Originally Posted by
Skipness One Foxtrot
Joe Curry was right.
Yes he was.
It has really become clear just how much of GLA's success and growth was as a result of central planning in the Scottish Airports days who, for all the right reasons, saw GLA as the country's gateway, at the expense of both PIK and EDI. A business has to prioritise in that way if you are responsible for all three. That environment saw a sleepy EDI and a fully capable international capability at GLA, opened just as the transatlantic bubble popped. NWA never got to use and United used it for one winter before axing IAD.
Almost thirty years later, Lufthansa still can't make a decent go of GLA, and there is no more Sabena, legacy European is missing.
BUT the sheer volume of seats from A to B out of Scotland has never been healthier or higher, these are good days to travel. Just not quite the future we were all expecting if we grew up watching BA flying TriStars to JFK....
For me, the day BA launched LGW-EDI before LGW-GLA was the day I knew the market was moving East.
NWA never got to use? Not sure what you mean. Do you mean EDI or GLA? I flew NWA to BOS from GLA in 1990 and then again in 1992 so they were at GLA for a number of years post PIK. Anyway can’t challenge the other points - the fact that the Scottish Parliament is in Edinburgh and the city is the capital of Scotland together with plenty of space available at Turnhouse meant that the shift in aviation power was always heading east. GLA though is still an important Hub with a strong domestic market, several European and North American connections together with the Dubai link. It is still much more than a ‘bucket and spade’ airport as Nivsy claims.