Letter in Today's The Herald

[Ekally1]

We really need incentives, discounts , promotions and airline multi buys ( heavy discounts for airlines starting a new route and adding another as a bonus ) eg VS MCO and BGI at edi .. Plus new airport management might help as well .. MAG would be a good starter

[Allen McL]

We really need incentives, discounts , promotions and airline multi buys ( heavy discounts for airlines starting a new route and adding another as a bonus ) eg VS MCO and BGI at edi .. Plus new airport management might help as well .. MAG would be a good starter

I'm not sure MAG are best placed for expansion right now. I'd sooner the airport returned to some sort of public/private ownership model, which is effectively what MAG is.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... 002096.amp

[bill]

I know I’m a broken record but getting a Ryanair base is the only way to start getting back to 2019 targets. Anything else would be very welcome but small fry in terms of passenger volumes and number of destinations linked.

You are but you are also quite correct mate.I well remember the instant impact FR made when they based just one aircraft. North of 1 million pax through the door instantly. Up until then I was always anti-Ryanair but soon changed my tune at seeing what they brought to the airport.Imagine the surge of pax if we could only get the couple of aircraft based at PIK up here? That's excess of 2 million pax suddenly. No brainer.

[Clive]

I know I’m a broken record but getting a Ryanair base is the only way to start getting back to 2019 targets. Anything else would be very welcome but small fry in terms of passenger volumes and number of destinations linked.

You are but you are also quite correct mate.I well remember the instant impact FR made when they based just one aircraft. North of 1 million pax through the door instantly. Up until then I was always anti-Ryanair but soon changed my tune at seeing what they brought to the airport.Imagine the surge of pax if we could only get the couple of aircraft based at PIK up here? That's excess of 2 million pax suddenly. No brainer.

Exactly. And 23 routes. They could easily have 43 routes from GLA and 3 million pax. No other single piece of business by the existing or new management could come within a million miles of that.

[bill]

I know I’m a broken record but getting a Ryanair base is the only way to start getting back to 2019 targets. Anything else would be very welcome but small fry in terms of passenger volumes and number of destinations linked.

You are but you are also quite correct mate.I well remember the instant impact FR made when they based just one aircraft. North of 1 million pax through the door instantly. Up until then I was always anti-Ryanair but soon changed my tune at seeing what they brought to the airport.Imagine the surge of pax if we could only get the couple of aircraft based at PIK up here? That's excess of 2 million pax suddenly. No brainer.

Exactly. And 23 routes. They could easily have 43 routes from GLA and 3 million pax. No other single piece of business by the existing or new management could come within a million miles of that.

Do us a favour then mate. Gonna email Provan & co and point that out to them please? Ta.

[Bearsden]

I know I’m a broken record but getting a Ryanair base is the only way to start getting back to 2019 targets. Anything else would be very welcome but small fry in terms of passenger volumes and number of destinations linked.

You are but you are also quite correct mate.I well remember the instant impact FR made when they based just one aircraft. North of 1 million pax through the door instantly. Up until then I was always anti-Ryanair but soon changed my tune at seeing what they brought to the airport.Imagine the surge of pax if we could only get the couple of aircraft based at PIK up here? That's excess of 2 million pax suddenly. No brainer.

One stumbling block - Ryanair is Prestwick's only scheduled passenger carrier therefore no objections from other carriers

How much do PIK charge Ryanair per passenger ie total including landing fees, parking fees, handling fees?

How much do GLA charge Jet2 & TUI per passenger on similar routes?

[Clive]

I know I’m a broken record but getting a Ryanair base is the only way to start getting back to 2019 targets. Anything else would be very welcome but small fry in terms of passenger volumes and number of destinations linked.

You are but you are also quite correct mate.I well remember the instant impact FR made when they based just one aircraft. North of 1 million pax through the door instantly. Up until then I was always anti-Ryanair but soon changed my tune at seeing what they brought to the airport.Imagine the surge of pax if we could only get the couple of aircraft based at PIK up here? That's excess of 2 million pax suddenly. No brainer.

One stumbling block - Ryanair is Prestwick's only scheduled passenger carrier therefore no objections from other carriers

How much do PIK charge Ryanair per passenger ie total including landing fees, parking fees, handling fees?

How much do GLA charge Jet2 & TUI per passenger on similar routes?

PIK will have to be charging Ryanair the published rates, whatever they are - probably in the public domain - as there wouldn’t be any new route or growth incentives available for mature business that new deals necessarily attract.

If Ryanair set up a base at GLA the likes of a TFS route wouldn’t get an incentive but the airport charges would be considered over the operation as a whole and further depend on growth targets being met, I’d imagine, just as happened at EDI. If I’m right then PIK will be more expensive than GLA after a deal is done at GLA because it will be for new business.

Just as EDI trumps GLA, GLA trumps PIK.

One note of caution. This may be because of the horrible flight times, arriving in AGP after midnight, but my outbound flight with Ryanair was no more than a third full. Nice to see that half of those were Spaniards. My return flight with Jet2 was 100% full, much more expensive for everyone on board, and anecdotally all Scottish pax.

So did my Ryanair flight run at a loss? Probably.

[Iain]

My letter got published:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/200 ... s-airport/

JOHN Taylor (Letters, April 11), raises important issues about the parlous state of Glasgow Airport.

