Prestwick Airport Blog

Maintenance hangar could create 200 jobs

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:38:51 UTC

Michael O’Leary’s airline, Ryanair, is to build a new maintenance hangar at Prestwick airport, creating up to 200 jobs. The carrier has also announced an extension of its sun and sea routes from the Scottish airport, commencing in May 2010.

Prestwick might not be the most famous airport in the UK, and few people can claim to know exactly where it is, but the site has an illustrious history, being the only place in Britain to have felt the feet of the late Elvis Presley, and having the largest control tower in Europe within its perimeter.

The airport is increasingly becoming a focus for new aviation technologies, surpassing even the largest regional sites, such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow airports, and etching out a niche as one of the most reliable airports in Britain. Prestwick is rarely beaten by the elements.

O’Leary’s new hangar, which will become the second such building under Ryanair control, could boost the number of airline jobs in the area to 2400, cementing the carrier’s position as one of the largest employers in the Ayrshire region.

Construction will be subsidised by the Scottish government, to the tune of £1.5m in training grants and business funding. Alex Salmond, First Minister of the Scottish National Party, praised Ryanair’s efforts to support the local economy:

“Ryanair makes a substantial contribution to Scotland's economy through its engineering facilities. Investment at Prestwick supports this government's ambition to increase sustainable economic growth by creating quality new jobs."

The airline recently announced three new routes at Edinburgh, including Scotland’s first ever route to Morocco.

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'Europe's largest' air traffic control centre

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:37:48 UTC

Prestwick has become the home of the largest air traffic control centre in Europe, as part of a plan to streamline traffic operations throughout the UK. The structure will have responsibility for almost half of the country’s aircraft movements when a similar centre in Manchester is closed later this year.

Costing around £180m to build, Prestwick’s new centre will watch out for aeroplanes in Scotland, Northern England and Ireland, and the skies over the Atlantic Ocean. The total area of responsibility is in excess of 2m square kilometres.

A second control centre, located in Hampshire, will guard the Midlands, Wales, London, and the Home Counties.

The are controlled by National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which employs roughly 800 people at the Prestwick centre alone. A further 130 controllers will be relocated to Scotland when the Manchester centre is closed.

Prestwick boss, Pauline Lamb, was delighted with the new air traffic control centre – “We started building in 2005, and now here we stand fully operational, under budget and on time. There is a real sense of achievement for everybody involved."

The control centre will be officially opened on the 5th of February, at a ceremony attended by Princess Anne. The centre is the second such building at the site, standing near a similar structure that was built in the 1980s.

Prestwick will now handle up to a million flights a year, encompassing both civilian and military aeroplanes. In total, NATS was responsible for the well-being of 2.2m aircraft during 2009, a reduction of 9.6% over 2008.

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Prestwick weathers fog fiasco

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:56:10 UTC

Woolly hats are back in fashion again, after the British weather took a turn for the worst over the weekend. Snow flurries, heavy rain and blanket fog have caused chaos up and down the country, with many UK airports encountering long delays.

Edinburgh and Glasgow airports were forced to concede to stubborn fog on Friday - ten flights were redirected to Prestwick, but delays continued to mount up. Planes from Liverpool and Stornoway, a small town on the Isle of Lewis, and distant Southampton have also found their way to the Ayrshire airport. Prestwick has been asked to prepare for more arrivals. Flights from Scotland to London were similarly affected, after fog sneaked into Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted.

Meteorologists noted that temperatures were as low as minus seven in Aberdeenshire, with more cold weather expected over the coming days. Snowfall continues to pester the north of England.

Low temperatures, and an absence of strong winds have compounded the problems experienced by Glasgow and Edinburgh, as fog will not move unless it is evaporated or blown away.

Prestwick enjoys relatively clear skies all year round, however, making it a perfect haven for planes stuck in the mist. Iain Cochrane, boss at Prestwick, was unfazed by the change in the weather – “Our staff are doing an excellent job in helping passengers get to their destinations with minimal inconvenience.”

Edinburgh Airport has advised all travellers to be prepared for delays. Please contact your airline directly if you have any concerns about your flight.

