What charters at Glasgow are you referring to James? Gone are the days of Spanair and Iberworld , thanks at Glasgow to EZY , jet2 and previously Globespan , and at PIK thanks to RYR.

Billy I was referring to a previous post that implied that when "great the god Ryanair" starts flying from an airport that charters are no longer welcome and also to some people who are determined that Ryanair is going to leave Prestwick and move to Glasgow. If this was true and Ryanair did move to Glasgow then charters would no longer be welcome and would have to go somewhere else.

Leatherman, if they only do A checks at PIK, how is it I keep flying aircraft fresh from C check in the PIK hanger?

C check
 

Ballsout did you check the paperwork?
Anyhow a first c check is very light.:ok:

BAA selling Edinburgh.
 

In an unexpected twist BAA announced that they are going to sell Edinburgh. What does this mean for Glasgow? What about Prestwick?

Possibly in the short term Glasgow management is going to seek a boost in passenger numbers. Does that mean Ryanair? It's a possibility, but would Easy, Jet 2, Thomson and Thomas Cook be too happy about it? I think that GLA management may stay "in-house" and try and convince the current airlines to expand their route network and capacity.

This leaves Prestwick in an interesting position, for all intents and purposes, up for sale and with one major customer calling the shots and cutting back operations. However, Edinburgh being the chosen one could benefit Prestwick (or at least get it some new owners).
If the new owners of Edinburgh wanted to cause BAA some (more) pain at Glasgow a competing operation on the west coast would do just that and as Prestwick competes directly with Glasgow it may become an attractive proposition for Edinburghs owners.

However this is all just speculation, lets see how things play out...

It's hard enough to make money taking on a new airport without taking on a different airport with a wholly different ethos and business model just to **** off a competitor. It's not the case that Scottish aviation is so lucrative that gold bricks are common place, just ask Infratil ! Unless there is a benefit to shareholders in taking on a loss making PIK operation, it's a fantasy. There are synergies between EDI and GLA, some that hold one or both back arguably, but I can see no cost benefit or synergy between PIK and EDI.

I probably should have worded that better, I wasn't trying to suggest that prospective owners of Edinburgh would buy PIK just to p**s off BAA.
I was calling it as I see it. I've worked in business and aviation long enough to know that making money out the regional markets is incredibly difficult (especially when your contingency plan for tough times is "wait and see").
New owners of PIK would have to be in it for the long haul and (15+ years) and radically change the current owners business plan to gain a return on their investment (I know in this climate, there is likely to be few interested parties in that sort of investment, especially when you need a total rebuild to get up to speed).
However a single owner of both PIK and EDI would gain returns almost immediately, all from Edinburgh admittedly, if they were to buy both and be in a pretty powerful place in the Scotish aviation market. I personally see a good fit operations-wise between the two, EDI has the inbound and city markets, while PIK takes (some of) the masses to the sunshine.
This is how I see it, you may agree, you may not, but one thing is for sure, this is the day that Scottish aviation changes...

Leatherman, you really do not know your facts at all. Prestwick is home to PAML a subsiduary of Ryanair with its own 145, they are the designated heavy maintenance provider for Ryanair and carry out four lines of maintenance with the new hangar now up and running with its various workshops. The c checks there consist of C1 ( a few days ) to C6 ( 2 weeks ) and all in all it is a very big investment from Ryanair, and not easily moved elsewhere regardless of how many other hangars they construct across Europe.

in my place by face
 

Ah thank you cpf for the enlightenment. It is good to know that someone is doing "heavy" maintenance in the UK. Must be real interesting work removing 2 toilets from a 737.
Still it would be difficult to continue there if infratil closes it. Or maybe FR would buy it and operate it? They said that wanted an airport.
They could set their own landing charges. And then refuse any rises.

And from their own info-" PAML was set up for A checks and 2 light c checks per week. HEAVY maintenance will continue to be outsourced."
This airport could probably continue as an airfield without pax. MSE like.

pure dead brilliant

Dear me, have they suggested anywhere this is an option?
Lasham has a fair amount of maintenance and no commercial traffic, if the Terminal were to be closed as a going concern, that's not the same thing as the airfield as I suspect you know. Cargo, local flying and HMS Gannet would remain and any transit stops could happily be handled from the current Aprons on Golf and Hotel, with the Antonovs on the North Side. None of this has anything to do with the Terminal. Hence there is a business case to continue the airfield operating with no passengers, it's not a new thing for PIK to be honest.
This would also allow maintenance to continue in the BA hangar and whoever takes the Ryanair four bay hangar, assuming Ryanair don't maintain a single daily PIK-DUB to take advantage of the current facilities for maintenance rotation.
I lived through PIK in the 90s, I have see things worse !!!

