"..eager to smooth the path for prospective owners to develop whichever non-aviation developments they deem necessary to keep PIK going."

I dont think this is necessarily true in terms of non-aviation related developments. Local government recently denied Infratil the opportunity to close the secondary runway in order to develop industrial units. I am led to believe that the Scottish Government will support any prospective buyer but public ownership isn't on the agenda. It would be interesting to see what the Scottish Government's long term plans for PIK are should independence be achieved following next year's referendum.

"Local government recently denied Infratil the opportunity to close the secondary runway in order to develop industrial units."

Yes, I'm aware of this refusal but I get the feeling South Ayrshire Council are being encouraged most strongly by Holyrood to take a fresh look at development of the 2nd runway. Otherwise, PIK runs the very real risk of becoming a well-appointed airport facility with more runways than daily flights.

As I said, my understanding is public ownership is categorically not on the agenda but meaningful, constructive help/support for private investment is.

Let's see if I'm right.

In the unlikely event of Scotland voting for independence, anyone with any money or enterprise will be heading south.

While you children are squabbling....
 

New routes increase Prestwick passenger numbers

The Herald - 16 February

It's all gone quiet. Anyone heard anything?

Nope, but quiet doesn`t mean it`s gone all quiet!

I - nept

N - ew zealand

F - ubars

R - uining

A - irports

T - ill

I - t`s too

L - ate! :ugh:

Which means what? Is anything happening?

My local airport is DSA. That as your all aware is quite new. Yet it suffers a lack of growth. It needs a hub connection with proper timings. All we have at the moment is being able to set your watchb by wizzair.
But prestwick surely has more going for it. Close to decent road links.
But do folk from glasgow n the rest use it ?.
Are the trains express ?.
And why no Loganair there

Prestwick's big challenge is that it is on the coast 30 miles from Glasgow and whilst it does attract passengers from Glasgow and beyond (in fact FR's low prices attract passengers) people naturally go to their local airport if there's choice. Glasgow and Edinburgh have that choice. The road links are good - only 35-40 mins by road into Glasgow city centre and on a good day 80 - 90 mins into Edinburgh with it all being either motorway or dual carraigeway. The train service is pretty good too although no express services but you can be in Glasgow city centre in 40 minutes and services on average are 2 x hour. The airport station does need some TLC as it is looking very shabby.

The big factor is that the business potential is spread across 3 airports and all now competing for limited business. PIK does has its advantages and these have been well documented here before - good weather record, two decent sized runways and plenty of apron space although the terminal is now well past its sell by date and the present owners appear inept. Loganair used to run the feeder services from Aberdeen , Edinburgh and Belfast on behalf of BA when PIK had transatlantic flights but apart from training flights Loganair remain based firmly at GLA.

We were supposed to hear about a new owner a week or so ago but everything is very quiet.

There's not enough local business needing air travel to support that. FR's PIK-STN died on it's a*** after an intial good few years.
Why would they? They're Glasgow based always have been, no money in duplicating services.

PRESTWICK
 

PIK - STN died because of carp timings not lack of interest.

But do folk from glasgow n the rest use it ?.
Are the trains express ?.

All 3 central belt airports have advantages and disadvantages and all 3 are usable from anywhere from the north of England to the north of Scotland. The best connected ought to be EDI but in fact it probably has the worst connections.
The rail service to PIK is very good except that it stops well before midnight.

PIK is perfectly adequate generally, but is really crap after 11pm when a lot of flights arrive – no rail service and a bus service which you are scheduled to miss but may wait for you if you are lucky !!!

Sounds fishy, falling loads led to decreased frequencies which leads to once daily which of course led to closure, classic death spiral. Multiple dailies to nothing, although in fairness the use of the much larger B737-800 didn't help once the series 200s were gone.

Ryanair blame APD for the closure of the PIK - STN route saying you cant offer passengers cheap fares for an alternative from GLA - LON when the government wants £16 in tax pp.

That ultimately led to price increases, so the demand went down, so the frequency was cut, so less of a choice of flying times making the route less attractive, so the route therefore as you put it "dies".

I used to use the PIK-STN regularly for business especially the first flight out and last flight back albeit it was a long day in London as the last flight was half nine or something like that. However both flights used to be between 90-100% full so lack of demand wasn't the issue - FR can blame APD but it was probably more due to utilising the aircraft on more profitable routes such as the sun destinations as well as competition from EZY up the road at GLA taking the 'low cost' business flyer willing to pay a bit extra but still not wanting to get fleeced by BA. It's interesting to note that the LDY flights remain with load factors of between 50 and 60% on average.

PIK-STN was one of the the busiest FR routes back in the day with up to 10 flights per day at its height. I don't know why it went Pete Tong?

ScotsSLF, It's also interesting to note that PIK-LDY is one of the shortest sectors in the entire RYR route network.

Whilst we are on the subject - where is the sensible place to stay near PIK if you arrive too late to catch any onward transport ?

There is a Premier Inn near the airport, a few minutes by taxi.

North Beach hotel is right beside Prestwick Town railway station. I think the trains still run until after midnight and takes less than a minute fro airport to town and hotel is straight across from the station at the right of the exit. It has a nice indian restaurant in it too.