Thursday 14 August 2003

A tale of two airports

Michael O'Leary, boss of Ryanair, has upset the owners of Glasgow International Airport:
He wants it renamed Glasgow Domestic and the "International" tag transferred to Prestwick Airport.
Prestwick serves more international destinations than Glasgow although the latter airport carries far more passengers.

In defence of Glasgow airport:

A BAA spokesman said: "I'm sure the fact that Glasgow International handled 3.5million international passengers last year, more than Prestwick's entire throughput, coupled with the fact Prestwick is not even in Glasgow, will have a direct bearing on the outcome of this complaint
Oh dear. The BAA spokesman is correct in saying that Prestwick Airport is not in Glasgow but Glasgow Airport is not in Glasgow either!

In the meantime, Ryanair has announced a new route from Prestwick to Gothenburg. According to O'Leary:

"Stockholm is one of our most successful routes in and out of Scotland. A lot of Scandinavians want to fly in the winter when it is dark and cold there. They think Scotland has a Mediterranean-like climate in January and February."
Quite right. The vineyards of the Costa Clyde are particularly fine in the winter months.