That’s a fundamentally wrong view. “It’s flying to Dubai that has restricted Scotland’s direct flights to Australia” or “Doha” and “Bangkok” for Qatar or “Abu Dhabi” and “Vietnam” for the unmentionable one.

Heathrow flights are a shadow of what they once were at GLA. Was 14 daily 757s with BA and 8 daily 737s with British Midland back in 1990. (I am old now!) Nowadays it’s lucky if it’s 8 per day on BA.

PIK’s niche was short haul sun routes and Ryanair city routes in compliment. Was the only model that ever worked but Ryanair moved the city network focus to EDI and then went onto the sun routes to the detriment of the others.

How can you say that it's a fundamentally wrong view when your own figures show that the Heathrow market from Glasgow has diminished by 65-70% based on flight numbers.
Glasgow moved their airport from Renfrew to Abbottsinch and built the M8 across the runway end. Edinburgh did the same with their new runway. Their focus was never trans-continental.

The reason why the Middle East airlines are in the driving seat can be clearly understood by going to the Airbus sites for the A350 or A380. These aircraft, and their Boeing equivalents, can fly directly from that region to any airport in the World with range to spare.

Scotland's duplicated/triplicated Central Belt airports, developed as London feeders, are not serving the massive numbers of Scots that work and do business in those remote places that working people need to get to. Often the only flights will be from one of the large European hubs that are poorly served from GLA / EDI. Overnight stays on the continent become the accepted practise, eating into leave time.

The Central Scottish airports that were once Heathrow focussed are now focussed on holiday flights and inward tourists, making working travellers walk endless miles through their shopping malls.

Scotland needs a central airport at Airth that would make GLasgow, Edinburgh, Prestwick and Dundee totally unnecessary. A terminus railway and bus station on the airport would make it easily accessible to all. It would be a real transport hub with flights to all the World's crossovers.

Scotland would absolutely be better off with one major airports serving the country. Such an airport would attract many airlines and routes which are not currently available from any Scottish airport.

However, it'll never happen. Instead the SNP will continue to throw money at Prestwick. But hey, at least all our road signs will be in gelic.

OK some good points there, you're point is clearer to me now, apologies if I misread your meaning.
I don't disagree that localism has hurt the Scottish economy in those areas. Given both GLA and EDI have terminals that have perhaps 20 years of useful life, I wonder if it's time to think big again? Two runway Central Belt airport plugged into rail network with a critical mass to keep the legacy European connections and make year round long haul easier to manage? Alas with GLA/EDI in private hands, couldn't happen nowadays.

For sure the demographics of travellers have changed, a lot less % suited and booted.

btw Is any new airline joining FR at PIK next year? How many based aircraft are we expecting?

Calum Paterson, your hatred for Prestwick Airport and the SNP are blatantly obvious. Please keep your political opinions to yourself. This is a forum about airlines and airports, not politics!

Excuse me, self appointed moderator.

I have no "hatred" for PIK. Only a fan boy could get so emotional over an airport.

However, as a reluctant shareholder and part owner of PIK, I'll comment on my forced investment how I see fit. Thank you very much.

You are also a reluctant shareholder and part owner of Edinburgh trams, the new Forth road bridge, the revamped M8, the dualing of the A9, HIAL airports, McBrayne ferries and umpteen more. Do you whine about those ?

Not to point out the bleeding obvious, but this is a thread about Prestwick Airport. Not any of the aforementioned. Just an FYI. ;)

Some people would like to bring Scotland back to the days there wasn’t a motorway between Glasgow & Edinburgh, no M74 extn, no Queensferry crossing and no investment in CalMac. Plus tolls on Skye, Erskine & Forth Bridges. Labour & Tory’s didn’t invest in any infrastructure in Scotland. I do think the investment in PIK is wrongly placed in that it’s supporting passengers but the Scottish Government should have invested in PIK for cargo. Looking to get major players ie Fedex & DHL out of Glasgow and Edinburgh freeing up apron space for passenger flights. I know that Ayrshire pax would have a 35 min drive to Glasgow Airport.

And would not it be wonderful if this thread stuck to Prestwick Airport not mush about a central Scotland airport or Cargolux at GLA

Strange comment coming from a poster who in their last post wanted to discuss Edinburgh trams, the new Forth road bridge, the revamped M8, the dualing of the A9, HIAL airports and McBrayne ferries.

Anyway, back to discussing one of the biggest financial black holes in the United Kingdom. When will the doors be closed for good? The Scottish government have overseen two management teams at this airport and neither have done anything but squander public funds.

PIK is an airport that Scotland needs, in the same way as EMA. If there’s to be an aerospace industry in Scotland it has to be based where it is at PIK. GLA & EDI runways are for Joe Public and we want as many pax as possible flying to as many destinations airlines want to fly from them. PIK is fantastic opportunity for other aviation cargo, GE engines, Spirit, FR maintaince and BAe. With the right investment FR and others would use PIK for training and maintenance if the money went on projects like that. A quiet airport with a forgiving runway to test the .... out of pilots & planes. Plus opportunities in other aspects like a aircraft graveyard. The only problem is the loss of Pax.

Agreed. Only once the doors are closed on the dated passenger terminal will PIK be within a chance of being turned into a sustainable business.

The thing is, FedEx walked away from PIK. They had a daily DC10 then MD11 service which they decided was better served via an....ATR42 out of GLA or an MD11 out of STN. Go figure. But FedEx is parcels focused whereas CLX is more mainstream air cargo. It was the same with Panalpina, now at Stansted.
Where it's an obscene waste of public money in terms of shocking planning and incontinent overspending, YES. So from that list, trams certainly and the Scottish Parliament fiasco too, a building recently suggested to be end of life by 2060!
With PIK, not one realistic business plan to cut costs and turn a profit has been seen, because that would involve closing the terminal so the headline politics would be "airport closed by SNP".

Aon phàrtaidh, aon dùthaich, aon stiùiriche.
Bidh sinn an-asgaidh le 93 :)

The decision to force out the successful FBOs must now seem like short term foolishness!

Interesting new and enhanced venture between Emirates and Cargolux. Perhaps Cargolux will begin code sharing with EK from GLA.

Take cover;)

What a childish statement. You clearly have absolutely no understanding about the difference between a dedicated freighter operation and belly hold cargo

as an occasional drop-in I'm astounded by the depth of feeling

reminds me of Jorge luiz Borges's observation on the Falklands War

"Two bald men fighting over a comb"

On the other hand not QUITE so demented as Manston or Teeside.......................

or even Teesside :eek:

Several studies into this idea have been carried out over the years. As far as I know, this is the most recent one;

Central Scotland Airport Study