Prestwick Boss Calls For APD Action

According to web statements, the boss of Glasgow Prestwick Airport has claimed that Air Passenger Duty (APD) is “devastating” Scottish inbound tourism because it is putting people off taking domestic flights.
Prestwick Airport’s chief executive, Iain Cochrane, has urged the UK Government to scrap the controversial tax and devolve it to the Scottish Parliament.

Responding to the Westminster Government's consultation on the future of APD, Mr Cochrane said: “The impact of APD is simply devastating. Since the doubling of APD from £5 to £10 in 2008, we estimate the loss of inbound tourists through Glasgow Prestwick to have cost the Scottish economy over £130 million per annum in passenger spend alone.

“We estimate that abolishing APD would secure over 750,000 additional passengers per annum through Glasgow Prestwick Airport and we strongly believe that all other Scottish airports would see a strong growth in passenger services, giving the Scottish economy a very welcome boost.

He added: “We firmly believe that the Scottish Government is best placed to determine the balance between APD and the economic benefits of aviation growth. Prudent judgements can then be made that are specifically pertinent to Scotland, recognising its geographical position depends far more heavily on good air services than most other areas of the UK.”

Whilst it may not be the full picture to blame all the flight losses and reductions in passenger numbers to APD - Ryanair's shift and displacement of flights through Edinburgh being the major contributory factor perhaps - there is no doubt that Prestwick needs support from both local and national politicians and from Ayrshire and the wider business communities across Scotland. Certainly the market will out and if new airlines, charters or scheduled routes cannot be attracted the airport will once again have to reinvent itself all over again as it has done in the past. There seems little desire from the Scottish Government to intervene at Prestwick in the way that they have certainly intervened in other "important" tourism areas and it looks as though it's down to the airport management to pretty much fight their own corner.

The importance and contribution of those new routes in the first decade of the millennium to Ayrshire and indeed Glasgow's hospitality sector cannot be underestimated. Their loss is now being heavily felt by many.

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.