Monday 26 July 2010

Prestwick To Lose Half its Ryanair Flights

We must have missed the announcement somewhere along the line but it would appear that Ryanair are pulling more than half of their flights from Prestwick Airport this winter. We only found the information by chance on the Prestwick Airport blog site and don't have any more information other than the statement taken from the website below. However for Ayrshire, a destination already beleaguered, the news could be devastating for a large number of businesses already feeling the downturns of the past eighteen months. We will publish any more details on the story when we have them. Please leave your comments.

The article mentions the prophecies of the politicians. At Tourism Matters we've been hammering on about the threat to Prestwick for rather a long time. More here from last June

The following is from the Prestwick website.

Ryanair’s decision to pull half of its winter flights out of Prestwick Airport could have resounding consequences for the local workforce. The Ayrshire hub has revealed that up to a third of its permanent staff members could be fired, as passenger numbers at the airport continue to fall.
Prestwick employs around 410 people at present, including those housed in the various retail units around the site.
Job cuts will leave the hub short-handed, but bosses have envisaged a plan to retrain staff to take on multiple tasks. Fire fighters could be encouraged to take on baggage handling duties, for example, but hopefully, the scheme doesn’t work in reverse: baggage staff are unlikely to be as efficient at dousing flames.
The airport will consult with unions and workers before axing any jobs. Iain Cochrane, the airport’s CEO, claims that Prestwick is ‘optimistic’ about the future, but warned that job cuts are ‘likely,’ - ‘these are extremely difficult times. I am very sorry to say that in this review it is likely that there will be redundancies.’
Mr. Cochrane went on to list the problems that the airport was facing, including the Air Passenger Duty and the growing trend in ‘staycations’ – Brits holidaying at home. Prestwick is at the mercy of Ryanair, however, and the airline’s decision to cut 52% of its winter flights has done damage to the tiny airport.

In December, Ayrshire MP, Brian Donohoe, warned Prestwick bosses about the possibility of a Ryanair exodus, and even went to the trouble of phoning rival airlines, in an attempt to lure extra business to the airport. The MP’s clairvoyance will be of no comfort to Prestwick’s beleaguered workers now though, as many of them could be jobless by the time the advent calendars appear on supermarket shelves. Irene Oldfather, another Scottish MP, expressed ‘deep disappointment’ at the news.

1 comment:

howard wilkinson said...

if true,very serious news indeed especially if the few incoming positive flight balance destinations are cut and /or frequencies cut

having said that the interesting SWOT opportunity ,is building on the key hub destination that Edinburgh increasingly represents and leveraging the benefits of motorway journey times from there

we can easily be part of an extensive Edinburgh city region..

plus domestically we need to nuture the west coast rail link plus direct rail link to Manchester airport via glasgow

thanks for once again flagging up the earthquake