Glasgow Airport Blog

Tesco moves into Glasgow

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:29:21 BST

Shopping giant, Tesco, plans to open a new store in Glasgow Airport. The shop, which will carry the Express branding, and stock a range of essential products, will become the first Tesco store of its kind when it opens later this year.

Tesco is one of the largest supermarket chains in the UK, earning around £3bn in the last financial year. The firm’s stores have become a high-street staple in recent years, replacing smaller establishments and ‘corner shops,’ and generating a fair amount of criticism from concerned residents.

In 2007, for example, a Tesco store in Cambridge was opposed by local people, who felt that the supermarket would suck the life out of a ‘lively cosmopolitan area,’ and force the closure of a number of unique outlets. The shop was eventually built in 2009, albeit at a fraction of its original size.

Glasgow’s new Tesco Express will be located in the domestic arrivals area, and fill a ‘prominent space’ in the airport, according to officials. The supermarket hopes to attract returning holidaymakers, especially those who arrive during the early hours, when most high street stores are closed.

“We are delighted to be making this investment at Glasgow Airport,” Tesco chief, Tony McElroy, explained. “Our new shop is a great example of our commitment to keeping our business fresh and trying new ideas." Tony claims that up to 20 jobs could be created by the Glasgow Tesco.

An airport store might be a novel investment in Tony McElroy's eyes, but rival supermarket, Spar, already has a small shop at East Midlands Airport.

What sets Tesco apart, however, is the price of goods – the airport Express will offer groceries at the same price as its high street kin, without any of the premiums usually heaped on items sold at railway stations and airports.

Glasgow will be hoping that the extra business generated by Tesco will shore up the airport's finances over the difficult winter holiday season. Last year, the Scottish hub was forced to close its second terminal, as debt problems spiralled out of control.

Glasgow gets German route

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:52:01 BST

The self-proclaimed, ‘number one domestic airline,’ Flybe, has introduced a flight to Frankfurt, Germany, from Glasgow Airport. The route will operate between four and twelve times a week, according to a press release by the carrier, and connect to the German city via Southampton Airport.

Beginning 1 August, Flybe’s new route is designed to generate business links between Scotland and ‘key destinations,’ such as Frankfurt. The airline claims that its latest addition is in response to demand from Scottish executives, who may not wish to travel the 40 miles to Edinburgh for a direct flight to Germany.

Flybe also hopes that its Glasgow-Frankfurt route will demonstrate that the budget carrier has its collective fingers in two lucrative pies – the leisure and tourism industry, and the heady world of business travel. The airline’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mike Rutter, explained that the flight was both ‘convenient’ and ‘cost-effective’ for travellers.

Glasgow is Flybe’s third UK base to provide a flight to Frankfurt, after Birmingham and Manchester airports. Tickets begin at £53.99, taxes included, for a one-way trip, departing at 13.35 on each day of operation. Unfortunately, the short stop in Southampton adds a good two hours to the total travel time.

Passengers can expect to spend an average of 4hrs 25mins in the sky, double that of flights between the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, and Frankfurt. The return flight leaves Germany at 19.00, arriving in Glasgow some 3 hours later, at 22.00.

Frankfurt is one of the largest cities in Germany, and ranks alongside Paris and London as an economic powerhouse. The city is sometimes referred to as ‘Bankfurt’ in honour of its many financial institutions, including the headquarters of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, and the Frankfurt stock exchange.

‘Busiest day’ at Glasgow

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:37:33 BST

Last week, Glasgow Airport enjoyed its busiest day of the year, as Scottish schools let their students out for the summer holidays. The hub helped around 33,000 people to their destinations on Friday, and 100,000 over the weekend as a whole, yet travel experts continue to warn of another ‘staycation.’

Recent figures indicate that Palma, Tenerife, and Alicante in Spain were the most popular routes served by Glasgow, with Dalaman, Turkey, close behind. The airport was optimistic about a series of new destinations being offered by UK tour operators, Kiss Flights and Barrhead Travel, who have recently set up shop at the Scottish airport.

Glasgow's director, Amanda McMillan, was delighted with the busy weekend – ‘It is fantastic to see so many holidaymakers passing through the airport, particularly given the challenges faced by the aviation industry.’ Amanda said that travellers had defied the credit crunch to spend time away from Britain’s unreliable weather.

Despite warnings of a 'double-dip' recession, it seems likely that Britons will continue to holiday abroad during the summer, especially if a recent survey by Tesco is to be believed. The shopping giant found that a week in Limassol, Cyprus, came in at £470 cheaper than a week in Brighton.

Holidays in Bodrum, Turkey, Budapest in Hungary, Warsaw in Poland, and Ljubljana in Slovenia were also less expensive than England’s famous resort. The city of Sofia, Bulgaria, offered the best value for money, costing half of what a family of four could expect to pay for a week in Brighton.

