Glasgow - Prestwick airport History

Glasgow Prestwick International Airport began life in the mid-1930's as an airfield used primarily for pilot training. It had limited buildings and aircraft storage facilities.

During the Second World War the airport was mainly used as an American base and rapidly expanded to meet the needs of the forces stationed there.

After the war investment was made in the airport to cope with the new jet transportation that was becoming available and several upgrades were made to the runway, taxiway and terminal building. In the early 1950's the airport was used by the USAF (United States Air Force) for transportation purposes until 1966 when the USAF base closed.

By 1966 there had already been investment in the terminal buildings as the old Orangefield House used as a terminal building had been demolished to make way for the airports new taxiway. The new terminal building was opened in 1964 two years after the new control tower that was required due to the improvements made to the airport and to handle the increase it jet aircraft using Prestwick Airport.

It was in the 1960's that British Airways began to run regular passenger services to Europe which ceased however in the late 1970's. Due to this loss many felt that the end was possible for Prestwick Airport however the airport managed to keep going despite this loss by drawing on the financial benefits of its other operators.

Despite withdrawing from using Prestwick Airport reguarly BA continued to run occasional flights from it and also used its long runway to train Concorde pilots making Prestwick a regular destination for Concorde and still to this day the airport is considered highly suitable for pilot training. Prestwick Airport is also notable as the only place in the UK that Elvis Presley ever set foot on as his aircraft was refuelled on his way to Germany in 1960.

The early 1990's proved a difficult time for Prestwick Airport as it was sold to the private sector. As a result of this passenger numbers dipped badly and the airport kept going with only a few freight and charter flights operating reguarly, the airport faced the real threat of going out of business.

Prestwick Airport needed to do something to recover and the decision was made to construct a railway station at the airport on the existing Ayrshire Coast Line in 1994. As a result of this work Ryanair made the decision to open a flight from Dublin to Prestwick Airport and then a route to London followed shortly after. Since this time Ryanair has added more routes totally 20 to the flights from Prestwick Airport and several other low-cost airlines have included Prestwick Airport on their routes.

Today Glasgow Prestwick International Airport continues to be an important airport for the refuelling of military aircraft as well as offering many low-cost flights and appears to be going from strength to strength currently dealing with around 2.5 million passengers per year.