Glasgow Prestwick PIK - Opportunity Waiting
Out of curiosity I took a trip down to Glasgow Prestwick Airport to see what has happened to the Scottish Government's £1 "bargain" purchase and was pleasantly surprised at what was on offer as far as a passenger and visitor experience.
The last time I was there - probably about 9 years ago - it was the pits. There has been quite a transformation over that period of time.
I just wish they had more than the Ryanair flights on the passenger side of things.
There is a much mistaken public perception that the airport is hard to reach. In fact its public transport links are on a par or even better than Glasgow or Edinburgh and its the only Scottish Airport with its own railway station with frequent trains.
The signage and infrastructure for arriving and departing passengers is pretty darn good and they have cleaned everything up to a very presentable state. The information on connecting rail and bus services with times of the next departures is very clear. My only criticism of the signage is when you go across the bridge from the airport via rail station to reach the Glasgow-bound bus stop - there is no sign at the bottom of the stairs leading to the station platform to tell you what way to go to reach the bus stop.
Tour operators should seriously reconsider putting the charter type flights back into Prestwick. Glasgow and Edinburgh are getting a bit overcrowded.
The airport would benefit by some sort of campaign to highlight just how easy it is to reach Glasgow Prestwick. This does not require back bucks but just a little bit of imagination and creative use of social media.
They could make a simple YouTube video in the style of an old "Top Gear" race with Rail, Bus and Car setting out for the airport from Glasgow City Centre - and what a surprise - they all make the trip in 49 minutes.
I think both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports do a reasonable job but they are getting a bit overcrowded and Edinburgh needs a lot of work done to improve it's passenger experience.
Prestwick is an opportunity in waiting - all it needs to do is to overcome that wrongful public impression that it is remote.