Make Prestwick f ly

AVIATION is booming and Prestwick Airport ought to let Scotland take full advantage.

It boasts a runway capable of handling very large passenger and cargo aircraft, has good road connections and a climate that means it is rarely closed by extreme weather.

There’s even a dedicated rail link – it’s possible to get from the terminal to a train without having to set foot in the open air.

Bought for a bargain-basement £1 by the Scottish Government, it should be showering cash into public coffers.

Instead, the SNP seems utterly clueless about what to do with the airport which has received £40million in loans from the public purse.

Passenger flights should be a key revenue stream but Prestwick is unable to make money from this vital sector – bread and butter for most airports – and may even cease handling holiday and commuter flights.

Instead of a grandstanding trip to Dublin to address the unloved and unelected Seanad, upper house of the Irish parliament, wouldn’t Nicola Sturgeon have been better dropping in on Michael O’Leary?

After all, Ireland’s Ryanair has grown from a tiny outfit to an aviation powerhouse that has transformed European holidaymaking. Tips on making a success of Prestwick would have been highly valuable.

Instead the best the SNP – clueless on what makes business of all kinds tick – can come up with is to tout Prestwick as a possible spaceport.

Scots want to fly to the Costas, not the cosmos. And taxpayers want what’s fast becoming a running sore turned into a viable business.