Durham Tees Valley Airport, Darlington

Excellent local airport - much improved over the last few years.
Has a WHSmiths that is well stocked,a little pub and a decent duty free - great for local short haul flights.

Living in Darlington I am pleased to have Durham Tees Valley Airport so close. It is 10 minutes out of town and therefore if you don’t want to park and fly then a taxi is not overly expensive.

It is a pretty small airport with a limited duty free section, and food and drink places one you are through to the departure lounge. I have always found staff to be friendly and even when they chose to search my friend on the way to Amsterdam they were easy going and tried not to be too intrusive whilst being thorough.

Finger crossed for a bigger variety of flights coming soon but even without is ideal for connecting flights to Heathrow and onward

I’ve flown a few times in and out of Teesside (or to give it the new name Durham Tees Valley). The most recent on a trip to Mexico where I flew via KLM and Amsterdam.

Whilst the airport small this does mean it has a friendly side and people are willing to chat while they do their jobs. The airside part doens’t have any room for shops and you have to walk out to th eplanes but then that is quite nice and harks back to the old fashioned flying era.

With this service on the doorstep you really can go on to explore the world.

Teesside airport is the original name, and is still on most road signs. Indeed, if you are new to the area and ask people how to get to ‘Durham Tees Valley’ airport, you may meet blank looks.
Teesside Airport is very small, I last used it January 1st 2006 when my dad died, it was a bit frustrating really, i booked the wrong day on the internet form, then had to pay a surcharge at Heathrow to fly on the right day. We flew over Stockton, below the cloud, where I wanted to be, and i ended up in darlington. As far as i remember all the shops were shut and there was only one bus from the airport, to Darlington. I got that bus because I thought I could get a train from Darlington to Stockton, and that would have been a good guess, because most days that would have been true, and indeed most New Years Days that would have been true, but there was some kind of problem on the line so that no trains were running between Darlington and Thornaby station (originally called Stockton South, and the original line of the famous Stockton Darlington railway, you can still get trains cross country from Thornaby). I had to get a taxi from Darlington, about 12 miles or so, and it was very expensive because it was New Years Day.
I suppose the point to all this rambling is that links between Teesside Airport and the surrounding towns are poor; there used to be a regular rail link but no longer. You are best being met at the airport by a friend or relative. People complain about public transport in London, but I think they don’t use the buses in their home towns. My local bus stops at 11pm in Stockton, and is only one an hour after 6pm.
I remember being a kid and having a great time watching planes take off from the roof of the airport. If I remember correctly it was all wood panelled but they’ve got rid of that.

Teeside airport is an excellent local airport. It has many airlines running out of it, including budget airlines. It is ideal if you are traveling to London, particularly on business- it is a short 30minute flight.

It has good facilities with cafes, and restaurants. Althought it is not a massive airport with few places to shop in.

Until recently, I was a regular traveller to Teesside on business. After years of travelling on by train GNER, I thought I'd give the bmi service to the (then) Teesside International Airport. Since then, I've become a firm fan.

It's closer to Teesside and, being very small (just two gates!), is very easy to use. OK, so the facilities are a bit limited, but it compares well with Darlington station. Although on principle I'd preferred to have used the train (lower carbon emissions), the lousy connections from Darlington to Middlesbrough, coupled with the difference in price, made it a no-brainer. £75 return on bmi compared with over £200 on GNER?

The four return flights a day are well timed for business in either direction, too. The only downside is having to use Heathrow at the other end, but then King's Cross during the rebuilding work is hardly pleasant, either.

The only thing I don't like is the new name - it's nowhere near Durham, as it implies. Still, that's a minor quibble.