1) minimal capital investment - true but what does that really mean? Doesn't it mean that if someone were to put in some capital investment things might look up? Many organisations buy into businesses despite there having been minimal investment in the past. It's about potential and PIK still has potential in various areas including maintenance.
** The main maintenance operator was Polar who were paid a lot of money to come and left when the bribes ran out. At the moment we have a large and empty B747 hangar, as does MAN oddly enough. This potential has been spoken about for years....
2) with a railway station built from papier mache - Bit of an exaggeration as the railway station is solid enough - just needs a major makeover and made watertight!
**There is NO money to do this, like the Terminal, the 1994 built railway staton will remain falling down until it actually does fall down. Utterly deplorable welcome to Scotland.
3) with the cargo terminal built in the place they were told was the worst possible place - Easy enough to knock it down and rebuild elsewhere on the airfield. The development plan has highlighted this.
**With the loss of the main US cargo carrier ( Polar )and the continuing fall in revenues there is no capital investment here in the medium term IMHO.
4) with cargo revenue plummeting - It seems to have been 'plummeting' for ages now in the minds of some but it will pick back up again. The next set of quarterly figures will give an indication of whether the plummeting has levelled out.
** agreed but with Air France losing a small fortune from cargo operations that leaves Cargolux, who loyal as they are are unlikely to pay for a new cargo apron and warehouses.
5) Ryanair having them by the balls....At least the airport still has balls.
All of the above points about "potential" were true until the market changed entirely with Ryanair. Hence the airport cannot expect to levy traditional airport charges / passenger fees and has to cross subsidise the operation from other areas like cargo and transit stops. This is partly why Atlas and Evergreen are at Hahn now. There is no scope to raise fees from passenger operations, hence revenue falls cannot be made up as the cargo market is fluid and they'd just lose the rest.
A new operator might bring some fresh ideas but I don't expect anyone to take the plunge until the BAA sell off fiasco has been concluded. PIK will be here for a long time to come.
I agree completely however the level of service is, in my experience pretty crap. PIK is the only airport where I have been called childish names by someone on the ramp, needless to say he is no longer employed as I made sure I made my feelings plain to management. The Terminal building itself is in a poor state of repair. The large space on the second floor on the East side has been vacant for TWENTY NINE YEARS. I kid you not, it used to be the canteen to watch the apron and eat at, it remains empty......PIK will always be a good DIV field or general aviation field but that's as far as I'm going to go. Wizz will be gone soon as the mass influx of cheap Polish labour is no longer in such demand, they are cutting back already.