying out of the airport as a boy.
The celebrations were also attended by their guest of honour, a 95-year-old-lady who had been flying from Newcastle Airport with TUI for 55 years, with her daughter.
“They were due to fly out from Newcastle that month” Knight points out. “TUI offered to pay for her holiday lock stock and barrel. It was a really nice afternoon.”
An Age of Recovery
It is important to take any opportunities for celebration that come along, as there is no denying the aviation sector has undergone a tremendously difficult period over the last few years.
“I was just talking to someone this morning who left the company during the Covid period, and we were talking about how much the world has changed,” Knight reflects.
Following the Covid pan-demic, Newcastle International Airport is now in a period of rapid recovery. Hundreds of people have been recruited, to the point where 50% of the airport’s staff is now new.
“We have delivered that safely, with people who are trained and qualified, which is fantastic,” Knight says. “It is a real achievement to manage that during the pandemic and the recovery while attracting back all the airlines that survived.”
It has been the result of teamwork, not only within the Airport itself but across all the businesses that operate there.
“2023 will be a transitional year and then we’ll be off and away in 2024,” Knight predicts. “But we are now 12 years away from net zero. Time is moving fast.”
Newcastle International Airport has carried out this period of recruitment and growth during a period when most businesses are struggling to build or even maintain their workforces. The airport benefits from a good reputation as an employer, but it has also been proactive in holding job fairs, advertising and social media.
“But for us, those jobs fairs aren’t about Human Resources going down there,” Knight insists. “We want to put people who do the job in front of potential applicants, telling them what their day will be like.”
But with such rapid growth, it is important to preserve the culture that makes Newcastle International Airport what it is. That is something that Newcastle International will not compromise on.
“For me, it starts at the top,” he says. “We have a golden thread running from our Chief Executive, Nick Jones, through the organisation, making sure we’re doing the right things for people, embracing diversity and inclusion, taking good ideas wherever we find them.”
For Knight, it is all exemplified by a plastic switch he keeps on his desk- an emergency stop button for the airport’s baggage system.
“If that breaks, the most important person in the entire airport is the person with a spare and the tools to install it,” Knight points out. “Then the next minute it’s someone else. That’s what makes airports so fascinating. The airport doesn’t work unless everyone does their job. I know everyone from the security officers, to the cleaners, to people in air traffic control, all the executive team do. We understand and appreciate what everyone does. All those pieces have to work together.”
Working together, all those pieces are going to take the airport to exciting places, with a vision to be the number one choice of travel for passengers in the region.
“We are growing passenger numbers back. By 2024 we hope to have introduced new brands to the departure lounge,” Knight says. “We want to see an efficient, customer friendly, net zero airport that’s a great place to work. We will support the region and offer an exceptional range of destinations for people from the northeast to go to or come here from.”
