The Scottish Government has invited an undisclosed number of potential buyers to submit offers to purchase Glasgow Prestwick Airport (PIK/EGPK).
The news comes after the Scottish Government, which bought the airport for £1 six years ago, asked potential buyers to register their interest after the government announced its intention to sell the airport earlier this year.
Sources close the airport have suggested the buyer is already a ‘done deal’ but the Scottish Government, which has used £3.9m of Scottish taxpayers money to fund the airport, has to go through the tendering process to be seen to be transparent and fair.
Prestwick Airport is located south of Glasgow and only has Ryanair as a scheduled passenger airline. It also sees a substantial amount of cargo with carriers including Atlas Air, Cargolux and CargoLogicAir.
It has managed to reduce its operating loss to around £2m which is believed to have been the trigger for outside interest.
It’s potential is more as a major cargo hub over passenger flights with nearby Glasgow Airport already having an established passenger base leading some to express concern that the airport may simply be sold off for redevelopment.
Passenger numbers at Prestwick have been declining since their peak in 2007 (2.4m) and 2018 saw just 681,715 passengers use the airport making it the 27th busiest passenger airport in the UK.
