Avios Tips

Where can you fly from Newcastle Airport using Avios points or miles?

By Al
18th June 2024
3 mins read time

All the flights from NCL that you can use airline miles on

If you're in the North East, or even in parts of the North West, then Newcastle is your closet, biggest airport, at least in terms of the number of flights. In this article, we break down which flights are available if you want to use airline miles.

Why fly from Newcastle?

Around 4 million people live within a two-hour drive of Newcastle Airport. The catchment area covers Carlisle to the West, which is in a no-man land when it comes to international airports, and the other North East cities of Sunderland, Durham and Middlesborough. Since BA stopped flying from LHR to Leeds Newcastle is only the second Northern city that connects to London (Manchester being the other).

The airport carried just under 5 million passengers in 2023, not quite matching the high of 5.3 million in 2018 but still recovering from the lows of COVID.

NCL benefits from being a single terminal airport. It's also renowned for fast entry and exit, and it was one of the first airports in the UK to implement next-generation security scanners. This allows passengers to leave liquids and electronics in their hand luggage. A game changer that still - at the time of writing - evades Heathrow and Manchester (except the Aether private terminal).

How busy is Newcastle airport?

The top two destinations by passengers numbers (in 2023) were both connecting cities: London Heathrow and Amsterdam. In the top ten busiest routes Dubai was sixth and Dublin, with plenty of connections, in seventh. Dubai's total passengers were up 60% vs 2022, the highest uplift. Newcastle Airports 2035 masterplan predicts that passenger numbers will almost double to 9.4 million in the next eleven years.

Lounge options at Newcastle Airport

Newcastle has three lounge options, all operated by Aspire (Swissport) and operating on different levels of service and cost. You can pay cash for the bottom and top (in terms of experience and quality) lounges. The mid (Luxe by Aspire) is really for One World and Star Alliance flights with no cash booking option available. All three are technically accessible using Priority Pass.

  • Aspire Lounge - Buy entry for £43.99, or can be used with Priority Pass (Pre-booking is available for £6 per person). You can also use Barclays Dragon Pass vouchers to pre-book this lounge for £5 per person.
  • Luxe by Aspire (Servicing BA, KLM, Air France) - No cash entry option.
  • Aspire+ Lounge - Buy entry for £59.99.
Photograph of The Suite Aspire lounge at Newcastle Airport, Uk. The lounge services British Airways flights, as well as KLM and Air France.

Flights by destination

CityOperatorAllianceFrequencyAll Year?
AmsterdamKLMSkyTeamMultiple DailyY
AthensAegean Star AllianceTue/Fri in WinterWed/Sun in Summer
BelfastAer LingusOne WorldDailyY
DubaiEmiratesNADailyY
DublinAer LingusOne WorldDailyY
FrankfurtLufthansaStar AllianceDailyY
London HeathrowBritish AirwaysOne WorldMultiple DailyY
ParisAir FranceSkyTeamMultiple DailyY

Flights by Alliance

AllianceDestinationsOnward Connection Options
One WorldHeathrow, Dublin, Belfast344 destinations from LHR, DUB and BFS
Star AllianceFrankfurt, Athens318 destinations from FRA and ATH
SkyTeamAmsterdam, Paris239 destinations from AMS and CDG
Emirates (No Alliance)Dubai157 destinations from DXB