Former local, PIK was my "team". Local loyalties do credit.
PIK only ever worked in a monopoly environment. Underperformed against Renfrew, lost most short haul traffic to Abbotsinch in later years, lost the long haul in 1990. Bounced back and made money when Ryanair's (almost) whole Scottish operation was at PIK, died on it's arse when that market expanded to include GLA/EDI.
Easy to damn the management, BUT they are paid to go through the motions. No serious industry professional believes PIK can be turned around in the same way no one really thought a transatlantic monopoly for Scotland was best served via an airfield on the west coast with no other flights. It's political theatre, they get paid loads for being seen to be looking for a solution no one thinks is out there. It keeps the locals happy and buys the vote. As other airfields have become more competitive, PIK loses more market share. As for the physical state of the terminal, it's going to be a 1960s long haul transatlantic operation until it falls down, which given the winter gales, could be any year now.

Nothing will change now, it will limp on taking money from the public purse until the sun dies.

Prestwick
 

Having read the various responses about this airport, as an outsider, I have driven along the N77 and noted the Broken up 747 , plus the terminal as stated looks like it would serve just as well in some Scottish 1960's period drama .
Just park a couple of Viscounts on the apron !.

No I'm afraid the real truth is , it's on the edge of a lightly populated area, served by - Irish ( Eireann ) standards are superb fast roads and motorways .
Plus an electrified railway to boot.

Worse still I believe Glasgow to Edinburgh has had a new Motorway built among other improvements.
Plus rail lines reopened .
Linking both cities and their well appointed Airports.

One of which is now served with a multimodal transport interchange.

Plus there is the curse of the low cost airline.
They put themselves into their hands believing that all those routes would remain.

What was needed was a measured growth plan and a selection of smaller or niche carriers .

As for opening it as a spaceport that is as about as likely as peace in Asia.

How can they seriously expect Space craft on return legs to safely thread through the crowd of slow moving air traffic crossing the Irish Sea heading for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

It happened in Ireland to Galway - too many new roads , Dublin became bigger and busier and Galway remains maddeningly shut.

Yet thousands of Euro is still spent maintaining it and security .

If Prestwick is finished, the Economy of Scotland isn't exactly rosy , it's time to pull the plug and close it.

After all with 23 years remaining for Diesel and Petrol the oil companies are going to leave the UK like rats from a sinking steamer .
And since Scotland's dream of independence not to mention it's financial security was Oil that's now dead in the water .

So to keep an airport that may need 300 million Euro for a new Terminal building out of a diminishing public fund simply will not happen.

Money will be better spent re-opening closed rail routes ( the remainder of the Waverley Line ) , and Improving links to Glasgow airport including a luas style service - Linking the cities main stations.

There seems to be an assumption in the last couple of posts that the only measure of success is the number of passengers through the terminal :eek:

The 747 will be cut into coke cans in a matter of weeks! The old girl has had enough...

If the terminal is kept open, then to justify the IMMENSE cost, it needs a profitable throughput annually. If you close it and focus on the remainder of PIK's traffic portfolio, then different story. Politically though, that would be closure, i.e. failure, so it won't happen.
Therefore losses continue to rise with no end in sight. Everyone involved presumably knows this and is happy to take the money and smile for the press now and again.

Completely agree. Time is running out, an airline is needed urgently to justify keeping the terminal open. There has to be somebody out there who would give PIK a try!?

Who did you have in mind? (bearing in mind there are issues even with Ryanair, the most shrewd low-cost operator)

Aye, it's never been the same since Flying Tigers disappeared.......😂

Fascinating, speculative ..... PIK will still be here when we're all dead and gone....

DC-10-Col Who's your airline in mind to bring the passengers in? Or does it even matter so long as taxpayer picks up the tab? Leuchars and Kinloss can go, so can PIK?

Flying Tigers, with no more than two flights a week before their last year???
I know, how about a millionaire gambler with more money than sense who can set up a long haul operation out of PIK with 747s. That might work? Needs some heigh-ho?

The Panda's cost nigh on £1m a year for the 'privilege' of boosting visitors to Edinburgh Zoo/Edinburgh, courtesy of the Scottish taxpayer, think I'd rather fund EGPK than 2 x bamboo chewing bears.

