Empty airport

[bill]

Now that the lighter nights are coming back, I pass the end of the RWY05 threshold on the train, anytime between 5.15pm and 5.45pm. It's alarming how empty the airport is, usually nothing sitting at the gates (unless they're all sitting on the eastern side of the piers). Should this be another issue AviAlliance address immediately? Offer at least away based flying with minimal charges levied at the aircraft/airlines? I get that regional airports will have lulls in their schedules, but GLA seems to have a few, daily. Was it forever thus?

[Iain]

A family member has been flying up and down to LCY for business recently - their unsolicited comment on GLA was that it's "deserted".

[buddyboy]

I flew out to FUE on Saturday afternoon. Very little on the departure boards post 1600 after all the based EZY and JET2 leave. Rather depressing to look at. TUI's winter offering is dire as well. 2-3 flights a day.

[FlyGLA]

Currently, the airport seems to only experience significant activity twice a day: once in the morning with the first wave of departures from based aircraft, and again in the afternoon when Jet2 and TUI aircraft complete their second departures of the day. Outside of these periods, there is very little happening, just a few EZY movements, BA flights to London, and Loganair services to the islands. The terminal often feels eerily quiet, and to be honest, it’s disheartening to see it in such a dormant state.

GLA has always had peaks and lulls throughout the day, but never as extreme as now. Previously, after the morning departures, transatlantic arrivals would fill the west pier, departing back to the U.S. just in time for the first wave of morning returns. After the afternoon departures, the airport has been relatively quiet for the past 20 years. However, Ryanair once helped bridge this gap with a number of afternoon arrivals, and I vividly remember the Sofia flight as the lone aircraft on the west pier at that time. For a short period, Wizz Air also contributed with up to three late evening departures, alongside Emirates' evening service.

Now, the airport has lost nearly all of its transatlantic routes, the majority of Ryanair’s operations, and all but one Wizz Air route. Even Emirates’ evening service, once a mainstay, now operates from the wrong terminal, heavily reliant on Glasgow passengers.

If you check the departures after 16:00, GLA’s departure board is a sorry sight, it looks more like Cardiff Airport than what it should.

[Clive]

On the plus side we know the pax numbers are going in the right direction (albeit not as quickly as we’d all want, including the old regime) and with all the off peak free capacity there is plenty of scope for expansion for the new owners and boss man to fill their boots and win back lots of lost market share.

As ever, a Ryanair base and associated expansion of away flying that a deal will deliver is a huge part of the solution.

[Iain]

Tbf GLA and most other UK regionals are never going to have a lot of International departures in the evening given the time difference, which means a flight leaving at 8pm won't get to its destination till maybe 11pm or later. Even operating on an away based aircraft, the 2nd daily EZY CDG flights don't get in till fairly late and the W6 arrival times are often very unattractive.

Even if you look at EDI and BRS, they have very few International departures after 7pm.

I think that's another reason why the EK evening flight was so important, because it must have put approx 300 relatively high spending pax through the International departures at an otherwise quiet time. Looking at the timings of their ops elsewhere, a PK or ET flight might rectify that somewhat.....

Leaving the evenings aside there are still large periods during the rest of the day when the airport is equally empty and deserted, so as mentioned I really hope that the new management can do something to try and get more flights operating in these dead times.

[bill]

Just had a look at tonight's departures. From 6pm, there's 11 departures. There's a LM to INV leaving at 5.45pm, a LM to SYY leaving at 6pm and then an EZY to STN at 7.15. THREE departures in the space of 90 minutes. Absolutely ripe for some away based FR ( and others ) flying.

[Iain]

Just had a look at tonight's departures. From 6pm, there's 11 departures. There's a LM to INV leaving at 5.45pm, a LM to SYY leaving at 6pm and then an EZY to STN at 7.15. THREE departures in the space of 90 minutes. Absolutely ripe for some away based FR ( and others ) flying.

...and I think the LM flight to INV might be a mail/cargo flight?

[GKirk]

Surely someone has even just random rumours of new routes starting?

[G-WATP]

Surely someone has even just random rumours of new routes starting?

You could cheer yourself up reading this dude's 'predictions':

https://x.com/EthanBy02017796/status/18 ... KgRYw&s=09