Flacks' sake
Teesside airport , Issue 1665 The managing director of Teesside airport, Phil Forster, is running the publicly owned business while holding a remarkable conflict of interest: he's also on the books of an investor who recently tried to buy the airport and has snaffled up a large swathe of adjacent land.

Florida-based British businessman Michael Flacks, whose chief line of investment via his Flacks Group is "distressed assets", last year offered to buy a 49 percent stake in Teesside International Airport, which is controlled by the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) chaired by regional mayor Lord (Ben) Houchen.

Houchen had brought the airport back into public ownership in 2019, only to see its losses and debts rise drastically (Eyes passim). Flacks' approach was rebuffed, but at around the same time, in spring 2024, he did manage to acquire a 500-acre brownfield site next door, formerly a chromium manufacturing plant.

Double life
Bizarrely, the man with the inside information on the airport that Flacks had in his sights, Phil Forster, has recently been made "senior adviser UK environmental opportunities" to the Flacks Group.

It's an odd title, given that the 38-year-old, who began his career as a press officer for Newcastle Utd FC before a short stint in TV and communications posts for a couple of other small airports, has no specific environmental experience.

More strikingly still, last month Forster was made a director of the Flacks company that owns and is developing the neighbouring brownfield site for commercial and residential use, Eaglescliffe Land Development Ltd. Beyond the airport connection, it's unclear what attracted Flacks, whose wealth was put at £1.7bn by the latest Sunday Times Rich List, to Forster.

Monaco or bust
Eye 1663 reported a whistleblower letter from a self-described "senior insider at Teesside International Airport", alleging "systemic governance failures [and] mismanagement", with bosses said to be taking "lavish corporate hospitality".

One such event, the Eye has since learned, involved Forster being treated to a couple of days at the Monaco Grand Prix in May by a property company looking to do business at the airport. Another involved a private jet trip to Florida, with his family, courtesy of an aviation company client of the airport, when a family holiday coincided with an important business meeting.

For most public bodies (and private ones for that matter), such conflicts of interest would be a no-no, but different rules seem to apply in Teesside.

Any investigation into allegations concerning the airport ought also, perhaps, involve a look at the MD's extracurricular activities, on which Forster declined to comment.

Cash landing
In its latest financial forecasts, TVCA reports that by this September the airport group owed it £155m, including £26.8m unpaid interest. Against the latter amount, and "given the airport's financial position", the combined authority has recorded a "bad debt provision". In other words, it's counting on not getting the money.

All of which might make a sale to the likes of Mr Flacks or another Mr or Ms Big at some point quite attractive.