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Post by Beemer on Oct 3, 2020 11:25:22 GMT 1
A quick Google came up with this, When Teesside International Airport opened in 1964 all the obvious codes, like TEE or TIA, were already taken, but I also believe that originally it was suggested that the airport was going to be called Middlesbrough Municipal Airport. How ever, MMA was already in use, by Malmo in Sweden, so it became MME as the next best option.
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Post by dalten1 on Oct 3, 2020 11:38:38 GMT 1
Well done Viscount.
I didn't want to get as verbose as you, as I tend to ramble. I had the pleasure,or otherwise of using the AFTN network as part of my job. Fortunately I didn't have to use the old tickertape machines. AFTN stands for Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network, if anybody is interested. My wife and I stayed in the hotel that used to be the officers/NCO's quarters when Teesside was RAF Middleton St.George.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2020 12:45:06 GMT 1
As someone who has had to live with both sets of codings for more than 50 years, perhaps I could just add a few words of my own. I fully agree with the comments in Viscount's post and dalten 1's decoding of AFTN is correct, as is Beemer's logic concerning the letters allocated for MME. I once spent some time many years ago with a man from IATA who worked in the office where they allocate the codes and a very interesting conversation it was, too. Rather than hijack this thread I have put my comments into the 'Other Aviation Related Topics' part of the forum.
One final point. The AFTN allocation system for the UK is unnecessarily confusing and I still have to think twice when I read TAFs (Terminal Area Forecast) and METARs (Meteorological Aerodrome Report). I can still remember EGGS as the code for the IOM!
To go back to the original posting regarding the new Eastern Airways flight, I fear that MME could fall between two stools here. A £5m regional development grant, or whatever it is properly called, will not go far and early indications are that the loads are quite low. Interline agreements take ages to put in place and not all airlines are interested in having them. I cannot see the route surviving on point-to-point traffic. If the route does continue to operate for a while, I imagine KLM could take a long hard look at it and decide to do what they did at Liverpool - we shall see.
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Post by silvercity on Oct 3, 2020 13:13:46 GMT 1
Back in old days when BD operated MME LBA and LPL to LHR, i worked in business travel and used to book many passengers from MME to LHR who were ICI employees.
I hope the new link works out for them, im sure they are doing all they can for it to succeed, but they are up against it with the Covid19 situation. Liverpool is probably a more popular destination city now than in the BD days, if Tees side get it to work, would a LPL- LHR work too ? Im aware BA pulled off LBA to LHR recently however. If we were to get a hub link KLM to AMS returning would be my first choice.
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Post by eye2eye5 on Oct 3, 2020 13:25:47 GMT 1
It's suggested that one fall out from Covid 19 is that business travel will be decimated and may never recover as platforms such as Zoom make on line meetings far easier and cheaper, as well as more accepted as being the norm.
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Post by silvercity on Oct 3, 2020 13:33:08 GMT 1
I think that is entirely possible. Leisure travel maybe the growth area.
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Post by bulldog on Oct 3, 2020 22:07:06 GMT 1
Nice one Brian very informative, I had never really considered the origin of these codes. All the above posts give an interesting history of where they came from .
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Post by ametyst on Oct 4, 2020 12:19:42 GMT 1
I stick by what I said. I remember what I was told all those years ago in the AFTN office at Speke.
Added in by Admin, to save a fresh post detached from the ICAO codes topic:
The AFTN 'Flight Briefings' Office was also my initial source of information too!
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Post by silvercity on Oct 20, 2020 11:47:56 GMT 1
There is an article on the Internet regarding a new road from the A561 to improve access from the east.
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Post by LPL on Oct 20, 2020 12:08:10 GMT 1
What's the link to it?
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Post by bluefox on Oct 20, 2020 13:06:29 GMT 1
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Post by silvercity on Oct 20, 2020 13:25:44 GMT 1
that's the one, that's what I read.
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Post by viscount on Oct 20, 2020 16:34:24 GMT 1
Clearly a major infrastructure development if it is going to take a full 12 months just to produce an "outline business case" for the project, let alone selecting a final route, then obtain planning permission and if it gets 'called-in', a public hearing. Not a speedy process, even if 'fast-tracked'. However, clearly, the ball has been started rolling which is good news, I take it that this 'outline business case' Report is effectively an argument for funding, with the costs involved calculated for various alternative routes; as without funding any project is dead in the water.
I'm presuming that this new approach road from the east, will run onwards from the M62/A5300 across the A562 Widnes-Garston road (just east of the A562/561 split), then through the gap between Speke and Hale - a link that has been proposed in several Airport future development reports, although it usually ends up south of the runway at an eventual proposed new terminal site, rather than more usefully serving the current terminal area in the interim.
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Post by bluefox on Oct 20, 2020 17:24:32 GMT 1
Let's hope they leave space for a railway line.
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Post by silvercity on Oct 21, 2020 8:24:17 GMT 1
Let's hope they leave space for a railway line. Indeed, while your doing one ,do both . The governments recent mantra was build build build ! Lets see.
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