Entrepreneurs Sir Tom Hunter and Lord Willie Haughey have welcomed news that the owner of Glasgow and Aberdeen’s primary airports cut a pre-tax loss to £36 million last year as passenger figures surged after the lifting of Covid travel restrictions.
AGS, which also owns Southampton Airport, revealed traveller numbers soared from 3.5 million in 2021 to 9.2 million last year. When compared to 13.6 million travellers in 2019, this puts the operator at 68% of pre-pandemic levels.
Sir Tom commented: “The numbers at Glasgow Airport are quite incredible. It has experienced a 214% surge in the passenger numbers even if, of course, these figures are skewed by the pandemic.”
He underlined it was vitally important for a vibrant economy to be able to enjoy the best possible airline links, adding: “I have been quite critical in the past about not being able to fly direct to various places and always thought sometimes Glasgow wasn’t getting the rub of the green here.”
His Go Radio Business Show co-host Lord Willie Haughey pointed out the airport is working on new routes and currently looking to the Government for assistance with this.
“Actually, I was at a meeting and the chief executive of Glasgow Airport was there, a really good guy, who obviously has a big passion to try to grow the traffic at Glasgow. But it’s fair to say – and we’ve mentioned this in the past – there has been a bias towards Edinburgh Airport.
“Hopefully, if we can shake things up, Glasgow will get a fair shake. I don’t know of any new routes right at the moment so it’ll be interesting.
“But it is great to see. We were all affected during Covid, everyone, but to see the parent company’s debts reached over £700 million because of the pandemic is absolutely frightening.
“So I think everyone now who is happy to be back in the air, should be happy even if we’re paying a wee bit more to help the damage that was done during that Covid lockdown period.
“You’d certainly think we are when we see the prices to fly. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a cheap flight anymore!”
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