Newcastle: Aspire unveils high-end plans to expand into the old British Airways lounge

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• His Holyness says:

  16 Oct16 October 06:58

  Good idea. Met should routinely breathalyse pax at the jet bridge. Staff standby’s would all clear as half the J and F cabins are denied boarding.

  • MT says:

    16 Oct16 October 07:16

    Thankfully we do not live in such a nanny state, while no one who is drunk should be allowed onboard an aircraft, the breathalyzer test would not work as alcohol affects everyone differently so how do you set the level at which people fail! The bit about the article that troubles me is the hour stuck in a security queue, it could be suggested that after experiencing security at many UK airports you do indeed need a drink or two, to get over the experience!

    • David says:

      16 Oct16 October 14:11

      I’m fully drunk with 3 pints so I seldom drink that many.

  • tony says:

    16 Oct16 October 07:31

    I think it’s more of a qualitative than quantitative concern, to be fair. It reads as if this chap appeared to believe that checking in his suitcase, going through security and having at least one breakfast pint were all essential tasks to complete when it came to him actually being allowed to board the aircraft.

    Looking round many an airport early doors would tend to suggest he’s not alone in his beliefs.

• Chrisasaurus says:

  16 Oct16 October 07:17

  Christ. Sir did you want some article with your ads?

  It looks like an ad agency lorry has crashed and jettisoned its cargo all over that webpage

  • daveinitalia says:

    16 Oct16 October 10:22

    Typical of a Reach (owners of the Mirror and Daily Express) local news site

• S says:

  16 Oct16 October 07:32

  Mr Ward lauding a refit of a third party, paid entry lounge as delivering on customer experience feels almost duplicitous. Chron readers have it right. The whole airport is filthy and run down. It’s full of drunks because there is essentially no public seating outside of the bars. It’s been this bad for years and there appears to be zero interest in setting a basic standard.

  Credit where it’s due though, security is a model of efficiency.

  • Alastair says:

    16 Oct16 October 09:08

    Back in the early 2000s the terminal extension was specifically designed with no seating unless you were sitting inside a concession and had to pay for something (coffee, beer, a meal etc.) It’s the “dwell time” concept taken to extremes.
    Incidentally the executive that oversaw it went onto work on the retail offer at St Pancras International (which lacks seating in the same way) and then I believe HS2.

    • daveinitalia says:

      16 Oct16 October 09:26

      Growing up in the 80s the airport was a nice place to visit and got even better when the Metro was extended in the early 90s. There was a rooftop viewing area as well as the cafe/bar on the 1st floor located landside.

• In says:

  16 Oct16 October 08:00

  BA have all but abandoned flights to Newcastle, prices are bonkers, they are overbooked and massively reduced. Been bumped off a couple of times recently or pushed on the next flightz

  • NorthernLass says:

    16 Oct16 October 08:42

    MAN is the same, northern revenue must really mean very little to IAG’s coffers!

    • James C says:

      16 Oct16 October 09:05

      I saw an old shuttle advert from c1998 the other day which heralded MAN- LHR 17 times a day….

      Think IAG are looking to EI to satisfy the MAN market heading West. They’re of zero interest to me however so I’ll keep connecting via LHR. I am regularly seeing keener pricing though with one way fares for £40-50. NCL less keenly priced and does seem badly timed for my purposes when I look at it. The Hotel Inidigo in the city centre I booked regularly for less than £80 a night end of last year/ start of this year though not looked at pricing recently.

      • Rhys says:

        16 Oct16 October 09:12

        This is it. Heathrow is slot constrained – much better for IAG to route transatlantic traffic via Ireland instead. It’s more geographically sensible, avoids clogging Heathrow up and it’s probably faster for passengers.

        • NorthernLass says:

          16 Oct16 October 10:32

          If EI joined OW, it would make a lot more sense!

      • NorthernLass says:

        16 Oct16 October 10:36

        DT has bigger rooms, better restaurant and cheaper car park, far more generous with drinks tokens as well (we got 4 on a 2-night stay)!

      • daveinitalia says:

        16 Oct16 October 10:56

        17 times a day sounds crazy now but I bet in those days there was more point to point traffic as the WCML was slow compared to the ECML and security was less of a hassle in those days. Although the Heathrow Express only opened in 1998 so before that you had to take the tube or get a taxi

        • Mike says:

          16 Oct16 October 16:48

          The WCML is still slow, just less slow and it’s still a pain to get to Heathrow. To the best of my knowledge there’s not even a lift at Euston to the underground platform level just to the ticket hall.

    • Mike says:

      16 Oct16 October 16:46

      Yep, the MAN flights are packed like clown cars, more feeder flights from MAN-LHR are needed. I guess this comes down to LHR slot usage.

• DrX says:

  16 Oct16 October 08:13

  I moved from LDN to to Newcastle but when travelling long haul I prefer to still return to Gatwick to fly emirates. Firstly the planes are newer and are a380, but mostly because of the airport and lounge. However departing from NCL literally can take 10-15 minutes from airplane to reaching outside which is lovely.

• NorthernLass says:

  16 Oct16 October 08:41

  The airport sounds awful but I have to say that the Doubletree there is very good and stupendous value, often under £80 pn, if you don’t want to pay city prices but need somewhere decent to sleep and eat.

• daveinitalia says:

  16 Oct16 October 09:13

  The airport were supposed to be building a new lounge but work on it was stopped during covid and doesn’t seem to have resumed.

  When BA had their own lounge it used to be a good experience flying through the airport. It may not have looked much but the lounge was well appreciated by the regulars

  It seems Aspire is taking a similar approach to LBA who had 3 categories of lounge (not sure if that’s still the case after covid as BA pulled out) the lower tier lounge was for Priority Pass and the cheapest paid entry, the mid tier lounge was used for status travellers of KLM and BA and there was a more expensive luxury lounge which you could pay for if you wanted something better. This worked well as it catered to the different needs of passengers. Let’s just hope BA uses the business section of this new lounge and doesn’t just put us in the cheapest bit.

• Rich_A says:

  16 Oct16 October 09:38

  The old BA lounge was well-loved.

  Its odd location was down to domestic departures once being separate from international. The walk from curb to check-in to security to lounge to aircraft was pretty much a straight line, all of 30 metres.

  I think it makes a lot of sense to extend the Aspire lounge now, given BAs lack of interest

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