"*" indicates required fields
Teesside Airport’s cargo facility has welcomed three VIP athletes through its doors – top championship horses set for one of the North East’s biggest race weekends.
The only long faces were on the thoroughbreds as the horses made it here ahead of York Races’ Sky Bet Ebor Festival 2023.
Never a business to look a gift horse in the mouth, the cargo hub greeted its first horses today (Wednesday, 23 August), with a number flying in from Ireland tomorrow.
The charges include Edwardian, Continuous, and race favourite Paddington, owned by Coolmore farms, who has just celebrated his fourth straight win in the Irish Group 1 flat horse races. The horses will race in today’s Juddmonte International, twice-ranked number one of all thoroughbred horse races in the world, before taking back off home from Teesside.
Teesside Airport’s cargo handling facility is continuing to prove the neigh-sayers wrong, with the latest movement coming just days after it reported its best week for business. It is growing its reputation for the quick turnaround of last-minute and time-sensitive cargo as it can cope with deliveries on the hoof.
Teesside’s £2.5million state-of-the-art cargo facility has gone from strength to strength since it opened for business in August last year, becoming the UK’s newest Border Control Point – meaning it can now handle flowers, fruit and vegetables – in January.
The facility can offload, process and get cargo on the road in as little as 30 minutes following aircraft touchdown, with its location at heart of Northern England – and at the centre of Great Britain – perfectly placing it for manufacturers and businesses not just in Teesside, but across the country.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “Our cargo facility has the expertise to handle anything thrown at it and it is great to welcome these magnificent and highly valuable thoroughbreds through our airport.
“Our experienced team helped ensure the horses disembarked safely and got them on the road to York, where lots of local people will be heading this week to enjoy the racing.
“No matter what the consignment, our expert handlers can turn it around quickly and easily, with our brilliant onward road and rail connections making our hub a no-brainer for the 70,000 businesses within an hour of the airport.
“It just goes to show, that our plan for the airport was the right one and we’re on the right track to make it a success for years to come, whatever the neigh-sayers might want you to think.”
