Profitable Prestwick Airport Will Not Be Privatised This Year
- Ayrshire Daily News
- 13 hours ago
- 4 min read
Business as usual as airport wings its way to another profitable year.
Aviation Editor Doug Maclean - 27th November 2025
Prestwick airport is shortly to report it’s annual accounts to the Scottish Parliament. Last year the airport reported a historic 5th year in profit. It is very likely that the accounts for this year will report a 6th year of profit and possibly exceed the £3.2 million operating profit recorded last year.
It is against that backdrop that we hear this week that the potential sale to a private investor will not take place soon. Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said in Parliament that "I can confirm that Glasgow Prestwick Airport will now remain in public ownership and that the Scottish Government will work with the board, management and staff to ensure that it continues to grow and enjoy a successful future.”
Ms Forbes continued "The airport already employs over 500 people directly and supports an aerospace cluster that provides thousands more jobs. Significantly, I am advised that the commercial performance of the airport is increasingly strong and that its half year trading position will show that it has already achieved the target set for the whole financial year."
Siobhan Brown MSP for the Ayr constituency said:
“Prestwick airport is a strategic national asset for all of Scotland and a jewel in the crown of Ayrshire’s economy. The airport and surrounding aerospace businesses support over 4,000 high skilled and well paidjobs. It is imperative that any potential buyer recognises the strategic importance of the whole site as well as the immense potential of the airport operations.”
Both Prestwick airport and its sister airport at Manston in Kent were available for sale in 2013. Both were losing money and the company that owned them were not able or prepared to invest in their long term future.
Prestwick was sold to the Scottish Government for £1 as it was not only an airport but the site for multiple aerospace companies and considered too valuable to shut. The Scottish Government invested several million pounds to cover immediate operating losses.
The Scottish Government then invested more money, in the form of loans, for capital investment to maintain or upgrade facilities or equipment which had not been supported by its previous owner.
Prestwick is operated by an “arms length” company which was charged with returning the airport to profitability. The declared figures are
▪ 2019/20: Reported a £1 million operating loss.
▪ 2020/21: Reported a £2.1 million operating profit.
▪ 2021/22: Reported a £3.2 million operating profit.
▪ 2022/23: Reported a £2.1 million operating profit.
▪ 2023/24: Reported a £3.2 million operating profit, marking the fifth consecutive year of profitability.
Manston was also sold for £1 and within 6 months it closed as an airport with the loss of all jobs. Since thenit has been most famous for renting out its runway as a lorry park during the post Brexit shambles with English Channel ferry crossings. It was subsequently sold for £16.2 million and “may” open again as an airport in 2028 but only after multiple more millions are invested in restoring it to an operational airport.
The Prestwick aerospace cluster includes many world class companies like –
▪ Aero Fastners
▪ BAe Systems
▪ Bristow Helicopters
▪ Collins Aerospace
▪ GE Caledonian
▪ Ryanair (Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance)
▪ Spirit Aerosystems
▪ Storm Aviation
▪ Wallace McDowell
▪ Woodward
Ryanair have recently invested £5 million in a new engineering training school.
AERALIS have signed an agreement to base the assembly of their new military training jet at Prestwick.
Many other smaller, but growing, engineering and aerospace training companies.
It is estimated that there are now more than 4,500 aerospace related jobs around Prestwick. Some, like Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance and Storm aviation directly reply on the airport and runway being open whileothers are historically based at Prestwick. However, allthose companies support each other by being part of a huge centre of engineering excellence and personnel.
The airport sale to the right private investor would allow Prestwick to access capital investment to turn its huge potential into operations and jobs. However private companies also come with a degree of risk and the aviation business often experiences peaks and troughs.
Remaining in public ownership does not mean there will be no investment. The airport Board recently backed its operational managers when they came up with the plan to capture a significant part of the quickly developing e commerce business.
They invested more than £2 million in new freight handling equipment and more again in new cold storage and security scanning for freight. The employment of more than 200 new staff was sanctioned while a whole new parcel handling warehouse operation was set up.
The result of the investment can be seen in the establishment of 16 freight flights per week to and from China. A country that had never been served by dedicated freight flights from Scotland. As one insider recently told me the effect on the Prestwick business for 2025 and beyond can only be described as “transformational change.”
As we wait for confirmation of the good annual accounts I can summarise the position as, aerospace companies are aiming high and achieving more. The future is bright and the future is Prestwick.
