Passenger numbers nosedive at Glasgow Prestwick Airport

By Shaun Milne

PASSENGER numbers have nose-dived at one of Scotland’s best known low-cost airports.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport said the number of people travelling through the Ayrshire hub are down 28 per cent year on year.

The plunge – to 152,000 passengers – was dismissed as being “in line with recent trends”.

But bosses are now pinning their hopes on winter-sun flights and summer bookings for 2010 to help see them through the recession.

Graeme Sweenie, chief commercial officer, admitted: “2009 has certainly been a challenging year for the airport.

Insisting that the airport’s prospects remained “excellent”, he pointed to the fact that operator Ryanair had recently laid on more winter flights as being a positive sign.