Don’t forget the logistics hub at Prestwick.......
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/p...oans-xqmh28rv8
Prestwick airport risks closure over loans
Prestwick would be forced to close if it had to repay the tens of millions of taxpayers’ money it has received, managers at the Ayrshire airport admitted yesterday. About £40 million of public funds has been injected into the state-owned terminal through loans since it was bought for £1 by the Scottish government to save it from closure in 2013. The airport has made losses of £24 million in the past five years and passenger numbers have hardly grown.
Mike Rumbles, the Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, warned that taxpayers were not likely to get their money back and said that the airport was unprofitable. Stewart Adams, the chief executive, told Holyrood’s rural economy and connectivity committee that Prestwick would be wound up if the Scottish government asked for its loans back. He said: “The cost of passenger operations will be looked at. It’s clear that the passenger side of the business does not make money. Passenger numbers certainly need to increase but it is very difficult at the moment.”
Mr Rumbles asked: “It looks to me that Scottish taxpayers will never get their money back from your airport, wouldn’t you agree? This is an unprofitable company, it is throwing money after bad money. What would happen if the Scottish government asks for the loan to be repaid?” Ian Forgie, Prestwick’s finance director, said: “The company would be wound up.”
John Scott, Scottish Conservative MSP for Ayr, said the value of the land was “significantly more than the liabilities incurred thus far”. It was his understanding that the government would not lend money beyond this value. Accounts for the airport show it lost £9 million in 2015-16. A similar level of funding will be required until 2021-22.
But the airport’s senior figures insisted there was a chance of it becoming a spaceport or that it could become a “logistics hub” for the building of the planned third runway at Heathrow.