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Teesside regains London Heathrow route with Eastern Airways

Teesside International Airport will regain its link to London Heathrow with Eastern Airways launching its first ever schedule flights from London’s world hub airport.

From 14 September 2020, the Teesside–Heathrow service will be served by a 76-seat E-Jet Embraer 170 aircraft, following a gap of more than a decade. The airline will initially offer a daily service to the capital which will offer passengers from Durham, Middlesbrough, Darlington, Hartlepool, Teesside and North Yorkshire hundreds of onward connections to the world.

This latest news at Teesside is a further expansion of Eastern Airways’ developing route network from the north east airport. Since restrictions have been eased following the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the airline has reintroduced Teesside flights to Aberdeen and Belfast City while starting new routes to London City and Newquay.

The daily departures are timed to maximise the array of world-wide connections available while also supporting quick and easy access to London and the South-East on the circa 1-hour flight.

Roger Hage, Eastern Airways’ General Manager Commercial & Operations, said

As the UK’s Regional Airline, the opportunity for Eastern Airways to connect Teesside to London Heathrow, the UK’s primary hub for worldwide connections is significant in the region’s economic prosperity and economic recovery. Offering an initial daily e-Jet operated service helps add further London capacity and makes reaching the capital or getting to the North East a little over an hour away, with the array of connections world-wide this opens up. We look forward with our partners at Teesside International Airport and London Heathrow Airport to restoring such a major air-link missing for over a decade.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said

Ben Houchen – we have flights to one of our most-requested destinations

Since I did a deal to take back control of our airport last year to save it from closure, we’ve announced some brilliant new daily and seasonal routes.

But whenever I’ve revealed a new service people have said, ‘that’s great, but what about a connection to Heathrow?’

Well, I can now say we have flights to one of our most-requested destinations, and it starts next month. Whether people from Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool are looking to travel for business or pleasure, they now have a range of options for getting to London.

This is another massive vote of confidence in our airport and I’d like to thank Heathrow and Eastern Airways for working with us to realise a key route for any serious airport.

Our airport is much more than just flights though; it is hugely important to our local economy and it is playing a key part in my plan for jobs. I’ve always said that investment won’t come on a bus, it will come through our airport terminal which in turn will create good quality local jobs for local workers.

John Holland-Kaye, Chief Executive of Heathrow Airport, said

John Holland-Kaye – delighted that Eastern Airways will launch a Heathrow connection

We are delighted that Eastern Airways will launch a new connection between Teesside and Heathrow for the first time in over a decade. Adding the UK’s hub airport to Teesside’s network demonstrates the growth ambitions of the Tees Valley region, and will provide a vital levelling-up boost – unlocking a huge amount of potential for the region as we build the UK’s economic recovery.

Heathrow is committed to strengthening our regional connections across the UK with our discount on domestic routes, and we believe this new service will be a springboard for the great businesses in the region to reach out to the world. We’re looking forward to welcoming the first passengers in September.

Initially Eastern Airways’ usual complimentary on-board service will be limited to facilitate reduced customer contact.

Services continue to be carefully reintroduced since Covid-19 restrictions began to ease with extensive cleaning measures on-board and throughout all aspects of the airport. A full anti-bacterial wipe down of all touch points between every service operated and also a comprehensive aircraft night-stop sanitisation is implemented.

Eastern Airways was formed in 1997 and had moved quickly, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, to return back to its own standalone booking facilities after its former franchise partner, Flybe, went into administration earlier in March.

The Humberside Airport-based carrier offers a network of routes from airports including Aberdeen, Anglesey, Belfast City, Cardiff, Dublin, Humberside, Isle of Man, Leeds Bradford, London City, Manchester, Newcastle, Newquay, Southampton and Teesside International and a broad array of contract and ad-hoc charters with a mixed jet and turbo-prop fleet.

If you need to fly between Teesside and London – or any other route offered by Eastern Airways – contact your GTM Account Manager.

British Airways opens luxurious Club lounge at JFK

British Airways has opened its doors to the highly-anticipated new Club lounge at New York’s JFK airport.  It completes a £50 million investment, following the unveiling of a plush new space for First customers in autumn last year.  Customers at JFK Terminal 7 have also seen changes to the public areas and gate spaces to make them more appealing, welcoming and comfortable.

