Hypothetical bit of fun.

[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.

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

Some sort of 'golden handcuffs' incentive package over let's say 5 years ? A locked in financial rate for airport services and other carrots on sticks provided by hoteliers and Glasgow city grandees, local councils etc. Maybe some sort of tourism equivalent of the Oyster Card an all encompassing local travel card with discounts on attractions, restaurants and the like. Call it, The Glasgow Gold Card if you like.

[atuk]

I won’t flog a dead horse and try and lure back what has already gone.

Get Westjet to ramp up their Canadian services to YHZ, YYZ, YYC and YVR. Attract B6 (JetBlue) to JFK and BOS: they already have an attractive code share with AA.

Work with TUI to base more GLA aircraft covering ABZ,BFS,EDI. Add E90s for thin lucrative routes such as Sardinia, Sicily, Lamezia, Almeria, Jerez offering new outbound destinations with little or no competition as well as beef up 787 on the dense routes to Palma, Canaries, Corfu and Turkey. Add in MCO and LAS.

Work with AF/KL to increase frequency and also LH to MUC and EW to DUS. Build on VY links to BCN, FCO; Iberia Express to MAD. Get EK to twice daily then add a third flight. Add EI mainline to compliment Regional and feed into their long haul network to USA.

Rebuild relationships with businesses such as ScottishPower, Siemens, Barclays, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Santander and HSBC. Work in partnership with the Chambers of Commerce for Glasgow and Scotland as well as Visit Scotland. Promote Loch Lomond and Trossachs, The Rob Roy story, golf at Cameron House and Turnberry, Scotland’s industrial heritage at Summerlea and New Lanark, David Livingstone Memorial, Fife with Andrew Carnegie, Dunfermline Abbey, StAndrews, Falkland Palace. Cross promote air links to Western and Northern Islands. Markets the Border country and Carlisle and the Lake District involving Visit England.

Involve local councils: Glasgow, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, East and West Dunbartonshire promote the areas, businesses, industries and visitor attractions.

Introduce better bus services both local and inter city. This not only helps folks use public transport it helps gives the workforce alternative transport too. Cross city limited stop services to Monklands, East Kilbride, longer distance to Stirling, Edinburgh, Ayr, provide competition on the 500 to sharpen up First and its monopoly and proper bus to rail feeders to Paisley Gilmour Street and StJames; Bishopton and Clydebank/Dalmuir.

Airline / tour operator incentives would be reduced parking charges, feasible pax tax, tiered levels building up over a five year period to ensure route development and success. Added to that less congestion, a well trained and responsive workforce and a terminal which is easy to negotiate, provide seamless flight connections and have a range of shopping eating venues from low to high end.

[egpffqtv]

Rename the airport group HAG - Hypothetical Airport Group - as hypothetical is as far as it goes with GLA these days

[bill]

Some excellent posts, thanks to all who have contributed. Always interested to see the different ideas folks have if they had a say in the airport management.

[bill]

Rename the airport group HAG - Hypothetical Airport Group - as hypothetical is as far as it goes with GLA these days

Indeed. Anything constructive to add to the thread though?

[bill]

I won’t flog a dead horse and try and lure back what has already gone.

Get Westjet to ramp up their Canadian services to YHZ, YYZ, YYC and YVR. Attract B6 (JetBlue) to JFK and BOS: they already have an attractive code share with AA.

Work with TUI to base more GLA aircraft covering ABZ,BFS,EDI. Add E90s for thin lucrative routes such as Sardinia, Sicily, Lamezia, Almeria, Jerez offering new outbound destinations with little or no competition as well as beef up 787 on the dense routes to Palma, Canaries, Corfu and Turkey. Add in MCO and LAS.

Work with AF/KL to increase frequency and also LH to MUC and EW to DUS. Build on VY links to BCN, FCO; Iberia Express to MAD. Get EK to twice daily then add a third flight. Add EI mainline to compliment Regional and feed into their long haul network to USA.

Rebuild relationships with businesses such as ScottishPower, Siemens, Barclays, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Santander and HSBC. Work in partnership with the Chambers of Commerce for Glasgow and Scotland as well as Visit Scotland. Promote Loch Lomond and Trossachs, The Rob Roy story, golf at Cameron House and Turnberry, Scotland’s industrial heritage at Summerlea and New Lanark, David Livingstone Memorial, Fife with Andrew Carnegie, Dunfermline Abbey, StAndrews, Falkland Palace. Cross promote air links to Western and Northern Islands. Markets the Border country and Carlisle and the Lake District involving Visit England.

Involve local councils: Glasgow, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, East and West Dunbartonshire promote the areas, businesses, industries and visitor attractions.

Introduce better bus services both local and inter city. This not only helps folks use public transport it helps gives the workforce alternative transport too. Cross city limited stop services to Monklands, East Kilbride, longer distance to Stirling, Edinburgh, Ayr, provide competition on the 500 to sharpen up First and its monopoly and proper bus to rail feeders to Paisley Gilmour Street and StJames; Bishopton and Clydebank/Dalmuir.

Airline / tour operator incentives would be reduced parking charges, feasible pax tax, tiered levels building up over a five year period to ensure route development and success. Added to that less congestion, a well trained and responsive workforce and a terminal which is easy to negotiate, provide seamless flight connections and have a range of shopping eating venues from low to high end.

Very well thought out post Ian. Thanks for contributing your thoughts, appreciated.

[egpffqtv]

Rename the airport group HAG - Hypothetical Airport Group - as hypothetical is as far as it goes with GLA these days

Indeed. Anything constructive to add to the thread though?

Nothing that hasn’t already been suggested and IMHO most is unlikely to happen. EDI is where its at now.

[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).

Also, no idea how I could pull this additional point off, but GLA needs more International Arrivals Capacity in order to cope with increased traffic

[Paris]

Also, no idea how I could pull this additional point off, but GLA needs more International Arrivals Capacity in order to cope with increased traffic

Relax: There’s no need to call the builders in.

[PiperOne]

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.

First thing I would be looking at is strengthening the route development team, by recruiting two or three leaders for it that have served at other successful UK airports. the task would be to restore GLA's historic position relative to Manchester, arguably the most successful of UK Regionals. Historically (1985-2005), GLA was running consistently at 35-45% of MAN, so the challenge is to get back to that level. By 2019 we were at 30%, and your 7mppa would put us below 25%, so a lot of catching up to do. The team would have absolute discretion to negotiate with airlines to find out what they need, and square that with the product offering.

Second on the agenda would be to work with Chambers of Commerce, the Convention and Marketing Bureau, and the local tourism leadership, under a forum I call SWEDO (Scotland West Economic Development Organisation), which would pull together all the economic levers to make the West of Scotland an attractive destination.

Everything flows from a strong economy, with all sectors firing on all cylinders, and the I would see the above as a catalyst for that.

Third target area would be access improvement, to make it easier to get from anywhere within a 60-mile radius to the airport, with a maximum of one change en route, at strategically located transfer points, including provision of parking at these places.