One wonders therefore why, when he was Provost, he didn't insist that what is currently called "Glasgow International Airport" be honestly renamed "Paisley International" or "Renfrew International" given that it's own website shows :
Address: Caledonia Way, Paisley, Renfrewshire PA3 2SW
Glasgow-Renfrew closed in 1966 (IIRC) and was replaced by Glasgow-Abbotsinch (the former RAF Abbotsinch) a couple of miles west.
So Abbotsinch can't be called "Renfrew International" because it's not on the same site. It isn't named "Paisley International" for the same reason Heathrow isn't "Hounslow International" - they're named after the former RAF stations which they replaced. Heathrow's address is "Heathrow Airport, Bath Road, Hounslow, Middlesex", it's irrelevant.
AFAIK, the old Renfrew Airport could not handle longhaul flights so they used Prestwick. Abbotsinch handles all, hence the move away from Prestwick to the more convenient Abbotsinch.
In all seriousness it's been Glasgow-Prestwick in every BOAC / BA, Trans Canada / Air Canada and Northwest Orient / NWA marketing literature since the year dot. That particular branding has nothing whatsoever to do with Ryanair. Only in Ayrshire would it still annoy people to be associated with a wierd foreign place like....Glasgow.
You're not going to get a better name than Glasgow Prestwick, it's apt, more so with the M77. Only the tweedy chaps at the Robert Burns Society would say otherwise.
"Where shall we go Helmut?"
"Burns International!"
"Only if Smithers is there to greet us. I thought Springfield was fictional. Excellent"
D'oooh!
Believe me, the people chuntering on about changing the name have no idea of the real underlying concerns around the business if they want to be spending their time on that sort of malarkey. There are far more important issues to be dealt with first.
Exactly! Forget all this American nonsense!
"Glasgow-Prestwick" is the only sensible name for PIK. Now, can we get back to referring to GLA as "Glasgow-Abbotsinch" to avoid potential confusion. After all, it has a pub named after it ("The Abbots Inch")!