Strategy for Prestwick clear from southern flight of Scottish travellers

Rather, the frustration arises when passing the airport and seeing a lack of take-offs and landings and large numbers of empty car parking spaces.

The situation seems ridiculous at the best of times, given the number of Scots who travel south of the Border for either budget airline or package holiday flights because they cannot afford, or do not want to pay, the prices being charged to fly from Glasgow or Edinburgh.

At peak times such as school holidays, the situation takes on a truly Alice in Wonderland-like dimension, when the generally steady southward stream of Scottish travellers on the M74 and M6 and trains to Manchester Airport turns into a flood.

Cabin crew on, for example, transatlantic services or European flights from Manchester at the start of the Scottish school summer holidays are left scratching their heads over why the planes are packed with Scots who have travelled for hours and have sometimes had to stay overnight to catch their outbound flights.

These crew members could be forgiven for thinking Scotland did not have any airports. Or that these airports were not serving destinations to which people could fly from northern England or the Midlands

But Scotland does have airports. Indeed, you might hear people at Glasgow or Edinburgh airports reasoning that Scotland has one too many, as they cast an eye over their shoulder at the Scottish Government-owned Prestwick Airport.

And there are flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh to the overseas destinations to which the Scots who have travelled south of the Border for their outbound journeys are heading. It is just that these flights were viewed as too expensive, or were full, or both.

Surely normal market forces would dictate that the big package holiday operators such as Thomas Cook or TUI would attempt to take advantage of this unfulfilled demand for cheaper flights from Scotland and fly out of Prestwick as well as Edinburgh and Glasgow? Maybe they figure they are going to get the business anyway, as Scots will fill their planes flying out of the north of England or Midlands, or even London Gatwick. But surely flights, over time, should end up going from where is convenient for passengers.

Surely Prestwick is well-placed in this regard. After all, it is an airport with some significant advantages. Unlike Glasgow and Edinburgh airports, it has a good direct rail link to a major city centre. Given M8 traffic, it often takes little, if any, longer to get into the centre of Glasgow from Prestwick than from the city’s main airport.

Prestwick enjoyed a period, before the financial crisis and the trouble it brought for small and medium-sized package holiday companies, when it had plenty of holiday flights. It still has some, operated by Ryanair, but this budget airline has transferred many of its services to Glasgow and Edinburgh, having previously provided frequent connections between Prestwick and the likes of Paris, Gothenburg, and London Stansted.

Glasgow, like every other airport, was hit by the economic downturn. So it was hardly going to turn down the opportunity of accommodating flights previously operated out of Prestwick.

However, it is important not to lose sight of the long term. Encouragingly, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports are both enjoying rapid growth in passenger numbers. So might there come a time again when the budget airlines will have to look once more to the likes of Prestwick to keep their fares down as the main airports get closer to capacity?

This week, we have been told of the impending departure of Prestwick Airport veterans Iain Cochrane, the chief executive, and Graeme Sweenie, chief commercial officer.

Prestwick Airport chairman Andrew Miller, who will by this autumn have been in post for about a year, has this week talked about a “fundamental repositioning” and “new vision” for Prestwick. Mr Miller held senior positions in Air New Zealand and has experience of the duty free sector.

Even so, given the raft of new faces on the Prestwick board from a variety of backgrounds, it seems a shame that the airport will no longer be able to draw on the long experience of Mr Cochrane and Mr Sweenie. They will have a good awareness of the ups and downs Prestwick has faced over the years, and of the local economy, as well as long experience of running an airport perceived to be in a secondary location.

We now face another wait while successors are sought out by Mr Miller and his board.

They should be looking for people with experience of running a successful airport in a secondary location, in the likes of Scandinavia or Germany. This seems, now, to be an obvious gap on the Prestwick board. Separately, it would also be good to see directors with more experience of the Ayrshire economy, and the package holiday market, brought on to the board.

It would surely be great to have someone like Bill Munro, founder of Barrhead Travel, or Duncan Wilson, the package holiday industry veteran now at Minoan, or Direct Holidays founder John Boyle as a director.

Then again, maybe this is not the market being targeted by Mr Miller and his non-executives.

It makes good sense for Prestwick to diversify, given its history with the likes of Ryanair, perhaps attracting back some London services for business travellers who live nearby. Prestwick has this week cited increased military aircraft traffic. And freight is important.

The new board also appears to be focusing on the amount of land at Prestwick. But it is vital the airport is not turned into some kind of property development play that in any way limits its future capacity. Some things, such as the building of a hotel, might be sensible if those in charge are brave enough to invest for the future.

A new hotel, an existing rail link, and plenty of capacity for competitive landing charges that could enable budget airlines and package tour operators to offer hundreds of thousands of Scots the type of holiday prices that would ensure they flew from north of the Border. Now that sounds like a strategy.