Prestwick Airport finds ways to diversify and help increase profits at the same time

Doug Maclean – Aviation News Editor.

The airport terminal in the depth of winter can be a quiet place. Although the airport can be handling many large aircraft each day the passenger facilities are only used when a handful of passenger flights depart or arrive.

Credit BBC/World Productions

Prestwick operates as a profitable business because it has learned to make the most of its assets. Rent is gathered on the hangars which are busy with aircraft maintenance and employing thousands of well paid staff. Freight is booming. Traditional cargo like aero engines and oil industry parts flow through on a regular basis. E commerce flights from China are bringing in hundreds of tonnes of imports and providing previously unimagined opportunities for Scottish and UK exporters.

Training flights by UK and European airlines have been using Prestwick for decades. The Royal Navy site at HMS Gannet is a forward operating base for a multitude of RAF and Navy flights. Coastguard search and rescue helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft operate 24/7 and stand by for emergencies every day of the year.  Fuel stops, crew rest, and layovers arrive and depart at all times of the day and night.  NASA astronauts fly in and out of Prestwick using the Executive Jet handling facilities. Royal flights, VIP flights and business jets come and go, and their passengers quietly go about their business.

All of these diverse operations help contribute to the continuing profitability of Prestwick. Almost none of them use the passenger terminal. A big, empty building, which is obviously an airport, has an unexpected appeal to a group of people who influence a lot of our lives. Film and TV producers look at Prestwick and see a prime location. They don’t have to build an airport check-in desk or security scanners or film passengers in a make-believe bar, which is actually a film set. The real thing is there, and Prestwick uses its considerable marketing skills to rent out space and prime backdrops to film and TV companies. 

Bollywood movies have been attracted to Ayrshire because of Prestwick airport. Sometimes they have stayed to film other scenes on the beaches or parklands around Ayrshire. Science fiction and future world movies have found that having a backdrop of real-life aeroplanes is much better than CGI images.

The latest in a long line of filming took place last year and is now appearing on home screens. The true disaster that was Lockerbie involved many people from around Prestwick. The real life Air Traffic Control staff who were last to talk to Pan Am 103 were based at the Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre which was then Atlantic House. The first rescue helicopters which were scrambled were from HMS Gannet. Ayrshire police and ambulance crews were dispatched down the A74.

Credit BBC/World Productions

Colleagues and I recently saw film production staff transform parts of Ayrshire and Prestwick airport into New York and then Heathrow. BBC 1 are running a series on Sunday nights called The Bombing Of Pan Am 103. The first episode is full of scenes of people passing through Heathrow or waiting at New York. Look carefully because almost all of those crowded terminal scenes are actually Prestwick Airport.

Prestwick has faced challenges over many decades. Now it is on the rise as a business and is not dependent on the narrow passenger on low fares segment of the aviation industry. Renting out the terminal to big, well-paying media companies is a smart move. It is another small example of Prestwick’s ability to adapt. Turning an empty terminal into a movie set version of Heathrow or New York airport is right up there with the smart ideas which has been so typical of team Prestwick thinking the unthinkable.