If prices at foreign resorts continue to fall, the Scottish government could find itself out of pocket - ministers recently invested £5m in the Visit Scotland initiative, designed to drum up interest in local resorts.

BAA customers down last month

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:00:59 BST

The airline industry has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. As if the recession hadn’t been enough, suddenly BA was suffering major industrial action, and then the entire UK airline industry came to a halt in spectacular fashion with the eruption of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajoekull.

Now the extent of the damage caused by the BA strike and the volcanic ash shutdown has been revealed by BAA. The company owns six airports in the UK: Heathrow, Glasgow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Southampton and Aberdeen. It has just announced that in May 2010 the amount of customers to use its airports was just 8.6 million in total – a drop of 4.5% compared to May 2009.

BAA confirmed that, as a result of the volcanic ash and the BA strike, it lost a massive 445,000 passengers – not the best news when you are trying to recover from a recession.

In terms of individual airports, Heathrow saw 5.3 million passengers pass through during the month, a fall of 3.1%; Glasgow saw 560,000 passengers (down 13.7%); and Edinburgh saw 726,000 (down 11.6%).

The biggest overall fall came in domestic flights, with a drop of 16.5% recorded for the month. However, an increase of over 5% was reported for charter flights to Europe and North Africa, which was some good news at least.

Without the volcanic ash and the strike, BAA predicted that it would have seen a 2.8% increase in passenger numbers at Heathrow, and a 0.4% increase over the whole group.

Glasgow adds summer routes - for 2011

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:49:45 BST

The first week of June produced a snapshot of the typical British summertime – one part sunshine, two parts torrential rain. It should come as no surprise then that many Britons are choosing to holiday abroad this year, rather than risk having their trip to the seaside interrupted by unpredictable weather.

UK airlines capitalise on this mass exodus to the continent and beyond by announcing their summer schedules early. Flybe, for example, unveiled its summer routes out of Leeds-Bradford in October 2009, much to the delight of local travellers. Thomson has done one better this year, however, by unveiling its summer 2011 flight roster a full year early.

Routes from Glasgow to Pula in coastal Croatia, the West African island of Cape Verde, and the tropical paradise of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic will begin on 14 May and run until the end of October 2011. The destinations should provide travellers with better value for money than the more popular resorts in the European Union.

Thomson, which was recently named ‘Best Leisure Airline’ at the World Airline Awards in Hamburg, Germany, will offer the flights through its package holiday arm. Glasgow Airport director, Amanda McMillan, expects the popularity of all-inclusive holidays to grow over the next few years,
‘Holidaymakers appear to be returning to the traditional package holiday because of the value for money and the choice of destinations they serve,’ Amanda explained. ‘Thomson’s new flights are good news for holidaymakers’. The new destinations are just one of a number of changes expected at Glasgow in the future.

On the 8 June, airport bosses will introduce a £2m scheme designed to reduce congestion and improve access around the Abbotsinch hub. Contractors will redevelop a number of roads in the immediate area, helping to reduce waiting times, and driving vehicle emissions down. The airport hopes that the new road layout will give Glasgow the ‘look and feel’ of a major international hub.

Plane is ‘great news’ for Glasgow

Thu, 20 May 2010 10:46:58 BST

Thomas Cook has added a sixth plane to its Glasgow fleet, in anticipation of a busy summer season. The airline, which was founded in Derbyshire in the 1800s, is currently marketing 29 ‘sun and sea’ routes from Glasgow to a wide range of destinations, including Spain, Mexico, and Florida.

Airport chief, Amanda McMillan, praised Thomas Cook’s investment, calling it ‘great news for holidaymakers.’ The new plane will cement the airline’s position as one of the largest carriers in the country, and help Glasgow Airport lure thousands more passengers to its terminals.

Glasgow has suffered a string of problems over the past few months, not least of which is the continuing threat of cancellations from the Eyjafjoll volcano. The airport’s second terminal was shut down over the winter, as spiralling costs bit into Glasgow’s bank balance. Thomas Cook’s vote of confidence will no doubt come as a relief to airport bosses.

The airline will roll three new destinations out of Glasgow during the summer, namely, Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia. Mrs. McMillan was preparing the airport for a surge in demand – ‘We are working hard to ensure we are ready to welcome the hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers who will pass through our doors during the summer months.’

Glasgow’s future looks uncertain, however, as the owner, the British Airports Authority (BAA), continues to struggle against the Competition Commission. The watchdog wants to break up the BAA’s monopoly over UK aviation, a move that could result in the sale of Stansted, Glasgow, or Edinburgh airports.