Newcastle has grown in recent years into a sizeable international airport. It now serves a reasonable number of holiday destinations by chartered flights including all the major Spanish resorts and others like Florida, Cyprus, Italy (Naples), Turkey and a new service to Dubrovnik in Croatia. I have used it recently for a flight to Brussels with Sabena.
Now I am not saying I am the worlds most travelled person but I have been through a number of different airports in my time. Frankly there is little to choose between any of them. They all feel like, well, airports. They are usually hugely buildings which are like aeroplane hangers with carpoets and a few seats. The people in charge may put in the odd Costa Coffee bar or Burger King but the over all ambience is still distinctly airport.
Newcastle airport makes a pleasant change. OK you still know it is an airport but the shops, cafes and restaurants. In particular praise must go to Cushie Butterfields which was as good a pub as you would wish to find. The Food area is also refreshingly different offering Italian fare at Latinos, pizzas and pasta. It also has Sharwoods Taste of Asia with lots of curries and spicy dishes, The Deli with reasonably priced good sandwiches and Baxters Soup well I will leave you to guess what they serve here. Beyond the gate is Into The Blue another bar area.
There is also a well stocked Boots the chemists and W H Smith and the ubiquitous Costa Coffee Bars but it is the feel of the place that is different. Parking is easy for relatively short stays and no more expensive than for example Manchester. The airport is easily reached by car off the A1 and public transport also calls via the Metro link. Generally I found the airport ran well, check in was good, there were no queues at any of the passport or security areas. In this respect it was much better than Manchester which always seems not to have the space to cope with the capacity it has travelling through it.
All in all I was very impressed with Newcastle airport and for those living in the North East I would suggest there is no reason to look beyond your local airport.
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Sep 2nd, 2001
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