Passenger flights could be ended at Prestwick Airport

● Loss-making operations to be identified in review

Prestwick Airport chiefs have hinted at potentially dropping passenger flights because they lose money.

Chief executive Stewart Adams told MSPS a review had been launched to identify which operations at the lossmaking airport were profitable and which were “a real drain on resource”.

Giving evidence to Holyrood’s rural economy and connectivity committee, he said: “The cost of passenger operations will be looked at. The passenger side of the business does not make money.”

Ryanair is the South Ayrshire airport’s sole passenger operator. Its passenger total increased in the year to March by 3.5 per cent to 702,000. By contrast, Glasgow Airport grew by 5.8 per cent to 9.9 million passengers in 2017, and Edinburgh Airport by 8.6 per cent to 13.4 million.

Prestwick was bought by the Scottish Government in 2013 for £1 to avoid closure. MSPS on the committee said the airport had since been loaned £40 million, but had lost as much since the acquisition – £25m – as it had in the previous four years.

Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Mike Rumbles said taxpayers would never get their money back. However, Scottish Conservative Ayr MSP John Scott pointed to the value of the airport’s 800-acre site as building land.

Prestwickchairmanandrew Miller said it had received several offers to buy the airport, but it did not want to sell the site for housing.

He also said there were “robust signs of growth”, such as in military flights. Property occupancy had also increased from 50 per cent to 90 per cent.

He said: “I firmly believe Prestwick can have a distinctive future as a multi-faceted centre. We will have a solution and a way forward by the end of the year.”

Prestwick is also hoping to be chosen as a hub for construction materials for Heathrow Airport’s third runway, but is competing with nine other Scottish sites. Its bid to become the UK’S first spaceport has also been delayed.

Scottish Tory transport spokesman and committee member Jamie Greene said later: “It is astonishing to learn Prestwick has never once worked out the profitability of its passenger operations.”

The Scottish Government said the airport operated on a commercial basis at arm’s length, and ministers did not intervene in specific commercial discussions.