Prestwick airport to be sold by NZ owners

Transport Correspondent

Friday 9 March 2012

PRESTWICK airport has been put on the market by its New Zealand-based owner.

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DAMIEN HENDERSON Transport Correspondent

It said the airport was underperforming after a pronounced drop in passenger numbers.

Infratil ended months of speculation after confirming last night the Ayrshire base, largely used by low-cost airline Ryanair, would be sold along with Manston airport to help raise money for more lucrative investments. From a peak of 2.4 million people a year in 2007, Glasgow Prestwick has lost more than one million passengers due to a collapse in aviation business and the decision by Ryanair to concentrate on Edinburgh.

Infratil declined to comment yesterday. However, a presentation made at an investors' day in New Zealand earlier this week explained that the reason to sell the airport was due to "underperformance with severe traffic reductions since 2007".John Scott, the Conservative MSP for Ayr whose constituency includes the airport, said he was concerned by the announcement."My initial concern is for the jobs directly involved at Prestwick airport and the many families who will be extremely worried by this."Prestwick is strategically important to the economy of Ayrshire and the west of Scotland as a driver of economic growth. It's also important to the wider Scottish economy. In the two extremely cold winters we had, Prestwick was the only airport to remain open while others were fog, snow or ice-bound."The announcement comes after Edinburgh airport was put on the market earlier this year by BAA, which is still fighting a legal battle to prevent the Competition Commission from forcing it to sell Stansted airport.Experts said the timing of the Prestwick sale was likely to be driven by the need to have it on the market before Stansted. One industry source said the future of the airport looked "bleak" due to fears that Ryanair may pull out. "It will be a difficult sale. You have one very noisy and demanding customer which won't make things easy."Its future will depend largely on how Glasgow responds to the sale of Edinburgh, and whether it takes a more aggressive approach in trying to attract Ryanair from its base at Prestwick. The disadvantage of that move is you would have to invest a lot to get them there and wouldn't get much back from them. There's also a view that if Glasgow could entice the cargo business away from Prestwick there wouldn't be anything very substantial left. It's got a pretty bleak future potentially."Beginning life as a training airfield in 1934, Prestwick added passenger facilities in 1938. Its transformation from a little-used, remote airport to one at the forefront of Scotland's boom in low-cost flying began in 1994 when Ryanair started flights from Prestwick to Dublin.However, it suffered some of the worst effects from the recession in aviation triggered in 2008 and has had to compete with rival low-cost airlines flying from Glasgow airport. It was famed for being the location of Elvis Presley's only time spent on UK soil – though the claim was recently disputed.

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Prestwick airport to be sold by NZ owners

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