Glasgow Prestwick Airport

Glasgow Prestwick Airport from the air

Glasgow Prestwick Airport (Scottish Gaelic: Port-adhair Ghlaschu Phreastabhaig) (IATA: PIK, ICAO: EGPK) is an international airport serving Glasgow, situated north of the town of Prestwick in South Ayrshire, Scotland. Although officially called Glasgow Prestwick Airport, because it is 46 km (29 miles) from the city, it is often referred to as just Prestwick Airport. The last ten years has seen unprecedented growth in passenger traffic using the airport driven, in the main, by the boom in no-frills airlines, especially from Ryanair who use the airport as a hub. In 2006, Prestwick handled nearly 2.4 million passengers.^[1]

In physical terms, Prestwick is Scotland's largest commercial airfield, although in passenger traffic terms it sits in fourth place after Edinburgh Airport, Glasgow's main airport, Glasgow International, and Aberdeen Airport all of which are operated by BAA.

History

The airport began life around 1934 — primarily as a training airfield — with a hangar, offices and control tower being in place by the end of 1935. The airport's original owner was David Fowler McIntyre, who was also the owner of Scottish Aviation with backing from the then Duke of Hamilton. MacIntyre and Hamilton had previously been the first aviators to fly atop Mount Everest in 1933. With the onset of World War II, the airport developed rapidly in order to handle the large volume of American aircraft ferry traffic.

In 1938 passenger facilities were added, which were used continuously until the implementation of a massive investment programme to make Prestwick compatible with the new jet transports which were becoming available. A runway extension, parallel taxiway, link road, and an all-new terminal building were opened by the Queen Mother in 1964. The extension of Runway 13/31 caused considerable disruption to road users as the main road from Monkton into Prestwick was now crossing the tarmac of the existing runway. This had to be strictly controlled by a "level crossing" type system until the new perimeter road was completed.^[2]

The United States Air Force (USAF) had opened a base in 1952 on the site of the original airport using former Royal Air Force (RAF) facilities (the USAF Military Air Transport Service (MATS) 1631st Air Base Squadron), and in 1953 on the Monkton side of the airport, both used by the USAF MATS. This base closed in 1966, part of the site is still occupied by the Royal Navy with RNAS Prestwick, more popularly known as HMS Gannet, where a detachment of Sea Kings provide a search and rescue role, covering one of the largest SAR area of the UK including Ben Nevis, the Lakes, Northern Ireland and 200Nm past the Irish coast.

There had been proposed plans drawn up pre-war for the post war years which would have been classed as extremely ambitious, especially in the austere post-war years. Among the various proposals was a 4 mile long main runway, an integral freight yard and railway station, and a semi enclosed mooring for flying boats and other amphibious aircraft. However, the runway was never lengthened to that degree, and the decline in seaplane and flying boat operations also meant that the latter proposal was never enacted. It is telling however, that many years since those proposals were made, that Prestwick Airport does have its own railway station, something that even Glasgow Airport does not have.

Scottish Aviation built a factory using the original terminal building and hangars at Prestwick, which produced such aircraft as the Prestwick Pioneers, and later the Jetstream and Bulldog. One part of the factory, the large white art-deco building which remains to this day, had in fact been the Palace of Engineering that had been built as part of the Empire Exhibition at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow in 1938. When Scottish Aviation merged with British Aerospace as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act, BAe maintained aircraft production at the site until 1998, primarily updates of the Jetstream line. Today BAE Systems retains a small facility at Prestwick for its Regional Aircraft division, with the adjoining main manufacturing site, producing components for Airbus and Boeing aircraft, having been sold to Spirit AeroSystems in January 2006.

In the beginning, Prestwick was the only Scottish airport allowed to operate a transatlantic link, largely due to the very benign weather conditions on the Ayrshire coast. Indeed, with a much lower incidence of fog than any other airport in Great Britain due to a geological anomaly, Prestwick has the reputation of being "Britain's only fog-free airport". This is perhaps one reason it managed to avoid total closure when it appeared that BAA seemed to be running down operations. It was also partly a political decision to silence those that questioned why Glasgow needed two airports when Glasgow Corporation had already invested money building Glasgow Airport.

Although British Airways had ceased regular passenger operations in the late 1970s, BA continued to intermittently use Prestwick as a site for pilot training, especially for training Concorde pilots. Concorde became a semi-regular visitor to the airport, and indeed BA and a number of other major airlines still use Prestwick for pilot training.

