PIK

[McG]

I believe the only issue with the A340-600 at GLA was to do with the length of the aircraft causing it to overhang the roadway at the rear of the stand.

I have seen it suggested elsewhere that the only issue with 748F ops at GLA would be the runway length when wet at max landing weight.

[greymare]

For the record a few years back GLA completed "the link fill in" on Alpha and Golf which made it Code F capable including the B748 (F) and A346 (E). Stand 37 can take the A346 but not the B748 from memory leaving us with a no capable stands with the required length to park it but given so few operators operate the B748 the need to modernise infrastructure for it has never been a priority. Taxiway November which grants access to this stand 37 is not code F but code E capable. Code F aircraft can be towed to this stand but cannot taxi under its own power . As for the rumours GLA cannot handle due to weight that is totally false and runway length only becomes an issue (as at PIK) depending on the final destination. With rwy31 at PIK and rwy23 at GLA being very similar in TODA (most commonly used rwys at each site) this has never been an issue for GLA when attracting business.

[Ekally1]

VS had a A346 once as a sub to MCO

[Allen McL]

VS had a A346 once as a sub to MCO

Yeah that's what I was referring to above. I think it came in both days that particular weekend ?

[Ekally1]

VS had a A346 once as a sub to MCO

Yeah that's what I was referring to above. I think it came in both days that particular weekend ?

It did indeed ... parked at EK stand if I am correct on both occasions

[greymare]

stand 29 & stand 30 were used from memory with the road closed off behind it for VS A346 to fit on it.

[Clive]

South Ayrshire Council has started the process of submitting a formal planning application for the Prestwick Spaceport development. The Proposal of Application Notice (POAN) is the first step in the planning process for Prestwick Spaceport and signals the intent to apply for planning permission in early 2022.

The submission of the POAN follows the Council’s submission of an Environmental Impact Assessment Screening Report last year (2021) which confirms that Prestwick’s space ambitions will not result in any significant adverse effects to the environment.

Launches from Glasgow Prestwick Airport (PIK) will take place using a method known as horizontal or air launch, in which an aircraft will carry a rocket containing small satellites a long distance to high altitude above the ocean. Once safely beyond inhabited areas and above the densest layer of the atmosphere, the rocket leaves the aircraft, ignites its engines, and carries its payload to orbit. Launch operations at Prestwick will therefore consist mainly of processing rockets and their payloads, loading them on to a launch aircraft, and then conventional aircraft take-offs from the existing airport runways.

Full story: https://www.internationalairportreview. ... on-notice/

[Clive]

https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport ... nt-3519784

Can someone post the text to this article please?

I don’t have a subscription but it should reveal what the last proposed buyers were planning to do with their acquisition. Obviously we are particularly interested in whether or not they were planning to close the loss-making terminal pax ops.

[jetblue497]

https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport ... nt-3519784

Can someone post the text to this article please?

I don’t have a subscription but it should reveal what the last proposed buyers were planning to do with their acquisition. Obviously we are particularly interested in whether or not they were planning to close the loss-making terminal pax ops.

Part of it is in airliners.net and if true the initial rejection is staggering. The later offer and rejection shows just how much is NOT being put in to maintaining the facility. All assuming the report is true.............

[Allen McL]

"The com­pany chosen to buy Prestwick Air­port before its bid was rejec­ted by min­is­ters is a Swedish freight firm off­shoot that planned to spend £70 mil­lion devel­op­ing the site with new rail links and hangars, The Scots­man can reveal.

Train­ Al­li­ance UK (tauk) was selec­te­d as the p­re­ferred ­bid­der for the South Ayrshire air­port, but its undis­closed ini­tial offer was rejec­ted last April, accord­ing to a source with know­ledge of the sale pro­cess.

The sub­si­di­ary of Train Alli­ance Sweden sub­sequently lodged a­ lower­ bid­ last­ sum­mer, believed to be less than £10m, after dis­cov­er­ing the run­way and other infra­struc­ture were in a­ poorer­ stat­e th­an it had­ been led to believe.

In july, the jet­ blast­ from­ a Boe­ing 747 freighter tore chunks from the sur­face as it was pre­par­ing to take off.

The­ source­ said­ it­ was un­clear why TAUK’S ini­tial offer was rejec­ted, while the com­pany did not receive a response to its second offer.

A con­cern may have been the repay­ment of Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment loans totalling £43m – repor­ted to­ have r­eached £50m with interest – which was not included in the offers.

They were provided to keep the air­port going after it was bought by min­is­ters for a nom­inal £1 in 2013 to avert col­lapse and th­e l­os­s of­ hun­dred­s of­ jobs.

TAUK had argued the money would be returned indir­ectly through its invest­ment boost­ing the local eco­nomy.

The source said: “The bid was rejec­ted at the end of April for reason(s) which are still unclear.”

TAUK planned to develop freight­ with a ne­w­ rail link­ to the south-east of the air­port. Addi­tional hangars and a new busi­ness park beside the sec­ond­ary run­way would have included large-scale facil­it­ies for avi­ation train­ing and air­craft main­ten­ance, repair and over­haul (MRO).

The source said: “There was a sig­ni­fic­ant invest­ment plan of around £70m, which would have effect­ively cre­ated a busi­ness park with its own run­way.

"Pas­sen­ger flights would have con­tin­ued for a min­imum of five years. If they made com­mer­cial sense, it would have been sup­por­ted. However, the strength of Prestwick lies in spe­cial­ist oper­a­tions such as freight, MRO, mil­it­ary sup­port and other engin­eer­ing.

“TAUK would have com­mit­ted to main­tain­ing the air­port oper­at­ing as such for a min­imum of 20 years, so regard­less of the ongo­ing pos­i­tion regard­ing the loan, the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment­ would, over­ the course of future years, have recouped the invest­ment in Prestwick many times over from taxes and ­be­ne­fit­s to­ local and re­gional sup­ply chains.”

TAUK said it was unable to com­ment.

Trans­port Scot­land declined to com­ment on ­the ­sale ­pro­cess.

Fin­ance sec­ret­ary Kate­ For­bes told MSPS last month the Scot­tish gov­ern­ment,“hav­ing­ care­fully con­sidered bids received”, had decided “not to pro­ceed with a sale”, but still inten­ded to return the air­port to the private sec­tor “at the appro­pri­ate time and oppor­tun­ity".

Scot­tish Con­ser­vat­ives trans­port spokes­per­son Gra­ham Simpson said: “The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment needs to come clean on why it has rejec­ted two bids which would have taken Prestwick Air­port off their books – something they say they want to achieve.”