Chinese aviation giant set to swoop in Prestwick deal

ONE of China’s biggest aviation firms yesterday moved a step closer to investing in Prestwick Airport.

The HNA Group has entered talks over a ‘wide range of potential partnership and investment opportunities’ at the airport, which is owned by the Scottish Government.

Both parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in London this week allowing preliminary discussions to proceed, which could lead to desperately-needed investment.

The deal, which will fuel fears over Beijing’s corporate ‘soft power’ over British business, was rubber-stamped by Wang Hexin, vice president of HNA Group.

Founded in 2000, the firm is affiliated with a number of Chinese airlines. It is also involved in a string of other industries, including tourism and logistics.

It also emerged this week that China has become the biggest crude oil operator in the North Sea, with one state-controlled company now running two of the biggest oilfields in the region.

Earlier this summer, a row erupted over a similar MOU struck by Nicola Sturgeon with a subsidiary of a Chinese railway company despite its links to alleged ‘human rights abuses’.

And last month it was revealed that the UK’s Chinese partner in the Hinkley Point nuclear power station deal was facing espionage charges in the US. Prime Minister Theresa May has already delayed a decision on the project.

Prestwick’s chief executive officer, Ron Smith, said the focus was ‘returning the airport to a position of profitability and long-term sustainability’ but bosses would carry out ‘an appropriate level of due diligence’ on any potential investors.

He added: ‘If satisfied that the approach is serious and that it would help to accelerate the turnaround and the delivery of a long-term sustainable future for the airport, we then proceed with preliminary discussions.’

Ayr MSP John Scott said the signing was ‘clearly a positive development and it is to be hoped that it will help begin the process of private investment being levered into the airport’.

He added: ‘Prestwick Airport’s importance to the economy here in Ayrshire cannot be overstated.

The Scottish Government bought the airport for £1 in 2013 to prevent its closure.

Former First Minister Alex Salmond tried and failed to persuade China to view Prestwick as a potential hub two years ago. He had been seeking a direct link since visiting China in 2011.

‘A position of profitability’