Prestwick depends on grumpy airline

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:11:27 UTC

Prestwick Airport depends on Ryanair for its income, according to Ayrshire MP, Brian Donohoe. The airline offers more than ten direct flights from the Glasgow site, many of which travel to continental Europe.

Ryanair is no stranger to the headlines. Stuff the firm into your favourite search engine, and a catalogue of hidden charges, flight cancellations, and executive rants will meet you on the screen.

Probe a little deeper and you’ll discover that Ryanair was instrumental in the job cuts that blighted this year’s warm summer.

After deserting Robin Hood Airport altogether, the airline struck a blow to handling firm, Servisair, by cutting its winter sun schedule into tiny pieces. Newcastle was similarly hit, but soon found solace in budget airline, Jet2.

Mr. Donohoe fears that Ryanair’s tempestuous relationship with the aviation industry could pose a threat to Prestwick Airport, after summer cutbacks reduced the number of seats available to Scottish travellers by thirty percent.

The MP has begun phoning other airlines in a desperate bid to draw more business to the Glasgow airport.

“Prestwick has practically all of its eggs in one basket. If Ryanair cuts just one service, this has knock-on effects; not just on the airport itself, but on many other businesses in the area.” Mr. Donohoe explained.

The timing of the announcement was unusual, however. Ryanair recently revealed an extension to its operations at Prestwick, including one new route to Carcassonne, France.

Despite adopting a "cautiously optimistic" stance on Prestwick's future, Mr. Donohoe is clearly taking no chances with Michael O’Leary’s airline.

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Burnt toast causes airport chaos

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:59:39 UTC

Whilst Heathrow Airport contends with terrorists, super villains and would-be illegal immigrants, Glasgow Prestwick has been fighting a losing battle against a different foe altogether.

The Ayrshire site has been evacuated three times in the last month, due to burnt toast. Fire crews arrived to find nothing amiss, save for the thick black smoke pouring out of the staffroom doors.

Bosses blamed immigration officers for the lapse, which forced thousands of travellers to flee the airport. Prestwick has since been asked to consider a full toaster-ban to prevent further disruption.

Visitors to the Daily Record website, a Scottish newspaper, were bemused – “The first toaster incident should have led to an outright ban. One can only hope it's not the same management in charge of aircraft safety.”

Fire crews were concerned that the false alarms could put lives at risk, but claimed a lasting relationship with the airport. Prestwick has reminded all airport staff of the proper way to use a toaster.

October and November were difficult months for Prestwick – ignoring the toast fiasco; the airport recorded a 28% drop in passenger numbers over the same period last year. Officials downplayed the news, citing a number of new routes as potential growth areas.

Around thirty different destinations are now available to sun worshippers, departing in summer 2010. Carcassonne, an ancient city in Languedoc, France is the latest addition, provided by budget airline, Ryanair.

Prestwick claims to be Scotland’s most popular airport for holidaymakers, but further evacuations could really upset the airport’s business model.

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Staff cuts feared at Prestwick

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:17:50 UTC

It seems as if news of massive job cuts makes the headlines every day at the moment. The credit crunch simply keeps claiming new victims and it seems like there is no end in sight. Now Prestwick Airport, which is located in Ayrshire, has announced that approximately 240 members of staff could be made redundant as part of a drastic yet necessary cost-cutting scheme.

This figure may seem negligible compared to the thousands of staff members in large companies made redundant within days during the past few months. However, the figure is actually rather shocking since the overall number of people working at Prestwick Airport is 500. This means that airport officials are considering sacking almost half of their members of staff.

The plans have been necessitated by a decline in both passenger and freight numbers. The decline in freight figures has hit the airport particularly hard, since Prestwick used to be the largest freight handler in the United Kingdom prior to FedEx’s move to Stansted airport. However, the chief executive of the airport, Mark Rodwell, has stated that the officials are doing all they can to seek alternative options before making the job cuts.

Officials will look closely at the “workload of the airport” over the months to come and will assess the “number of employees who are needed to deliver that workload”. Ultimately, Mr. Rodwell believes, like many other chief executives involved in the aviation industry, that 2009 will be an extremely tough year but the aim of the airport is still to “avoid job losses where possible”.