Hypothetical bit of fun.

[bill]

So, you're the MD or CEO of a dynamic, proactive group who have just bought GLA from AGS. Money is no object(within reason,e.g, you can't just demolish the airport and rebuild) and your remit is to get GLA back to the 10million p.p.a within three years and continue to grow passenger numbers beyond 5 years. Covid has gone and all is operating as normal as can be and the airport is currently handling just north of 7million p.p.a. What would be the first thing you would concentrate on? By all means, give us your full business plan but what would be the very first thing you would target?
Interested to know.

[Clive]

You know my answer Bill. Give Ryanair a money can’t buy deal to deliver 3m ppa in jig time.

[Allen McL]

Send a trade delegation to New York Tartan Day to big up GLA as the ideal inbound destination for tourism to the west, Ayrshire, Argyll and the west Highlands/Hebrides.

[bill]

You know my answer Bill. Give Ryanair a money can’t buy deal to deliver 3m ppa in jig time.

So, what would your offer to MOL be mate? How many aircraft based, what's the rates for year 1,2,3 etc...?

[bill]

Send a trade delegation to New York Tartan Day to big up GLA as the ideal inbound destination for tourism to the west, Ayrshire, Argyll and the west Highlands/Hebrides.

Okay Allen. How would you get around the alliances that are basing themselves over east? What would be your 'sweetener'?

[Clive]

You know my answer Bill. Give Ryanair a money can’t buy deal to deliver 3m ppa in jig time.

So, what would your offer to MOL be mate? How many aircraft based, what's the rates for year 1,2,3 etc...?

Well I think 3m ppa is easily achievable with the right growth deal. Literally I’d do whatever it takes financially because I couldn’t afford not to. It would likely be zero charges for 3 years for guaranteed pax numbers. As we know the airport’s income comes chiefly from pax and property, not airlines.

Give easyJet and WizzUK the same deal and watch the figures skyrocket. We could even poach suchlike from the big bad wolf down the road.

But let’s not let this thread end up concentrating on that place.

[GeorgeNTravels]

So, you're the MD or CEO of a dynamic, proactive group who have just bought GLA from AGS. Money is no object(within reason,e.g, you can't just demolish the airport and rebuild) and your remit is to get GLA back to the 10million p.p.a within three years and continue to grow passenger numbers beyond 5 years. Covid has gone and all is operating as normal as can be and the airport is currently handling just north of 7million p.p.a. What would be the first thing you would concentrate on? By all means, give us your full business plan but what would be the very first thing you would target?
Interested to know.

Hmmm good question, here's my list of priorities.

1. Virgin/Delta split ops (VS do MCO and DL do JFK)
2. Aer Lingus UK - BOS, BGI & other places
3. Wizz - get OTP, BUD & other eastern Europe cities back on the map
4. Vueling - Spanish cities such as MAD and BCN
5. Smartwings - PRG & Summer flights to places in Turkey & the med.
6. easyJet - Generic EU destinations
7. Jet2/TUI - Greece (Athens/Skiathos etc)

Then when these are established you target Ryanair. If you go straight for FR then you run the risk of putting other airlines off from investment at GLA. However, with MOL responsible for the group now and Eddie Wilson being Ryanair CEO it will be an interesting one to see.

Externally, get a rail link between the airport and Glasgow/ Edinburgh. Better links to places like Inverclyde and Ayrshire to make early flights easier for these communities (lack of access plagues me).

[bill]

You know my answer Bill. Give Ryanair a money can’t buy deal to deliver 3m ppa in jig time.

So, what would your offer to MOL be mate? How many aircraft based, what's the rates for year 1,2,3 etc...?

Well I think 3m ppa is easily achievable with the right growth deal. Literally I’d do whatever it takes financially because I couldn’t afford not to. It would likely be zero charges for 3 years for guaranteed pax numbers. As we know the airport’s income comes chiefly from pax and property, not airlines.

