When does 1+1 = One? Prestwick’s variety of aeroplanes often throws up the usual and the unusual
- Ayrshire Daily News
- Aug 30
- 2 min read
By Aviation Editor Doug Maclean
Before I get scolded for my arithmetic, I will just explain yesterday 1 Boeing 777 freighter and 1 Boeing 747 freighter arrived at Prestwick in the colours of the UK airline One Air hence the 1+1 = One Air aircraft.
What do you do with your brand new Boeing 777 aeroplane ? The list price is $350 million. It was delivered on Tuesday after a 7,500 mile journey from the Boeing factory near Seattle on the US West coast. Naturally you take it on its first flight all the way from Cardiff to Prestwick.
In a series of training flights the aircraft will be in and around Prestwick over the next few days. In its very distinctive blue and yellow colour scheme it will be flying between Prestwick and Cardiff and Shannon as the airline pilots get to experience their wonderful new aeroplane.
One Air is not a household name but they have been frequent visitors to Prestwick since they started operations in 2023. They initially set up at Heathrow but have operated charters out of Prestwick and various other UK airports.
Next week they start scheduled flights between East Midlands and various cities in the Middle East and Far East. They will almost certainly continue to appear at Prestwick with the occasional freight charter and also with training flights on their Boeing 777 and their fleet of Boeing 747 freighters.
One of their Boeing 747s was also in Prestwick yesterday. It arrived from France and, as usual, was handled swiftly by Prestwick. Just a couple of hours later it departed to Saudi Arabia. With Prestwick’s growing use by freight companies based in China it would be great to see them more regularly at Prestwick.
As ever there were expert photographers on hand to record the arriving aircraft. Many thanks to our ace photographer Eddie Wallace (who will shortly be giving details of this year’s wonderful Prestwick charity calendar) and to Jim Ramsay who cleverly snapped the Boeing 747 catching a rainbow on Prestwick’s runway.
If anyone found a pot of gold in Monkton do let us know.