I don't think we should worry about the closure of PIK just because Leatherman posts negatively and inaccurately. The accuracy of his original post has been pretty well challenged. For the ''military don't use it often'' then this year we have had often repeated visits, often multiple visits, from the Afgan AF, Algerian AF, Algerian Navy, R Canadian AF, French AF, German Navy, Indian AF, Russian AF, Spanish AF, British Army, RN, RAF, USAF, US Navy, US Army and US Marines. Some transits, some training, some based, some onloads, some offloads, some charters !! plus airliners trooping. ''Private use is minimal'' will be why we have three not two handling agents and more light aircraft based than ever. I see 747s about every day, today Air France and World. The freight side boosted by AN12s, AN124s, IL76s and today even a couple of Metroliners. All underscores SOE's statement that there is more to PIK than the terminal and Ryanair. Plus now maintenance from Ryanair and BA, the latter not doing 'A' checks, but what they are doing is their business. Then there's crew trainers, Easyjet all day in recent days, and increasingly the RAF now they have fewer places to go. Plus those I've forgotten. So, with Ryanair unlikely to go anywhere, especially with today's news, PIK is not closed yet. To start a recovery, re-instatement of the Ryanair Stansted flight should be the absolute number 1 priority, PIK. That loss is a substantial loss to the local community, and badly needs redress, PIK.

Mr. negative inaccurate
 

Actually as a regular user, I am a friend of EGPK and hope it prospers with or without FR and Infratil. I am pleased that it is so very very busy as you describe so accurately. I assume with your runway name you must be airport staff or ops. Like that runway probably hardly involved.
I am so pleased that SAR remains.
I would miss the arrival queues at border control, where you can look out on the rusting scaffolding with the thistles growing high there. What a picture of Scotland. The travel agents in the terminal; where I have never seen even one customer sitting. The closed shops in there . The Elvis bar and eatery where no one goes. Elvis sadly left the airport long ago.The charming security persons they must get off the brew. The coffee shop that closes more often than not. "Precious Little " of Matt Lucas / come fly with me, would love to work there!
But on the plus side the x77 express bus to Glasgow city has free wi-fi now!
As for my inaccuracies ,I can only go by people I know working in those hangars. Phased c checks are not heavy visits. That is why they are phased isn't it? So maybe a little nearer the truth than you suggest.
Still you seem to be the fountain of all PIK knowledge so I bow to that.
One thing I can't stand though is the pure dead brilliant thing. I know Ayrshire people hate that. Why on earth did they ever go for that?:rolleyes:

Cos you're a Glaswegian airpo........oh wait..

The place needs its own identity.If that is NO pax so be it! There is no need to have people trotting through the terminal to make money.

Things may be bad...but at least you don't have dances in the terminal building like I used to see in 1979/80...do you?

There was an actual rave in the terminal back in 1993 !

Guys, can we stop feeding the Leatherman troll. They have nothing positive to add to the thread so let's keep the positive aspects of PIK discussed. Sure there are challenges but as SOE highlighted it is so much better than the tumbleweed times of 1989/90. The sale of EDI could open up new opportunities for all of Scotlamds central belt airports. Let's see what transpires but let's not react to the trolls

scotsslf words to the wise
 

:ok:Less than a year on the board and every post met with derision. Oh yes and I'm the troll.GTF:mad:

more like stryder than a troll
 

Scotsslf. Scotlamds central belt? Better keep off the half and halfs.
Really there are so many knights to defend this lady EGPK's honour. I have truly been put to the sword by the razorlike reposts.;):rolleyes::ok::ouch:

Leatherman, it's a little unfortunate that you view this thread as an arena for a battle of wits, since you seem to have come armed only with a blunt penknife.

if ryanair have a big maintenance base at prestwick and quite a few routes along with a good profit, would they be able to buy the airport? or is it not allowed?
we all know how much they hate BAA so could they not buy, and offer a good price to other airlines and destroy BAA at glasgow? of course only airlines that dont compete with them
just wondering

BHD2BFS - Ryanair may fly to only a handful of airports from Prestwick but given a lead time of 6months can open as many additiona routes from PIK as they like - planes arw after all highly mobile assets. If avseparate airline were to open a route from a FR owned airport one of 2 things would happen. Either the route flops and the airline loses money or, the route is a success at which point FR may well try to open the same route as well in competition while coincidentally the other airline finds an increas in the number of problems from an apologetic FR -owned airport.

Just too many conflicts of interest for any airline in that pisition to accept with a company like FR who have a reputation for playing tough