The reality is that the airport has been declining alarmingly since 2018, with a whole host of vital connections to important cities such as Philadelphia, Madrid and Lisbon being lost (and not replaced), long before Covid even existed.

As we come out of the pandemic, we see historically smaller airports, such as Leeds/Bradford and Bristol, announcing expansion, new routes and operating way more international flights than our local airport. Why is this?

Glasgow Airport is vital to the economic success of the city region and the constant haemorrhaging of international routes will quite clearly impact on the city's ability to attract foreign visitors. In particular, the complete absence of direct scheduled flights to the United States, for the first time in nearly 20 years, will likely have a chilling effect on US visitor numbers and the city businesses that depend on them.

The current owner, AGS Airports, and the management team it has in place, appear to have little or no idea how to grow the airport or compete effectively with other airports in the central belt or elsewhere in the UK.

Even more worrying is the complete lack of comment or question on the issue from the city's elected representatives and the council. It is surely imperative that they stop accepting excuses and start asking questions of AGS before the airport's decline becomes irreversible.

Iain Ratcliffe, Glasgow.

There's also another one, don't know if they're also a poster here?:

I NOTE with interest John Taylor's letter.

In March 2009, following a referral from the OFT, the Competition Commission forced the then owner of seven of Britain's major airports, including Glasgow Airport, to sell off a number of its airports, because it believed that group ownership was not good for competition or investment. As a sop to those who attempted to oppose such proposals it was suggested that future owners should have experience in airport management and operations.

The reality of the future sales was miles from the original sale proposals, and the buyers were financial investment organisations, who saw the airports as a "a get richer quick" opportunity; it was once again an illustration of selling off more of the UK's assets. There were also other factors which would take too long to explain in the context of this response, but the overall situation that Glasgow and its airport now find themselves in is not at all surprising.

There are solutions to this problem, but whether or not the present ownership is willing to participate is another question.

Mike Dooley, Ayr.

[Bearsden]

I sent an e-mail to Gavin Newlands MP (SNP) for Paisley & Renfrewshire North yesterday

Good Morning Gavin

This letter was published in yesterday's The Herald . . .

I NOTICED in your Family Notices section (The Herald, April 7), the sad loss of a previous general manager of Glasgow Airport, David Davidson.

That reminded me of the senior staff's enthusiasm for the continued expansion and development of the airport when I met them when working with Renfrew County then the Renfrew Division of Strathclyde.

As one deputy manager of "airside", who became a friend, said, "if an airport doesn't keep developing, it's dead".

I wonder what can be said of the shell of Scotland's link to the world.

All US carriers gone, Virgin Atlantic gone, but just from Glasgow – yet Glasgow was their first move from England. They are now in Edinburgh, serving a much smaller local population, yet all are extending their route network from there.

Look back at Glasgow's former daily and some seasonal routes – Chicago, Newark, JFK, and Orlando – and some earlier ones. All have or are returning to EDI and some new ones. Is that just the start?

Maybe it was greed. After all, Ryanair's boss pulled most routes because he felt landing fees were excessive. Did that encourage the departure? Other features, parking charges and the appalling herding of car drivers makes the whole experience a chore when once it was an excitement.

It surprises me that people have not yet looked into the demise of this once-significant international airport and asked its owners why.

John Taylor, Dunlop.


I don't know if you have been in contact with local airport management or corporate AGS but I await with interest to see what responses Mr Taylor gets in The Herald

A quick glance at today's arrivals & departures board just illustrates the issue - reliance on outbound holiday flights (not just Jet2 & TUI but also easyJet & Ryanair), minimal other European routes (only Amsterdam, Dublin & Frankfurt are on a daily basis - two new operators flying twice a week to Paris-Orly is minimal especially when both also started operating from Edinburgh at higher frequencies), domestic routes (Birmingham, Heathrow & Gatwick certainly below pre COVID frequencies), Loganair to the western & northern isles and Emirates to Dubai

In the last two weeks my daughter has been to Nice & Copenhagen - both times from/to Edinburgh, the latter route has three airlines operating to Edinburgh (easyJet, Norwegian & Ryanair) while Glasgow has zero routes to Denmark, Finland, Norway & Sweden combined!

Not at lot more traffic to come this summer apart from Westjet to Halifax & Toronto (but this year they are starting services from Edinburgh as well and this in my opinion presents a high risk of consolidation at Edinburgh in 2023 . . . following Delta, United and Virgin Atlantic) and TUI to Florida & Mexico

If when Emirates returns to double-daily to Scotland that second rotation goes to Edinburgh then there is a huge credibility question mark and with it viability to cover external financing debt . . . AGS can't keep fleecing its current customer base

Even the last two dedicated weekday night freight/courier services have ended (the FedEx rotation switching to Edinburgh) while the increased civil and military traffic in support of Ukraine is concentrated on Prestwick

AGS bank covenants are only waived until December 2022 and the £716m of external debt matures in June 2024


I await his response with interest . . .

[Clive]

TBH by saying that you worry about WestJet and Emirates it sounds like you are implying there’s no market worth serving for the airlines from GLA.

Trouble is when airlines look to consolidate flights from 2 nearby airports into just one, the airport commanding the highest demand from the travelling public will always win.