Lost Teesside – Remembering Teesside's Lost History

If you’ve been keeping up with developments at Teesside International Airport over recent years you might be wondering why it is being featured on a website called Lost Teesside.

After all, this is a thriving facility with daily flights all over Europe, many cargo, training and military flights, and a whole host of other activities using the facilities on the sprawling site.

But over the past 60 years (and beyond) a lot has changed at Teesside Airport and in this article we want to highlight some of those changes and what hints of the past still remain.

Teesside Airport Reaches 60

The first passenger terminal in 1964 was in a Nissen hut

Teesside Airport today has regular holiday flights.

This year, 2024, marks 60 years since what we now know as Teesside International Airport handled its first commercial flights.

What was once a wartime bomber base, and later a military training airfield, successfully transitioned into a civil airport and saw fledgling services to destinations like Manchester from a small hut acting as check-in area and departure lounge.

Through subsequent decades it has grown, taking over more space, opening a larger passenger terminal and other facilities, and seeing airlines operating flights all over the country and even as far away as North America during the 1990s.

For a while the airport was known as Durham Tees Valley

For a while the airport was known as Durham Tees Valley in a bid to attract more inbound visitors by linking it with a more recognisable ‘destination’ name, albeit one some 20 miles away.

Also, for a while, the future of the airport was in double with a loss of much of its passenger traffic and income.

Then, in 2018, Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen stepped in to act on his promise to buy back the airport into public ownership, rename it back to Teesside International, and turn around its fortunes.

Today it’s no mega hub by any means, but the number of flights are up, many areas have been revamped and new business attracted, and the future looks a lot brighter.

Lost Teesside Airport

An aerial view of Teesside Airport around the time that it opened as a civil facility.

An early view of Teesside Airport from the Northern Echo

Through the course of the history of this site, which sits equidistant between Darlington and Stockton-on-Tees, the many changes have left memories of how the airport used to look. Many of the buildings have also been repurposed or lost over time.

Here we bring some reminders of how Teesside Airport looked at different times, and what remains to see today.

In a future article we will also look at the history and reminders of the airport’s wartime past, when it was known as RAF Middleton St George, acting as the most northerly of all the Bomber Command bases.