Air France Cargo still operating Wed and Sun. The movements website doesnt record all movements by my understanding especially the regular ones

Still scheduled but frequently cancelled or rerouted - in August, for AFR6733 2 out of 5 did not operate through Prestwick while for AFR6739 2 out of 4 (as a case in point yesterday's flight routed via Dublin)

Was there last night picking up a relative, second time I've done a night run down there in the last year and once you get past the Glasgow suburbs, that A77 road is a death trap at night in some places, horribly horribly lit, and to be honest a major turn off for me in using the airport. I drove it earlier in the year with fairly heavy rain at night and it felt like one of the most dangerous drives I've ever had. In comparison you have a short hop along a well lit metropolitan motorway to GLA.

Only four flights today from what I seen, the returning flight from ALC I was picking a family member up on was packed by all accounts with people returning from the October week school holiday. Otherwise, the airport was stone dead.

Not sure what the future is for Prestwick honestly as a passenger base. It has some major issues to deal with.

You should have had a go at the old A77 mate......unless you actually did in which case WHY?

I've only ever driven the road at night within the last few years. At points between Newton Mearns-Kilmarnock and Kilmarnock-Prestwick the road is terribly lit. At one point there is no road lights, none of the cats eyes to guide you either! Its a full fog lights job, luckily the road is pretty straight.

It's an airport at the moment that has a commercial business model now that is almost solely reliant on school holidays by the looks of it. I don't mind Prestwick, its easy to get in and out of due to it's size and location and I've used the rail link before which is something GLA would love and I too have liked. The future looks grim however, no school holidays until Christmas now, best be hoping Saga Holidays experience a surge over the next two months.

Haha, I had a good old laugh about that! Why should a rural dual carriageway have lights when you have them on your car? Huge energy usage, CO2 emissions, expensive to maintain for low nighttime traffic volumes, light pollution, etc. The trend is actually to switch off motorway lighting at times of low traffic volume across the developed world.

Head further south on the A77 past Turnberry and then I'd have to agree that there are horrible sections on a dark wet night to deal with.

It is a motorway. It is called the M77. It goes through the countryside. You expect it to be lit up ? So you did not see the freight flights, the transits, the diversions from Glasgow, the scores of military flights ? How often do you trolls have to be told it's not all about Ryanair ?

The M77 / A77 actually goes both ways as I have to take it to GLA routinely. Actually its a good road now and I can do GLA safely (even in the dark) in 40 mins from PIK. Theres not that many airports that have such a good connection from their associated city centres.

I guess the winter time table has started? Are there a similar number of flights to last winter? The CAA stats don't look great with the annual passenger figures down to 636,114 with a percentage drop of 36.9. The departures board only shows 4 passenger flights, 2 around 6 am and 2 at 5 pm. Arrivals show 2 at 4 pm and 2 at midnight. Thats a long opening day for so few movements. To reduce costs, would it be viable to close down after the departures at 7 am then reopen only to cover the 4-6 pm turnarounds and make other services "on request"? How big are the losses these days? Is there a turn round plan? How much has been lost on running the airport since it was bought?

bb

The Terminal is ALL about Ryanair @PIK3141.
All the traffic that makes the place a spotters delight makes no impact on the bottom line with the passenger business sucking up all the revenue into a black hole of red ink. The "recovery plan" was predicated on building on existing Ryanair traffic. Since then, Ryanair moved half the based operation to GLA. So jn short, losses mounting and recovery further away with a plan already out of date.

It's fine though, I cannot imagine any like Scottish goverment doing anything likely closing PIK. It'll be suckling in the teat of the taxpayer for years to come as the commercial reality cannot ever be accepted by the left wing consensus that is one party North Korea....er Scotland, sorry.

Do you have a link to the CAA stats page for PIK, can never find them

UK Airport Statistics | Aviation Intelligence | About the CAA

You'll have to look in the stat sets for the airport/ routes you want; there is a tab on the left of that page similarly for provisional stats.

The winter schedule hasn't fully set in yet, give it a week and there will be 12 departures per week. Bit of an increase around Christmas and New Years but thats it till mid March when the summer schedule starts off. Good news is that Reus is back in the 2016 schedule, having been dropped for summer 2015.

What destinations are served during the winter?

Alicante (3 per week) & Malaga (2) on mainland Spain, as well as Fuerteventura (1), Gran Canaria (1), Lanzarote (2), and Tenerife (3).

S1E: Scotland is not N. Korea. Last time I looked, there were DEMOCRACTIC elections held with a choice of candidates. It's hardly the fault of the SNP (who have their faults, yes) if their opposition (in this case mainly Labour) are so incompetent.

And with that, back to PIK.

What's the minimum annual passenger throughput to break even as things stand witht he current operating costs then?

Given the meagre amount per pax that Ryanair are generally assumed to pay, there is probably no number of Ryanair pax that would achieve a breakeven for PIK. If PIK was a small, regional airport with a glorified portacabin for a terminal and one 6 - 7000 foot runway to maintain it might be possible to breakeven with Ryanair as the main customer but having a large terminal, the main runway and the cross runway with associated infrastructure to maintain, breakeven - never. I suspect that not many people get one over on Nicola S, but Michael O'L seems to be leading her and her's by the nose.

Been hold up in PIK past couple of days and noticed Cargologicair G-CLAA has been toing and froing between PIK-MME. New base or Pilot training???

Stansted based.