Prestwick Airport is also considered to be the only piece of United Kingdom territory on which Elvis Presley ever set foot, when the United States Army transport plane carrying him home stopped to refuel in 1960, whilst en route from Germany. A lounge, bearing his name, and a marker reflecting this event were inaugurated in 2006. However, on the 21st of April 2008, during a BBC2 radio interview with Ken Bruce, theatre impresario and chairman of Everton F.C., Bill Kenwright, claimed that Elvis visited London two years prior to this, with his friend, Tommy Steele. ^[3] Immediately after, Airport authorities issued a statement requesting that photographic, or other evidence of the said visit be provided, lest they shall continue with their current claim.

Prestwick Air Show

Prestwick Airport also used to host a bi-annual airshow, the first of which was held on 30 September 1967. While very small in scale compared to such shows as RAF Fairford or Farnborough, the air show was a local attraction and drew a considerable crowd. There were constant rumours in later years that the SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft would make an appearance, but this came to nothing, most likely due to difficulties associated with handling the special fuel. The last air show was in 1992 and there have been no efforts at reviving it since.

Change in the 1990s

Former First Minister of Scotland Jack McConnell greets President of the United States George W. Bush and Laura Bush to Scotland on 6 July 2005 at the airport

In 1991 the newly-privatised British Airports Authority, BAA Limited consolidated their portfolio of UK airports. Part of this was to move all transatlantic traffic departing from Scotland to Glasgow International Airport, near Paisley, and sell Prestwick off to the private sector. In the early-to-mid 1990s passenger figures fell sharply with only freight traffic and a small number of charter flights using Prestwick on a regular basis. At this point the airport faced an uncertain future.

1994 marked the beginning of a renaissance for the struggling airport. It took the shrewd move of building its own railway station on the existing Ayrshire Coast Line (Glasgow-Ayr), which runs straight past the airfield. Then, Irish budget line Ryanair opened a route to the airport from Dublin. This led to another route to London the following year. The resulting rapid growth of European no-frills airlines in the late 1990s has seen Prestwick grow even larger than it had ever been in traffic terms under state ownership. Ryanair now serves more than 20 destinations from Prestwick – now one of their maintenance hubs – and other budget airlines have also moved into the airport.

Today, as well as the thriving no-frills segment, Prestwick has continued its traditional strategic role as a refuelling point for military aircraft – the USAF, RAF and the Canadian Forces Air Command are frequent visitors for example. Cargo traffic has also become another stronghold of Prestwick with the vast majority of Scotland's Boeing 747 Freighter traffic entering via the airport.

The airport is privately owned by Infratil, a New Zealand investment company which also owns Wellington International Airport and Kent International Airport at Manston Ramsgate . In April 2005, Infratil completed a major £3 million refurbishment of the terminal building, and also controversially rebranded the airport using the phrase "Pure Dead Brilliant", taken straight from the Glasgow patter. Some of this rebranding has been controversial, in particular the redecoration of the airport bar. The bar was rebranded in February 2006 with a logo depicting a man in a kilt, unconscious with an empty bottle of whisky. Despite objections that it promoted the wrong image of Scotland to foreign visitors and embarrassed local travellers, the airport management insisted the logo was "fun and visually stimulating". However, the logo was removed on March 3, 2006, only several weeks after its introduction, after the intervention of the South Ayrshire Licensing Board who said the logo trivialised excessive drinking.^[4]

On 6 July 2005, Prestwick Airport became the entry point into Scotland for the world's most powerful leaders on the eve of the 31st G8 summit which was being held in Gleneagles. Strathclyde Police implemented an unprecedented level of security around the airport for the duration of the summit. Officers from police forces throughout the UK were drafted in to assist in the operation, including armed officers. In preparation for the landing of Air Force One, carrying US president George W. Bush, the A77, which runs past the end of the main runway, was controversially closed while the aircraft was on final approach.

