Durham Tees Valley Airport (Durham Tees Valley Airport (MME))

Member Name: hunnybabyuk

Product:	Durham Tees Valley Airport (MME)
Date:	26/05/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small, easy to get round

Disadvantages: Limited flights

Durham Tees Valley Airport, formally called Teesside International Airport, is a small compact airport which some say is a bit like the size a shed but it's got a lot going for it.

Getting to the airport is fairly easy its just off the A167/A67 so very easy to get to from the whole of the North East. Theres also 2 local bus routes ran by Arriva one from Darlington & surrounding area and one from Middlesbrough & Stockton, leaving from town centres so it's very easy to get from smaller areas by bus and change in town, infact goto http://www.travelnortheast.co.uk and you can get bus times for ALL operators across the North East. The airport is only small so doesn't have a train station and March 2009 saw the withdrawal of the shuttle between the airport and Darlington station however Darlington station is served by Arriva bus or a short taxi away from the airport where you can connect to trains UK-wide. So it's VERY easy to get to the airport.

Once there, you may see that it's partly been refurbished and they have more plans to refurbish further in the future. Theres two doors, one for Arrivals and one for Departures, on entering Arrivals (landside) you have a few car hire desks and a taxi rank, which is the nearest door to the current bus stop, also if your arriving off a flight you'll find it very easy to get from plane to baggage reclaim in just a very short time and the airport has 2 baggage belts which is great as there isn't usually many more than 2 flights at once anyway, when you walk through departures entrance you'll see above you screens to tell you the checkin desks and flight details, theres a small travel agency to the left, next to this is an airport information desk and a cafe/bar is to your right, then either side to your left and right you have checkin desks, theres only a few desks either side but only a few flights checkin at a time, checkin is usually very fast. Then security is only one door between checkin and departure lounge so security is cleared within minutes. Once in departures there are only 5 departure gates, last year the London Heathrow flight (now withdrawn) always left from gate 5 and the rest left from any of the 4 gates which are all seconds away from each other. The departure lounge as a fairly decent sized duty free and a cafe, not badly priced.

The airport offers flights to a handful of destinations as it's a nice small local airport.

Summary: Overall nice easy little airport