Glasgow Prestwick PIK - Opportunity Waiting

[John MacCalman]

Out of curiosity I took a trip down to Glasgow Prestwick Airport to see what has happened to the Scottish Government's £1 "bargain" purchase and was pleasantly surprised at what was on offer as far as a passenger and visitor experience.

The last time I was there - probably about 9 years ago - it was the pits. There has been quite a transformation over that period of time.

I just wish they had more than the Ryanair flights on the passenger side of things.

There is a much mistaken public perception that the airport is hard to reach. In fact its public transport links are on a par or even better than Glasgow or Edinburgh and its the only Scottish Airport with its own railway station with frequent trains.

The signage and infrastructure for arriving and departing passengers is pretty darn good and they have cleaned everything up to a very presentable state. The information on connecting rail and bus services with times of the next departures is very clear. My only criticism of the signage is when you go across the bridge from the airport via rail station to reach the Glasgow-bound bus stop - there is no sign at the bottom of the stairs leading to the station platform to tell you what way to go to reach the bus stop.

Tour operators should seriously reconsider putting the charter type flights back into Prestwick. Glasgow and Edinburgh are getting a bit overcrowded.

The airport would benefit by some sort of campaign to highlight just how easy it is to reach Glasgow Prestwick. This does not require back bucks but just a little bit of imagination and creative use of social media.

They could make a simple YouTube video in the style of an old "Top Gear" race with Rail, Bus and Car setting out for the airport from Glasgow City Centre - and what a surprise - they all make the trip in 49 minutes.

I think both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports do a reasonable job but they are getting a bit overcrowded and Edinburgh needs a lot of work done to improve it's passenger experience.

Prestwick is an opportunity in waiting - all it needs to do is to overcome that wrongful public impression that it is remote.

[PAXboy]

It may also need to overcome whatever financial deals GLA has on offer.

[sf01]

The thing is it's a complete waste of tax payers money. Millions are spent on an airport that will generally attract low yielding pax meaning the airport makes buttons on them and thus makes a loss.

As soon as Ryanair get a deal they can't refuse at GLA they'll be out of PIK. FR are starting what could be said as PIK " bread and butter" routes this winter at GLA. They have very little hope of attracting a low-cost airline never mind any decent charter or legacy carriers.

GLA and EDI are not going to get "full" they will simply expand when needed.

It's not an opportunity waiting sadly it's a candle slowly burning out.

Maybe they could just close down the terminal and focus on training flights ,cargo and all other non passenger operations. That could be the last hope IMO

[edi_local]

I was at PIK not long ago too and took a wee walk around. It was totally dead, yet full of staff, 3 FR planes parked up and one departure on the board...for the next morning. It reminded me of the late 1990s when we used to visit the caravan park next to the airport and we'd wait all day and see about 4 planes land, all cargo or charters.

If it's at the stage where even Ryanair don't see the airport as viable then it really has to be asked if it's at all worth keeping open. Now that they are basically operating a handful of flights a week, which in time will no doubt move to GLA too, then it all seems a bit too hopeful that things will turn around for PIK.

It's only real useful role and only point for keeping the terminal going in a post-Ryanair scenario would be for diverts. It has the apron space and runway length to accept pretty much anything, and with a huge empty terminal it would be easy to accommodate passengers temporarily without causing any issues for other services.

[davidjohnson6]

Why do the residents of Glasgow need 2 airports just for Clydeside and do people really travel so much that there is sufficient air travel demand for two airports to be kept busy ? Greater Glasgow has only about 1.2 million people, not 12 million.

Manchester manages quite happily on one, with Liverpool nearby to provide competition in case MAG gets too monopolistic in its behaviour. Glasgow has Edinburgh nearby to play the role of potential competitor

[Andy_S]

Existing thread here:

http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airports-routes/220716-prestwick-120.html

Lets use it.

[John MacCalman]

I searched for it when I was writing my original post. PPrune couldn't find it. The forum would only display four pages of posts on Airlines, Airports and Routes - there had been nothing recent on PIK so that's why I started this thread. Perhaps the mods could move this or fix the display to show more than four pages.

[PAXboy]

When using search, under Advanced Search, you can set the time span to search. Also, if you just search thread titles, you get a shorter listing.

[mr rhymes]

Why do the residents of Glasgow need 2 airports just for Clydeside and do people really travel so much that there is sufficient air travel demand for two airports to be kept busy ? Greater Glasgow has only about 1.2 million people, not 12 million.
The historical reasons for airport/aerodrome locations don't always match up to current requirements. A boring answer, but the correct one.

RE the population, a quick google says that the Glasgow metro area has over 2 million people. "Greater Glasgow", which you refer to, doesn't actually include many parts of the wider urban sprawl that used to come under the old Strathclyde banner. Many towns in Lanarkshire, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Inverclyde aren't included. If you consider the fact that for many of those places Prestwick would have been very handy, you can see why the airport was considered viable for so long.

[philbky]

Shannon is pretty much in thr same boat, with an even smaller population within a reasonable travel distance and no rail link. Ryanair has dallied with Shannon for years increasing then decreasing routes. The Shannon stopover rule for airlines serving Dublin from North America was first relaxed, then abandoned and the airport should have died at the time the traditional trans Atlantic traffic VFR traffic was dying.