Airlines and destinations

• Aer Arann (Cork, Donegal)
• BH Air (Bourgas) [seasonal] [begins 15 June]^[5]
• Freebird Airlines (Dalaman) [seasonal]
• Onur Air (Dalaman) [seasonal] [begins 16 June]^[6][7]
• Ryanair (Belfast-City, Bournemouth, Brussels-Charleroi, Budapest, Derry, Dublin, Faro, Girona, Gothenburg-City, Grenoble [seasonal], Frankfurt-Hahn, Kraków, London-Stansted, Málaga, Marseille [seasonal], Milan-Bergamo, Murcia, Oslo-Torp, Paris-Beauvais, Pisa, Reus [seasonal], Riga, Rome-Ciampino, Shannon, Stockholm-Skavsta, Tenerife-South, Turin [begins 20 December], Weeze, Wrocław)
• Wizz Air (Gdańsk, Katowice, Poznań, Warsaw)

Cargo airlines

Destinations with direct service from Prestwick

• Air France Cargo
• Atlas Air Ceased Prestwick operation in August 2008 due to economic decline
• British Airways World Cargo Global Supply Systems
• Cargolux
• Evergreen International Airlines
• NWA Cargo
• Polar Air Cargo Ceased Prestwick operation in August 2008 as per Atlas
• Singapore Airlines Cargo
• Tradewinds Airlines

The majority operating Boeing 747-400F aircraft, with Polar Air having a maintenance hangar at the airport. Air Foyle HeavyLift and Volga-Dnepr are also occasional users of Prestwick with Antonov An-124 aircraft.

Facts and figures

• Operating hours - 24 hours
• Passengers per year - over 2,000,000 (2006)^[1]
• Airlines - 4
• Total Aircraft movements - over 48,000 per year (2006)^[1]
• Destinations - 36 (June 07)
• Aircraft types - Boeing 737-800, Airbus A320, Boeing 747-400, Boeing 747-200, Antonov12,124,225
• Number of Stands - 7 nose in PAPA/AGIS (1A,1,2,3,4,7,8) 5 Stands assisted by Ground Operations (5,6,9,10,11)
• Scheduled Destinations - 32

Car parking

• Glasgow Prestwick airport operate its own car parks.
• All of the car parks awarded the PARK MARK AWARD in 2007/2008.
• Both long and short term car parks are available for passengers/visitors use, depending on the length of parking time required.
• Long term onsite car parking can be pre-booked using the Airport's own website, WWW.GLASGOWPRESTWICK.COM, with the cheapest long term car park being Long Stay North CP7 (pre-booked paking only), Terminal Long Stay CP3 (turn up and park or pre-book), and the dearest (but closest to terminal) parking being Terminal Short Stay CP1 (turn up and park or pre-book).
• Glasgow Prestwick has a guarantee to offer the cheapest long stay car parking for the airport.
• Car park prices can vary according to season, so please check website for a quote.
• Shuttle Bus service to and from CP7 operates 24hrs, with buses every 15 - 20 minutes (price included in your car parking fee).

Passenger figures

Busiest International Routes out of Glasgow Prestwick International Airport (2007)^[8]

Rank	Airport	Passengers handled	% Change
1	Dublin Airport	235,576	▼3.51
2	Paris Beauvais Tillé Airport	194,842	▲2.32
3	Girona-Costa Brava Airport	116,644	▲6.46
4	Orio al Serio Airport	88,740	▼10.41
5	Frankfurt-Hahn Airport	84,432	▼7.80
6	Shannon Airport	82,022	▼7.36
7	Brussels South Charleroi Airport	72,607	▼25.82
8	Stockholm-Skavsta Airport	69,399	▼1.32
9	Rome Ciampino Airport	66,678	▼29.88
10	Sandefjord Airport, Torp	63,913	▼4.21
11	Galileo Galilei International Airport	60,113	▼11.08
12	Gothenburg City Airport	57,113	▼8.03
13	Airport Weeze	56,241	▼5.43
14	Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport	51,696	▲63.08
15	John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice	50,331	▲3.72

Trivia

• The airport featured on Top Gear, which ran a Ford Mondeo and a Citroën 2CV behind the engines of a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747-400, to investigate the effect of crosswinds on cars.

Future

A multimillion pound plan to double the size of the departure lounge has been proposed. Prestwick has pledged to be ready and willing to handle the Airbus A380. A two storey building is being considered to replace the current arrivals and departure halls. One floor would be used for departures and the other for arrivals. It would also raise the amount of aircraft stands from 6 to 12. This process will take 18 months (Works not yet started October 2008).

The car park, and A79 outside the terminal building has recently been redeveloped due to new rules and regulation put in place by the Government after Glasgow's terrorist attack.

Transport links

Despite being further away from the city of Glasgow than Glasgow International Airport, Prestwick well patronised and convenient public transport options. A forty minute train journey from Glasgow Central to the airport can even be quicker than the equivalent bus journey from the city centre to Glasgow International Airport/

Rail

Prestwick airport is the only airport in Scotland to have its own railway station, Glasgow Prestwick Airport railway station, which was built by the airport in 1994. The station is connected to the terminal by an enclosed walkway over the A79 road, and platforms are easily accessed by stairs, escalators and lifts.^[9] The station continues to be owned and operated by the Airport, and not by Network Rail or First ScotRail.