AFAIK the cost of the pandas is recovered by greatly increased attendances at the zoo.

What would PIK do with that 1mil to make it back?

Well spotted :ok: And of course maybe people flying into Edinburgh to view them and then stay in Edinburgh, great for Edinburgh :ok:

BTB's comments are very similar to comments posted on a Prestwick Facebook page where every so often a rant comes flying in about BFS taking C130s from PIK. The FB ones are similar in that they are also pretty thin on actual facts. I had a wee check and I would reckon that PIK handled over 40 C130s over June and July plus a raft of C135s, C17s and KC-10s plus some smaller US military types. There is undoubtedly strong competition out there from BFS, SNN and on occasion GLA and EDI for military stopovers but overall PIK appears to be competing well on this front. (Interesting to note that Global Trek's main registered office is in the Prestwick Aerospace Park)


I have been monitoring PIK for well over 40 years now and worked there as a student in the late 70s plus had an office in the terminal during the mid 2000s when the airport was at its peak. From a non PAX point of view I would suggest that today it is busier with military stop overs, ferry flights and biz jet tech / fuel stops than I can ever remember. The key challenges are still the downturn in worldwide dedicated jet freighter cargo and the PAX operations so let's see what the next set of financials bring.

It's way simpler. No matter how many Hercs and jets in the circuit you have, you CANNOT balance the books with an empty 1960s built transatlantic terminal standing mainly empty.
All the great effort on the non sched and cargo front is ****ed up against the wall by trying to compete in the scheduled passenger market with the albatross of costs on a monthly basis killing you. PIK might make money if they shut the terminal, sold the land and put in a smaller facility around Apron G for say occasional trooping flights or local GA airliners.

Airport stays open, local spotters continue to spot and Ryanair still pop in for maintenance (depending on deal made.....!) But doing the same stuff you've been doing every year since it all went wrong and expecting a better result is bonkers.

Question remains. Who would fly pax out of PIK in enough volume to cancel out losses? I am going to say no to :
FR, (golden days not coming back)
TUI, TCX, LS, EZY all focussed and doing well at GLA
MON might give it a go but FR would try and kill them off

Generally don't know why PIK's passenger ops are being kept alive, it's winter flight schedule is awful and unlike most other airports with a small PAX numbers it provides little to no connectivity to the region.

On the cargo front, it has alot of potential imo, especially if opportunities arise with Brexit.

Just out of curiosity, was PIK getting the military training aircraft and revenue back in the days when RAF Machrihanish was operational?

PIK was developed back in the days when shorter range airliners needed to fuel stop before and after crossing the pond, Laker's Skytrain service operated to/from PIK simply because it was the only commercial airport in Scotland with a runway long enough.

Alas times have moved on, long haul airliners have become more fuel efficient and/or with more fuel capacity whilst some long haul types are smaller, need lesser runways, whilst other airports may have extended their runways.

PIK's past glories have more to do with Elvis Presley than commercial aviation perhaps!

The best management team I worked with was under Matthew Hudson and I`d have him back in a heartbeat. Was instrumental in getting the Ryanair operation up and running, brought in cargo carriers like Lufthansa, Air France and Polar Air Cargo. Back harsh.then we even still managed transatlantic summer charters, even though the scheduled stuff had moved to Glasgow.

So you would take maybe 3 Ryanair's a day, a freighter if lucky, no regular USAF?

What about the days around 2006/7, when PIK was supporting several daily 747s, North American 767s, high levels of USAF (granted, during 2 full scale wars in the Middle East), booming Ryanair, a brilliant charter programme?

I know what I would rather.

The airport just needs one big announcement at the terminal to get the place buzzing again and I imagine they will be working hard to achieve that goal and then some. For anybody to suggest the Scottish Govt are happy sitting back watching the management take high wages is a complete joke. The military and tech stop business is doing not bad, considering the extra threat in Northern Ireland which never existed before. There may be potential for Cargo, and I am sure that all options are being explored.

In my opinion, another year for the terminal with no new business then I will be seriously concerned. There is still life in the old dog yet.

Based on the last line in your post, I have made a diary note to look back at this page in a year's time.