PRESTWICK Airport could ditch what few passengers flights it has remaining and focus on other areas of the business, bosses at the loss-making South Ayrshire travel hub told MSPs yesterday.
Stewart Adams, the airport’s chief executive officer, told the Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs and Connectivity Committee that an “economic review” was being carried to see “what areas of the business performs ... and which ones are a real drain on the resource”.
Pushed repeatedly by MSPs to say if this meant an end to commercial flights, the bosses refused to rule it out.
The committee were told that Prestwick simply couldn’t compete with Glasgow and Edinburgh for business from Ryanair and EasyJet.
The airport, which made a loss of £8.6 million in the year to March – down from £9.2m the previous year, owes the government around £40m in loans.
When asked what would happen if the government called in their loans, chairman Andrew Miller suggested the land owned by the airport was a valuable asset.
He said they had been approached by potential buyers: “We have had approaches from third parties about the business, who have looked at the business in a different way, and have in the past been willing to offer packages to us in terms of acquisition, whole or a part.
“These discussions haven’t concluded in a way that we wanted them to be concluded. But one of the things that did come out is a lot of companies who are in our area, who operate in our area, have shown interest around the assets.”
Prestwick was taken into public ownership in 2013, with the Scottish Government buying the airport for £1 to save it from closure.
Scottish Tory MSP John Scott said he had been led to understand that the Scottish Government would not lend the airport money beyond this value.
He added: “In the worst case scenario, it has huge value for building, located around Prestwick Airport and between Troon and Ayr.
“And that is the bottom line as far as the Scottish Government is concerned, as I understand it.
“If the business went belly-up, then the government would still get its money back.”
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