As British Airways’ flagship US lounge, the carefully curated space will play host to the hundreds of business and leisure customers that travel between New York and London on up to twelve Transatlantic flights a day.


Elemis JFK spa

Spread across 22,000 sq. ft. (spanning over half acre), the Club lounge is carefully laid out to offer designated areas that are designed to meet different customer needs. The new space includes elegant, relaxed seating areas as well as ample work stations with power outlets to maximise time in the office.  Other spots include an entertainment room with state-of-the-art entertainment and sound from Sony, and the reopened Elemis Spa offers a range of treatments to help travellers relax and recharge ahead of their journey.

For Club customers that plan to take advantage of their flat bed and luxurious White Company bedding on board, the new lounge offers the ultimate pre-flight dining experience with a brasserie-style dining room where travellers can enjoy freshly prepared dishes from an extensive menu or a range of smaller items chosen to allow customers to ‘grab and go’.


Quaich Bar

There will be a granite topped Quaich Bar, created in partnership with the Quaich bar at the Craigellachie Hotel in Speyside, Scotland. 

An experienced bartender will be on-hand at peak times to serve a full range of fine wines and cocktails such as the Broadway Copper Cup made with Copper Dog whisky, orange bitters and berries. 

An innovative new addition to the lounge is a BrewDog craft beer room, in partnership with the brand, a beer has been designed specifically for British Airways, named after its flight call sign – Speedbird 100. The beer is available on flights from tomorrow, 1 May.

JFK airport is like a second home to Heathrow so it’s great to mark the final step in our significant customer investment with the opening of our new Club and First lounges.

Every detail has been carefully designed and we’ve created a space to meet our customers’ needs – whether they want to relax and have a meal or enjoy a craft beer and catch up on the world news.


Carolina Martinoli, British Airways’ Director of Brand and Customer Experience

This is the third lounge to feature British Airways’ contemporary and luxurious design, following the lounge openings in Rome and Aberdeen last year.  It is part of the airline’s five-year £6.5 billion customer investment programme.  The airline is also bringing changes to its First, World Traveller Plus and World Traveller cabins, delivering exceptional new restaurant-style catering from Do&Co, rolling out industry-leading Wi-Fi on board.  New routes already launched this year include Charleston, Pittsburgh and Osaka.


JFK Club Lounge


The First lounge at JFK opened in October last year after a complete renovation.  It offers an opulent bar and bespoke zones to provide different seating areas.  The kitchen features a boutique pre-flight dining service, and the state-of-the-art wine room offers an enomatic dispenser so that each glass of wine is served at exactly the right temperature and oxidized to the precise level.  The wine list has been expertly curated by London-based Borough Wines with a variety of wines from across the world, introducing customers to a range of new wines.

Customers flying in First and Club World can enjoy an enhanced check-in experience at the exclusive Premium Zone.  The First Wing and First check-in are also open to ensure a smooth start to the journey.

KLM To Launch Flights From Manston.

KLM is to begin a new service from Manston Airport in eastern Kent to Amsterdam Schiphol on the 2nd April.

The Dutch carrier will offer twice daily flights from Manston to Schiphol, from where passengers can then connect to over 150 destinations worldwide. KLM will operate Fokker 70 jets with capacity for up to 80 passengers on the new route. The aircraft will feature both business class and economy.

KLM now offers 17 departure airports in Great Britain from where pasengers can connect, via Amsterdam Schiphol, to the airline’s worldwide route network. The airports are: Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Durham Tees Valley, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Humberside, Inverness, Leeds, London (Heathrow & City),
Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Southampton and now Manston in Kent. Quite a list!

BMI Regional.

BMI Regional, once part of BMI British Midland, which was sold to British Airways’ parent company IAG, is now operating flights again. Sector Aviation Holdings Ltd acquired BMI Regional from IAG and is now flying mainly UK domestic services.

Some of the cities BMI Regional are operating to/from are : Aberdeen, Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester, Norwich. The European cities served are : Brussels,
Copenhagen, Groningen, Lyon & Zurich.