Give easyJet and WizzUK the same deal and watch the figures skyrocket. We could even poach suchlike from the big bad wolf down the road.

But let’s not let this thread end up concentrating on that place.

Don't worry about mentioning EDI mate. Afterall it's where we'd nick most of our pax back from, being realistic.

[bill]

So, you're the MD or CEO of a dynamic, proactive group who have just bought GLA from AGS. Money is no object(within reason,e.g, you can't just demolish the airport and rebuild) and your remit is to get GLA back to the 10million p.p.a within three years and continue to grow passenger numbers beyond 5 years. Covid has gone and all is operating as normal as can be and the airport is currently handling just north of 7million p.p.a. What would be the first thing you would concentrate on? By all means, give us your full business plan but what would be the very first thing you would target?
Interested to know.

Hmmm good question, here's my list of priorities.

1. Virgin/Delta split ops (VS do MCO and DL do JFK)
2. Aer Lingus UK - BOS, BGI & other places
3. Wizz - get OTP, BUD & other eastern Europe cities back on the map
4. Vueling - Spanish cities such as MAD and BCN
5. Smartwings - PRG & Summer flights to places in Turkey & the med.
6. easyJet - Generic EU destinations
7. Jet2/TUI - Greece (Athens/Skiathos etc)

Then when these are established you target Ryanair. If you go straight for FR then you run the risk of putting other airlines off from investment at GLA. However, with MOL responsible for the group now and Eddie Wilson being Ryanair CEO it will be an interesting one to see.

Externally, get a rail link between the airport and Glasgow/ Edinburgh. Better links to places like Inverclyde and Ayrshire to make early flights easier for these communities (lack of access plagues me).

Great detailed answer George, thanks. Interesting to see you have FR at about 8th in your priority list, just before the rail link argument.
Can I ask why the VS to MCO and DL to JFK rank as number one?

[GeorgeNTravels]

So, you're the MD or CEO of a dynamic, proactive group who have just bought GLA from AGS. Money is no object(within reason,e.g, you can't just demolish the airport and rebuild) and your remit is to get GLA back to the 10million p.p.a within three years and continue to grow passenger numbers beyond 5 years. Covid has gone and all is operating as normal as can be and the airport is currently handling just north of 7million p.p.a. What would be the first thing you would concentrate on? By all means, give us your full business plan but what would be the very first thing you would target?
Interested to know.

Hmmm good question, here's my list of priorities.

1. Virgin/Delta split ops (VS do MCO and DL do JFK)
2. Aer Lingus UK - BOS, BGI & other places
3. Wizz - get OTP, BUD & other eastern Europe cities back on the map
4. Vueling - Spanish cities such as MAD and BCN
5. Smartwings - PRG & Summer flights to places in Turkey & the med.
6. easyJet - Generic EU destinations
7. Jet2/TUI - Greece (Athens/Skiathos etc)

Then when these are established you target Ryanair. If you go straight for FR then you run the risk of putting other airlines off from investment at GLA. However, with MOL responsible for the group now and Eddie Wilson being Ryanair CEO it will be an interesting one to see.

Externally, get a rail link between the airport and Glasgow/ Edinburgh. Better links to places like Inverclyde and Ayrshire to make early flights easier for these communities (lack of access plagues me).

Great detailed answer George, thanks. Interesting to see you have FR at about 8th in your priority list, just before the rail link argument.
Can I ask why the VS to MCO and DL to JFK rank as number one?

Thanks Bill and sure. GLA has a poor route network to the USA with only MLB on the list. DL to JFK although on paper only adds 1 city, the options of connections means it opens the US door wide open to travellers, this allows the airport and airline to see where people are connecting on to and if they have enough capacity, launch direct flights. In terms of VS we already know that MCO did really well for them, adding it back would easily return 100k pax per year, of they did not want to do flights every day to MCO they could fly to the likes of Vegas or Cancun. It is only because of this partnership I picked them over the likes of UA or AA.