CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Transport priorities fly out the window?

(11 posts)

  1. LaidBack
    Member

    Prestwick Airport decision Prestwick in public ownership

    While there might be disputes about how money is spent on transport this is a very odd one. I'm old enough to remember when a Tory government wouldn't allow transatlantic flights to land anywhere else in Scotland.

    In sustainable terms it would be better if we had the direct ferry link to Zeebrugge (or somewhere) restored.

    I'm sure road campaigners will be wondering why the central belt need three airports when the industry is already subsidised. Could have made some rail improvements too. Cycle campaigners are way off radar of course as air travel suspends all logic.

    The SG tends to look at Scotland's tourist potential but apart from Scandinavian golfers I can't see much reason for Prestwick to be aided. If it didn't exist same golfers would go via Edinburgh or Glasgow so all this does is 'distort' the market.

    Never underestimate the advertising spend of Ryanair in helping the 'right' decision to be reached ;-)

    Posted 10 years ago #

  2. kaputnik
    Moderator

    According to Wikipedia, Ryanair is the only scheduled airline to fly out of Prestwick, passengers have more than halved since 2008 and on nearly all routes in 2012 passenger loads were down.

    So I for one am glad that public money is being used to keep Michael O'Leary's subsidised profits flowing and to maintain the supply of cheap flights to vital business destinations such as Alicante, Barcelona, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Málaga, Tenerife, Corfu, Ibiza, Malta, Murcia and Mallorca.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  3. chdot
    Admin

    Not defending airport/decision etc.

    Think 'reason' is (existing) jobs at airport - not all directly related to flying.

    'Hope' is for increase in freight rather than passengers.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  4. Instography
    Member

    And it's an important stopover site for American aircraft moving "terrorists" around.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    and it'll be renamed Elvis Presley International.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  6. Morningsider
    Member

    Prestwick freight was mainly linked to "Silicon Glen" (remember that?) - 43,104 tonnes in 2001 down to 11,846 tonnes in 2011. Difficult to see where any new freight flows would come from as air freight tends to be high value, low weight. Edinburgh now air freight hub of Scotland (mostly mail/parcels). Also, trend is now to fly freight to main hub (Heathrow) and truck it around from there.

    I'll bet the people who used to work at Halls of Broxburn (Vion) are wondering what they did wrong that stopped the Scottish Government from buying their plant.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  7. crowriver
    Member

    Prestwick is currently the only airport in Scotland with a direct rail link. Edinburgh will get one next year. Alas for most folk, Prestwick is just too far away. I've used it a few times in the past decade, always a hassle to get to. Different if you live in the west but then you have Paisley International instead...

    Posted 10 years ago #

  8. cc
    Member

    Not just jobs at the airport, there are aerospace related jobs nearby, for instance servicing aircraft - possibly a relic of the aircraft manufacturing which used to happen there?

    Posted 10 years ago #

  9. Roibeard
    Member

    I think Prestwick is also peculiar due to its climate - it may be closed less frequently and perhaps is open when other airports are fog bound.

    I seem to recall something about this and why search and rescue were based there.

    Whether it is better for Scotland to be "closed due to fog" than to subsidise an airport is an argument for one wiser than I.

    Robert

    Posted 10 years ago #

  10. cb
    Member

    Scotland’s busiest airports, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have no rail links. Neither does Inverness. And Aberdeen relies on a small village railway station that is barely connected to the airport

    Actually quite interesting that Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee airports are all just a stone's throw* from a railway line.

    *although not necessarily the terminal building.

    Posted 10 years ago #

  11. AKen
    Member

    Actually quite interesting that Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee airports are all just a stone's throw* from a railway line.

    Mangonel or trebuchet?

    Posted 10 years ago #

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