Direct ‘lounge to aircraft’ boarding arrives …. at Teesside International

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• BJ says:

  28 Apr28 April 05:25

  BMI had lounge to gate boarding at GLA years ago, I liked it a lot. Ages since I last flew from GLA, 2014 I think, but IIRC BA now occupies the old BMI lounge but I’ve never heard that they ever use it for direct gate access.

  • BJ says:

    28 Apr28 April 05:40

    I should have wrote lounge to plane, not lounge to gate.

  • Andrew. says:

    28 Apr28 April 08:17

    So did EDI in the late 1990s. Along with (effectively) their own short stay car park for BMI passengers at 50p for 30 minutes.

    Check in, up the steps. Turn left for status holders, turn right for ordinaries. Then there were direct doors to the air bridge from the lounge and the holding pen so passengers with status had a comfortable entrance.

    It generally worked well, but on a Sunday with all but the back four rows of the plane as business you’d be sitting on the floor of the lounge.

    Actually, didn’t the BMI area at Heathrow T1 have something similar?

  • Martin says:

    28 Apr28 April 08:45

    Is the whisky snug not now in the corner where the door to gate 26 was?

• Ian says:

  28 Apr28 April 06:33

  Fairly sure the Windsor Suite was the first in the UK 😂

• pauldb says:

  28 Apr28 April 06:41

  Perhaps I just don’t know enough about SkyTeam, but who qualifies to SkyPrioirty? Without that I am missing the critical information: who can use this service.

  • d3vski says:

    28 Apr28 April 09:37

    Business Class and anyone who is FlyingBlue Gold and above.

    FlyingBlue Gold = BA Silver

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    28 Apr28 April 10:48

    Anyone with SkyTeam Elite Plus.

    • TJones says:

      28 Apr28 April 11:02

      It’s a little more nuanced than that. Lounge access is granted based on SkyTeam status (gold or platinum) or class of travel (business or first). SkyPriority itself doesn’t include lounge access. It’s just supposed to speed you through the airport. Premium economy on AF and KL includes SkyPriority, but not lounge access.

• Chez says:

  28 Apr28 April 06:54

  George Best Airport in Belfast effectively has direct lounge to boarding from the Aspire Lounge, I believe

• The Paw 🐾 says:

  28 Apr28 April 07:12

  Way back when the Concorde was operating, you boarded from the First/Concorde lounge to the plane.

  • The Paw 🐾 says:

    28 Apr28 April 07:13

    BA operated from Heathrow Terminal 4.

  • Tom says:

    28 Apr28 April 08:08

    Same for BA1 from LCY more recently, you boarded directly from the gate lounge.

    • The Paw 🐾 says:

      28 Apr28 April 08:12

      Never did the Baby Bus despite the 180 tier point incentive. But I thought it was a regular gate at LCY that was cordoned off and there was a little buffet. Or was there a BA lounge back in the day of BA1/2 from LCY?

      • Joe says:

        28 Apr28 April 08:56

        Originally there was a separate gate with snacks and drinks but in the latter years it was just a voucher for the restaurant. I did it in 2017 and it the “gate lounge” was long gone by then.

        • FatherOfFour says:

          28 Apr28 April 15:41

          I believe it was where Gate 24 is now.

      • Boaby says:

        28 Apr28 April 18:24

        210 TP, not 180

  • Matt H says:

    28 Apr28 April 11:12

    Yes, same in JFK – was a thing on behold having a glass of Krug whilst the Concorde is parked up at the window next to you. I imagine its very similar seeing that KLM A320 at Newcastle

    • daveinitalia says:

      28 Apr28 April 16:53

      Newcastle??

• DC says:

  28 Apr28 April 07:16

  Teesside really is making a push to increase regional connectivity but the recent loss of the Loganair flight to Aberdeen is a real sucker punch to the region and the large number of oil and gas workers and its doubful, sandwiched between NCL and LBA that it will ever make its own strong foothold in the passenger aviation arena. Cargo seems a sustainable future. One unfortunate downside of the airports continued drive to grow is the increasing costs leveraged against general aviation.

  • Stuart says:

    28 Apr28 April 09:38

    I don’t know why they haven’t got any EasyJet flight yet. EZY use it all the time for doing training loops. Jet2 also send planes there for maintenance.

• Willmo says:

  28 Apr28 April 07:19

  Belfast city also has lounge to aircraft boarding

• Bluekjp says:

  28 Apr28 April 07:30

  BHD Aspire onto BA flights.

  • PGR says:

    28 Apr28 April 07:56

    It’s certainly lounge into gate tunnel, though the entrance to the tunnel is just a few metres earlier. I wonder what qualifies as “lounge to plane”?

    • Bagoly says:

      28 Apr28 April 15:52

      My definition is that one gets to the ‘plane without sharing a route at all with Economy passengers.
      i.e. there need to be two entrances on the ‘plane being used.
      Emirate A380 from T3 works, especially as on board, First/Business is top deck and Economy is lower deck.

  • twoclicks says:

    28 Apr28 April 08:25

    I was going to say I thought they had lounge to plane here. Is there not an entrance from the BA lounge as well? It is years since I’ve been so I may be mistaken!

    • PGR says:

      28 Apr28 April 08:57

      BA and Aspire lounges merged about a year ago – and it’s very nice too

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