AIRPORT SLIPPING IN POPULARITY AND FACING INCREASED COMPETITION
13 August 2008
DAVID LEASK
For decades it was the flagship of Scottish aviation, the nation's international gateway and one of its owner's most lucrative assets.
Glasgow Airport thrived on a steady diet of shuttles to Heathrow and cheap-and-cheerful bucket-and-spade charters to the Costas, even expanding to a range of exotic routes unimaginable to its designers when it opened in 1966.
But in recent months Glasgow has started to slip. Passenger numbers, after four or five solid years of growth, have dipped. Glasgow handled nearly 5% fewer passengers in June this year than in the same month of 2007. It did so as Edinburgh, its once much smaller rival in the east, bucked trends and posted a slight rise in throughput.
The capital's airport is now, indisputably, Scotland's most important. Glasgow and Edinburgh, along with Aberdeen, are owned by the same firm. That near-monopoly, newspaper reports suggested yesterday, is now viewed by Britain's Competition Commission as "harming passenger interests".
The Financial Times said such views made it more likely that owner BAA, the former British Airports Authority and now a subsidiary of Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial, would be forced to sell off one or more of its airports.
In London, BAA owns three out of five - Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow. In Scotland it may have to choose either Glasgow or Edinburgh. Spanish officials were said to be in Scotland early this summer, sizing up the two airports. Were they making up their mind between them? Some sources within the company said so. Others argued such visits were routine.
The Herald, however, understands that Ferrovial is considering a sell-off at Glasgow. Why? The city's airport has not performed as well as Edinburgh in recent years and, ironically given the accusations of monopoly, faces stiff competition from its Ayrshire low-cost rival, Prestwick. Selling Glasgow would leave Edinburgh with a clear run and no local competition. A sale, sources said, could be quick, to pre-empt any suggested remedial action from the Competition Commission.
BAA has long argued it sees no need for a break-up. It says that there is little overlap between the two airports and its ownership cannot, therefore, be regarded as monopolistic. Only about one in 20 passengers flying from Glasgow is from the east, it said. Only one in 25 who use Edinburgh is from the west.
A spokesman for BAA Scotland said: "Our view is that Glasgow and Edinburgh airports serve distinct and separate markets, and that the existence of these two distinct markets makes competition between the two airports very unlikely."
BAA has its supporters, including influential business groups. Its Glasgow operation was last night praised by Scott Taylor, chief executive of the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau. "They've done a good job at Glasgow, supporting low-cost operators like easyJet and great airlines like Continental and Emirates," he said.
History: by Martin Williams
The present-day Glasgow Airport started taking root in 1933, with the forming of two local airfields - Moorpark at Newmains, Renfrew, which grew as a Ministry of Munitions aerodrome in the First World War, and Abbotsinch which became home to the expanding 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron.
When a new airport was announced in 1960, it was the Abbotsinch site, owned by Glasgow Corporation, that was chosen.
The airport was officially opened on June 27, 1966, by the Queen, replacing the former Renfrew Airport. It ushered in the era of the package holiday in the 1970s, the founding of British Airways and "the shuttle".
With ownership passing from Glasgow Corporation to British Airports Authority, the airport went through three expansion phases.
In 2005, BAA published a consultation paper for the future development of Glasgow Airport, including proposals for a second runway, parallel to and to the north-west of the existing runway; redevelopment and enlargement of the east pier to connect directly with terminal two; and an additional international pier to the west of the existing one.
In June 2006, Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial, completed a takeover of BAA. Later that year, the Scottish Parliament gave the go-ahead for a new railway station as part of a Glasgow Airport Rail Link to Central Station planned for 2011.
Copyright © 2008 Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited.
The Herald
Copyright © 2008 Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited
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