Glasgow Prestwick Airport

Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Characteristics
ICAO code	EGPK
IATA code	PIK
Coordinates	55 ° 30 '34 "  N , 4 ° 35' 12"  W Coordinates: 55 ° 30 '34 "  N , 4 ° 35' 12"  W.
Height above MSL	20 m (66  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	53 km southwest of Glasgow
Street
Basic data
opening	1934
Passengers	673,232 (2016)
Air freight	10,822 t (2016)
Flight movements	25,714 (2016)
Runways
03/21	1905 m × 45 m asphalt
12/30	2986 m × 46 m concrete / asphalt

The Glasgow Prestwick Airport ( IATA : PIK ; ICAO : EGPK ; Engl. : Glasgow Prestwick Airport ) is an international commercial airport near Prestwick in Scotland . Mainly used by low-cost airlines and cargo flights, it is the country's third largest airport after Edinburgh Airport and Glasgow International Airport, 50 kilometers away .

Location and transport links

The airport is located one kilometer north of Prestwick in Ayrshire and 46 km southwest of the Scottish metropolis of Glasgow . In addition to a connection to the A79 expressway, it also has its own airport train station , via which ScotRail offers regular connections to Glasgow and Ayr . There is also a bus connection to Glasgow with the lines X77 and X100 .

history

Glasgow-Prestwick was Scotland's only official airport for transatlantic flights until its capacity was no longer sufficient in 1992 and Glasgow International Airport became the new hub for overseas flights, with daily flights to and from America, Europe and Asia.

In November 2013, the previous operator, the New Zealand investment company Infratil , sold the loss-making airport to the Scottish government for the symbolic price of one pound.

The airport was also used militarily for decades as a strategic tank base, in the past also as a civil and military training airport. The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy (RN) maintained a SAR unit here for 44 years, until January 1, 2016, with the most recent Sea King HAS Mk.5 helicopters, they referred to the station as Royal Naval Air Station Prestwick , RNAS Prestwick or HMS Gannet for short . The White Ensign was officially overtaken on February 5, 2016.

Public use

• After the rescue helicopters of the FAA have withdrawn, a base for civil helicopter sea ​​rescue on behalf of Her Majesty's Coastguard is located here .
• The RN's FAA continues to use the airport as a forward base for their helicopters. These missions are related to annual NATO maneuvers such as "Joint Warrier" or the deployment and training of the submarines stationed in Faslane-on-Clyde .

Civil use

Passengers

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter services at Glasgow Prestwick Airport:

airline	Destination
Ryanair	Alicante , Faro , Fuerteventura , Lanzarote , Málaga , Malta , Rzeszów , Tenerife-South Seasonal: Barcelona , Girona , Gran Canaria , Ibiza , Murcia , Palma de Mallorca , Pisa , Rome-Ciampino

freight

airline	Destination
Air France Cargo	Chicago O'Hare , Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Cargolux	Houston , Los Angeles , Luxembourg , Seattle-Tacoma
Cargolux Italia	los Angeles
Volga-Dnepr Airlines	Ulyanovsk

Incidents

• On the evening of October 20, 1948, a Lockheed L-049 Constellation ( aircraft registration number PH-TEN ) piloted by the chief pilot of the Dutch KLM Royal Dutch Airlines , Dirk Parmentier , was flown on high-voltage lines five kilometers east of the airport during the approach to Prestwick Airport. This killed all 40 people on board.

• On December 25, 1954 came with a Boeing 377 of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) (G-ALSA) at Prestwick Airport at an extremely hard touchdown before the runway beginning. The plane coming from London jumped up again and crashed onto the runway. Of the 36 inmates, 28 were killed, including all but one of the passengers.

• On April 28, 1958, a Vickers Viscount 802 of British European Airways (BEA) (G-AORC) was flown into the area on the approach to Prestwick Airport and burned out. Reasons were a misinterpretation of the instruments by the captain, insufficient cooperation within the cockpit crew and an ergonomically poorly designed altimeter with an ambiguous display. All five inmates survived.

Web links

Commons : Glasgow-Prestwick Airport  - collection of images

• Official website of Glasgow Prestwick Airport (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Passenger numbers at all airports in the United Kingdom. (PDF; 79 kB) In: caa.co.uk. Civil Aviation Authority , accessed May 13, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Freight figures from all UK airports. (PDF; 12 kB) In: caa.co.uk. Civil Aviation Authority , accessed May 13, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Aircraft movements at all UK airports. (PDF; 157 kB) In: caa.co.uk. Civil Aviation Authority , accessed May 13, 2017 . 
4. ↑ bbc.co.uk - Prestwick Airport sold to Scottish government for £ 1 (English) November 23, 2013
5. ↑ HMS Gannet Search and Rescue unit finishes operations, Royal Navy Homepage, January 6, 2016
6. ↑ Last piece of an emotional jigsaw as HMS Gannet decommissions, Royal Navy Homepage, February 5, 2016
7. ↑ AW189 helicopter finally enters UK SAR service, Flightglobal, March 31, 2017
8. ^ UK Royal Navy enhances Prestwick helicopter base, Janes, March 6, 2020
9. ↑ Air-Britain Archive: Casualty compendium part 48 (English), March 1993, p. 25.
10. ^ Accident report L-049 PH-TEN , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 23, 2017.
11. ^ Accident report B-377 G-ALSA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 10, 2018.
12. ↑ Accident report Viscount 802 G-AORC , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 10, 2018.