Mayor's Message

I’m absolutely delighted to announce a massive coup for Teesside Airport this month – flights to Malaga! I promised it, and we delivered!

On top of that, Teesside has also been named Airport of the Year at the British Travel Awards for the second year running, proving we’re giving passengers a top-quality experience on top of new flights.

Just down the road, Darlington Station’s gateway concourse has been completed as part of its £140million upgrade. It’ll soon be ready to welcome even more tourists, after the latest figures showed visitors have given a £1.3billion boost to the region’s economy in a year of big events.

In other transport news, we’re kicking off a major operation to record traffic flows and passenger numbers to make getting around Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool even smoother. Our young people have also been invited to name and decorate Stagecoach’s zero-emission electric bus fleet – coming early next year.

Our area has also been named one of eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, so we can lead the way and go further in supporting people aged 18-21 into good-quality, well-paid jobs or training and education to secure these opportunities. And we’ve also worked with our creative sector to launch a network to support our brilliant freelancers.