Trump’s US administration pays Prestwick airport nearly £25m
The Scottish Government has been accused of turning a state-owned airport into a “petrol pump” for the Pentagon after an investigation by The Scots man found it has received nearly £10 million from Donald Trump’s administration over the past year.
A major spike in US armed forces refuelling at the heavily-indebted Glasgow Prestwick Airport has seen the US Defence Department’s spending nearly double over the past 18 months, reigniting criticism of SNP ministers for abandoning their principles provided there are “enough dollars on the table.”
The unprecedented level of US defence spending at Prestwick will also raise further questions about whether US air crews are continuing to stay at the US president’ s lossmaking Turn berry resort, located just 23 miles south of the airport.
An analysis by The Scotsman of US federal government procurement data shows that in the past three years, Prestwick’s parent company has received nearly £25m from the Trump administration.
It comes just weeks after the collapse of a proposed sale of Prestwick, with transport secretary Michael Matheson referencing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the aviation sector.
However, the spending records for jet fuel placed by the US military shows that Prestwick’ s primary revenue stream has spiked significantly.
Since last October, it has fulfilled 556 orders placed by the US Defence Logistics Agency (DLA), a sub-agency of the US Defence Department. Cumulatively, they are worth $12m (£9.1m).
The Scots man revealed last June the DLA had paid more than $11.6m (£8.8m) to Prestwick for 644 fuel orders between October 2017 and March 2019.
In the 18 months since, the spending has soared, with a further 977 orders for aircraft fuel worth more than $20.8m (£15.9m). This January alone, the airport’ s parent company fulfilled 103 orders worth more than $2.6m (£2m).
Scottish Labour’ s deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, said the scale of the payments showed that Prestwick“is now, to all intents and purposes, a US military base.”
She said :“It is quite extraordinary that taxpayers’ money has been used to sub sidis et his, especially as the nature of the flights remains shrouded in mystery .” There has been a marked increase in the use of Prestwick by the US military since Mr Trump came to office, a trend attributed by the US Air Force (USAF) to various factors, including the standardisation of routing locations.
While USAF aircraft made just 145 stopovers at the hub in 2016there were 259 stopovers in the first eight months of 2019. Patrick Har vie, co -leader of the Scottish Greens, said:
"The Scottish Government owns this airport on behalf of the public, and its officials sit on the board, so min isters have a responsibility to be honest with the public. Is there still a viable Prestwick Airport, or is there merely a Pentagon petrol pump ?” A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Ministers do not intervene in the commercial discussions at the airport.”