All services from the station are operated by First ScotRail. The most frequent services are on the electrified route between Glasgow Central and Ayr on the Ayrshire Coast Line. Trains run half-hourly Monday to Saturday (and Sunday during the summer) and hourly on Sunday. There are also less frequent services to Stranraer, Newcastle and Kilmarnock. All Ryanair passengers receive 50% off the standard adult single train fare between the airport and any destination in Scotland when they show a valid itinerary for that day. New Ryanair routes are also marked with a promotional period (normally 6 weeks after launch) during which time rail travel is free to and from the airport.

Buses

Buses to Prestwick Airport are operated by Stagecoach Western and Dodds of Troon, with regular semi-fast services to Glasgow and Ayr.

Incidents and accidents

• The first serious air accident at Prestwick was the KLM disaster on 20 October 1948. A Lockheed Constellation of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines crashed in a field 5 miles north-east of the airport while attempting to approach in bad weather. The aircraft had already aborted a landing due to strong crosswinds and had negotiated with air traffic control to approach using a different runway. It was on that approach that the Constellation struck power cables and crashed. A combination of poor weather and pilot error were to blame for the crash, with the flight crew having an incorrect above ground level reading. 30 passengers and 4 crew died in the accident, 6 having survived the initial impact but having suffered fatal injuries.

• Early on Christmas Day 1954, at 0330 hours, a British Overseas Airways Corporation Boeing 377 Stratocruiser crashed on landing at Prestwick, killing 28 of the 36 passengers and crew onboard. The aircraft had been en route from London to New York City, when, on approach to Prestwick, entered a steep descent before levelling out too late and too severely, hitting the ground short of the runway. A number of factors have been attributed to the cause of the crash, including pilot fatigue (the captain was well over his duty limit due to the aircraft being delayed), the landing lights at Prestwick being out of action due to repair and the First Officer either not hearing a command from the Captain for landing lights (which may have helped judge the low cloud base) or mistakenly hitting the flaps, causing the aircraft to stall.

The Stratocruiser had been carrying uncut diamonds in registered mail, then valued at over £1 million, though it would be several days after the accident that investigators had any hint of the cargo being carried. An extensive search was carried out in the area surrounding the crash for several weeks, resulting in over 90% of the diamonds being recovered. The KLM Constellation that crashed near Prestwick 6 years earlier had also been carrying diamonds, then valued at over £5000.

• On 28 April 1958 a British European Airways Vickers Viscount crashed just outside Ayr on a repositioning flight from London after the pilot misread the altimeter by 10,000 ft. The aircraft skidded across the ground before catching fire. All 5 crew survived.

• A British Airtours Boeing 707 crashed during crew training at Prestwick on 17 March 1977. The aircraft had been simulating an engine shutdown on take-off, causing it to tend to the left. Though the instructor took control of the aircraft, the engine simulating shutdown struck the runway and the aeroplane yawed and rolled violently to the right, causing the undercarriage to collapse and resulting in the engines being ripped off. None of the 4 crew were injured and there were no casualties on the ground.

• Another simulated engine failure resulted in the crash of a BAe Jetstream on 6 October 1992, killing both crew members. While attempting to trace which engine had simulated failure, the co-pilot had forgotten to retract the undercarriage. While retracting the undercarriage, the aircraft stalled, rolled, and struck the ground inverted.

• Prestwick and London Stansted Airport in Essex, are the only two airports in the UK designated for "at risk" flights. In April 2006, two aircraft were diverted to Prestwick under RAF escort in separate incidents; a Ryanair flight between Paris and Dublin, and an Aer Arann flight from Luton to Galway. In both instances, a note found by cabin crew warning of a bomb on board turned out to be hoaxes. Bomb disposal cover for Prestwick, and indeed for the whole of Scotland, is covered by an army troop from 11 EOD Regiment of the Royal Logistic Corps, based in Edinburgh.

• During the 1989 Prestwick Air show, a Hawker Sea Fury had to be ditched in the sea as the port landing gear was stuck. The pilot bailed out to safety.

Further reading

• Ewart, J (1985) Prestwick Airport Golden Jubilee 1935-1985
• Berry, P (2005) Prestwick Airport and Scottish Aviation

See also

Aeronautical Information Publication

References

External links

• Official website