Low-cost airline ditches Prestwick in favour of Glasgow
fox1
RICHARD ALLAN
SCOTLAND'S first low-cost airline is moving from Prestwick to Glasgow Airport because potential partner airlines want their
passengers to fly to Glasgow.
Flyglobespan.com is in talks with North American airlines about joining forces to operate new scheduled services to and from
Scotland.
The new services will start next summer, but Tom Dalrymple, the owner and managing director of parent company Globespan, has
decided to switch its entire west coast operations to Glasgow from October.
Prestwick has been the main west coast base for flyglobespan.com since it started flying in March, with daily services to Palma
and twice-weekly flights to Nice, Malaga, and Rome.
However, Dalrymple said it made sense to move to Glasgow, where until now flyglobespan has had just four flights per week to
Malaga, because that was where the new transatlantic flights would be based. He said: "Prestwick is a fantastic facility with
marvellous people. We have loved working there.
"But we are a transatlantic operator and our long-term plans are to engage with company partners in the US and Canada in hub and
spoke operations.
"They have said they don't think they can educate the market to come to Scotland through Prestwick.
"It really means we must focus on Glasgow."
Dalrymple's decision is also a significant reversal for Prestwick Airport, whose managers have claimed that airlines were
deserting Glasgow Airport because it was too expensive.
Sources said flyglobespan.com would pay more to use Glasgow than Prestwick but that was outweighed by the benefits of having all
its flights based at Glasgow.
Globespan has operated charter flights to Canada since the 1970s, but plans to start more flexible scheduled services with its
partners next summer.
Dalrymple said his Scottish customers had flown to Toronto and then to several destinations within Canada for years, and he wants
to operate the same system in reverse.
That would mean North Americans flying to Glasgow, spending time in Scotland and then using flyglobespan.com for a sunshine break
in Spain, France or Italy.
Meanwhile, Dalrymple said Glasgow and Edinburgh airports would be the airline's two bases for its winter timetable, which will run
from October to March.
Glasgow services will be to Tenerife, Malaga, and Alicante, and there will be Edinburgh flights to Alicante and Malaga.
Dalrymple said there would also be a major expansion in scheduled services from Scotland to sunshine and citybreak destinations in
southern Europe for next summer.
He plans to lease up to four more planes to add to the two 142-seat Boeing jets that flyglobespan.com has used this summer.
Dalrymple said flyglobespan.
com would carry 160,000 passengers this summer, ahead of target, and had already started to make a profit. More than 80% of seats
are sold on the internet.
New flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Exeter were announced by airline Flybe yesterday. They will start next March.
- July 10th
James
I wonder what the real reason for Flyglobespan moving to Glasgow is.
Any Canadians and Americans that I know would rather fly into
Prestwick.
fox1
>> That would mean North Americans flying to Glasgow, spending time in Scotland and then using flyglobespan.com for a sunshine break
>> in Spain, France or Italy.
>I wonder what the real reason for Flyglobespan moving to Glasgow is.
>Any Canadians and Americans that I know would rather fly into
>Prestwick.
A blatant political fix...added and abetted by the Scottish Executive who are running scared of a Glasgow backlash in the
elections.
I have news for them...the average Glaswegian hasn't seen inside Glasgow Airport, let alone flown from there
Weegies prefers jobs and prosperity, bowing down to journalist and Glasgow businessmen will hardly give Weegies
affluence...
Charity begins and home, subsidising transatlantic travel from an unpopular airport is not the way to win elections...