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

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• Jimbo says:

  28 Apr28 April 08:01

  British Midland indeed had direct lounge to plane access at Glasgow years ago : in fact there were two lounges who fed passengers down to the same jetway.

  • Chris says:

    28 Apr28 April 08:34

    I think I recall BA having ‘almost’ lounge to gate from their lounge down at the pier. Gate 19?

    There was a door that exited the lounge right next to the gate which they announced and boarded the flights to Heathrow for lounge pax.

• Peter says:

  28 Apr28 April 08:31

  Perhaps this is more common outside the UK. It looked as if there was direct lounge to plane access at Abu Dhabi for one of the London flights (operated by an A380). Unfortunately we couldn’t try it out as we were on the flight a few hours later (as it was several hundred pounds cheaper), and we had to walk to a gate. Etihad’s business class lounge at Abu Dhabi airport is eye-opening. In fact the whole airport is eye-opening.

  • Yuff says:

    28 Apr28 April 09:22

    +1

• Nigel says:

  28 Apr28 April 08:49

  At Belfast City Airport, the exit from the British Midland Business Class Lounge opened onto the corridor to the airbridge giving direct, same level, undercover access from Business Class Lounge to the plane. This was taken over by British Airways when they took over from British Midland and I believe is still in use today.

  • Michael says:

    28 Apr28 April 09:52

    In the original iteration of BHD, the departure lounge was downstairs where security is now, and the Flybe, bmi business and diamond club lounges were upstairs. The bmi business lounge was roughly where Starbucks is now, with direct access to the airbridge from within the lounge. Economy passengers boarded via the stairs to the airbridge or across the tarmac to the rear steps.

    There have been at least two reconfigurations since. I would argue there still is boarding direct from the lounge as the corridor to gate 4 is signed as part of the gate itself, now has a mini tensa maze and lounge opens into this.

    • Kevin says:

      29 Apr29 April 10:02

      A lot of those who fly BHD-LHR frequently will get to know the lounge staff and if need be, they are happy to come and get you just. before boarding is complete. No need to rush your breakfast!

      It’s a popular route for our MPs travelling to Westminster. Ironically, the only party who endorsed Brexit is the only party whose MPs sit in Club Europe!

• TJones says:

  28 Apr28 April 08:50

  What happens when you’re travelling on a premium economy ticket but not SkyTeam Elite Plus? You’ll have SkyPriority but not lounge access. The airport website refers to “eligible KLM SkyPriority passengers”.

• Richie says:

  28 Apr28 April 08:54

  Will it be Emirates lounge to aircraft at Stansted?

  • Rob says:

    28 Apr28 April 09:21

    I don’t actually know where that is being built.

• Matthias says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:06

  BA at SFO also had ‘lounge to dedicated gate tunnel’ back in the early 2000s, not sure if that still exists. Was a very nice experience.

  • Nick says:

    28 Apr28 April 09:21

    Still exists, but not for A380 services. Same as Boston. Neither of these are ‘in the country’ though… I suspect Teesside is counting Belfast as Ireland and ‘first’ refers to currently not ever, but either way it’s still a misleading statement that detracts from what could otherwise have been a positive story.

• TimM says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:22

  And there is also Manchester’s PremiAir – a private terminal with lounge and private transport to the plane. I believe it has not re-opened yet post-Covid.

  https://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/premiair/

  • No longer Entitled says:

    28 Apr28 April 10:26

    Rob had reported that it is reopening in the Autumn. Hopefully that remains accurate because I am taking a punt and booking my 2025 long haul with a view to using the facility.

    • Rob says:

      28 Apr28 April 11:08

      The CEO of Aspire told me in Newcastle on Monday that he believed it could be as soon as August – Aspire isn’t involved in the running of Premiair but of course they are in Manchester Airport itself and know what is going on.

• Bob christian says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:53

  The airport is a PR stunt for the mayor attempting re-election. He’s trying anything for positive press. Logan air just pulled out and the airport is making a loss / this is a newspaper headline with no real benefit for passengers. As someone who flies regularly here, it’s saves about 30 seconds leaving the lounge door and walking to the gate next to the lounge.

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

    28 Apr28 April 10:47

    It’s not about distance though. MAN T3 isn’t big but the boarding process itself is chaotic. Anything that keeps priority passengers in an entirely separate track for boarding is superior than a shared single gate and a hope that staff and passengers will listen to boarding group instruction.

  • JDB says:

    28 Apr28 April 11:23

    I hope you will be voting for Lord Houchen! He got almost three quarters of the vote in 2021 and yes he is very good at courting publicity, not necessarily a bad thing for the area.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      28 Apr28 April 11:48

      He’s not getting 73% on May 2nd.

      The 2021 election was very skewed due to the popularity of one B Johnson at the time.

      It will be much more like the 2017 election.

      It will be a much tighter result this time. So much so the Tories are worried they’ll lose.

    • Hbommie says:

      28 Apr28 April 12:40

      If there was a decent opponent he’d probably lose, but there isn’t. ‘Lord’ Ben, nearly spat out my cornflakes when that was announced.

      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

        28 Apr28 April 18:03

        The opponent and their quality doesn’t really matter.

        If you don’t want to vote for him / Tory then does it really matter what their name is or how good a candidate they are?

        • Hbommie says:

          28 Apr28 April 18:52

          Disagree, he has ‘appeal’ across the board. Yes a Tory but he has been very prominent in the area for a while and those without a political preference will vote for a familiar name.

          If Labour had a better candidate it may have been different.

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