It survives because a good number of leasing companies are based or have their European operation at or near the airport. This brings in aircraft for parking. In parallel, aircraft maintenance and repainting provides constant business and employment and Shannon, US forces treansport aircraft are regular visitors and Shannon is better placed for emergency diversions off the Atlantic than Prestwick given the average positions of rhe North Atlantic Organised Track System throughout the year.

[Skipness One Echo]

Shannon also retains twice daily transatlantic service from Aer Lingus, as well as Delta, United and American. Prestwick lost that market to GLA 26 years ago and it is never coming back. Shannon also has a thrice daily LHR connection, so whilst not being in the same league as DUB, it pootles along.

PIK remains a money pit.
And yes, can the mods merge with existing thread?

[willy wombat]

And Shannon is about 115 miles from Dublin thus serving a distinct, albeit smaller catchment area whereas Prestwick is about 30 miles from Central Glasgow thus not serving a distinct catchment area.
This subject has been pretty much done to death on Prune, which would be obvious if the mods would be so kind as to merge the threads - please. The fate of Prestwick, for better or for worse, is in the hands of the Scottish Government.
And SOE - I think while it is true that PIK lost the transatlantic market to GLA some 20 something years ago, it is only fair to add that it has now been lost to GLA and EDI making it doubly sure it is not coming back to PIK.

[MichaelOLearyGenius]

FR moving some more sunshine routes from PIK to GLA, is the writing on the wall for PIK?

[Skipness One Echo]

http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airports-routes/220716-prestwick-120.html

Go on, but maybe post in the above?

[bad bear]

FR moving some more sunshine routes from PIK to GLA, is the writing on the wall for PIK?

any source for this info?

bb

[Twiglet1]

PIK
Great location.
Bring back Highland Express

[canberra97]

As if Highland Express was a resounding success!

[Skipness One Echo]

Six months of operating a B747-100 with three reliable engines and a wonky number one that required cross bleeds everytime that collapsed with no aircraft flying?

Hope over experience that one alas.

[01475]

It's a shame as it's a lovely airport, but the harsh reality is that it's only by a quirk of fate that the central belt even supports two viable airports. If an airport had been built somewhere halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh then that would have been the one that survived.

The rail link is a plus point, especially now there are more trains, but it's not an inherent advantage of the airport that represents a reason to develop the site. In particular, for example, if the Scottish government throws enough money into the pit at PIK, they could have instead funded a rail link to Glasgow Airport (I'm sure it could be done more cheaply than the last plan; there's a railway line within meters of the airport boundary, and places like Birmingham survive without the actual railway station being right up at the terminal building).

[ScotsSLF]

This is old news and has been on the cards for a while. Looks like though the routes are not being moved from PIK simply expanded to take on the competition at GLA. Still waiting for the S17 confirmation of routes and frequencies from PIK so I may stand to be corrected.

[CabinCrewe]

i certainly wouldnt use that source as gospel... rolls eyes.

[mwm991]

The airport is at the mercy of Ryanair every single year.

I still see a couple of years more at least of FR ops there before the plug is pulled.

[nivsy]

The GLA/PIK debate has filled many pages of PPRUNE over the years often mixed in with EDI. One thing is for sure, GLA is far from being at capacity...and while busy sometimes the last time i passed through there, not that long ago, had x3 Easyjet on the ground, x1 BA 319, 1x KLM 737 and a twin otter, Saab 340 and x2 Dash 8's of Flybe..hardly inspiring!

[sf01]

The GLA/PIK debate has filled many pages of PPRUNE over the years often mixed in with EDI. One thing is for sure, GLA is far from being at capacity...and while busy sometimes the last time i passed through there, not that long ago, had x3 Easyjet on the ground, x1 BA 319, 1x KLM 737 and a twin otter, Saab 340 and x2 Dash 8's of Flybe..hardly inspiring!

You must not have been there at the morning rush then, last time I went it was mobbed.

An airport handling 9.5m people can hardly be described as quiet, 9 aircraft on the ground is not exactly dead either, probably over 2000 people arriving/ departing from just those aircraft.

GLA must be at gate capacity for the morning rush as they are building more stands to cope.

[DaveReidUK]

A quick glance at tomorrow's GLA schedule on their website, after filtering out the codeshares, shows around 270 movements for the day.

[Skipness One Echo]

GLA was at gate capacity when it was handling half of this traffic in the 90s, difference then was a higher proportion of small jets and props versus A319/B737 and upwards now. Traffic patters have changed but the number of based aircraft is only getting back to where it was in the heyday of BA. To be fair, outwith the first and lunchtime waves, GLA can be a nice quiet airport.

Two years ago in mid week in mid summer, I was astonished to see only one aeroplane across the whole commercial side, a Loganair SF340!

If Ryanair are serious about GLA, PIK must be at risk, perhaps remaining for maintenance only. Buck for buck, even in a price sensitive market, GLA-xyz is likely to be higher yielding than PIK-xyz.