Edinburgh takes off, Glasgow's heavy landing
Glasgow roads seem mercifully unblocked this week, with no school run and lots of Glaswegians on holiday.
The Clyde resort traditions of Fair Fortnight are not what they were. But nor are the latest figures for passengers through the city's airport.
The June statistics from BAA, the company that owns Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports (as well as London's three main airports) show Glasgow figures in real trouble, while Edinburgh is bucking the recession and the aviation trend.
It's been rising for three months. One month it looked like it might have been explained by the date on which Easter fell this year and last. Then it was helped by rugby fans heading for Murrayfield.
But this month, it's looking more like a trend. Perhaps it's because the big banks have to keep in touch with bosses and their government shareholding masters 400 miles to the south, which wasn't the case last year.
But it seems more likely Edinburgh is proving a resilient, attractive travel destination. And that's perhaps as continental holidays lose their appeal.
The BAA figures for all its airports, show European charter flight passengers were 21% down on June last year, though continental scheduled flights were only down 3%. North Atlantic flights were down nearly 10%, but other long haul 0.2%.
At the other end of the M8, it's not a happy story at all. Whether you compare June with last year, or the start of the year with the start of last year, Glasgow has seen passenger numbers down more than 10%. Plane movements were down faster at Glasgow Airport than any other BAA airport - by 14% compared with a UK average of 6.3%.
And on cargo, Glasgow is losing out again. While Edinburgh has seen strong growth, Glasgow has seen a 40% fall in tonnage, comparing the start of this year with the first six months of 2008.
This autumn, BAA is due to complete a £31m extension of Glasgow's passenger terminal. But the figures of divergence between the two airports won't help the company make the case that it's protecting the interests of both. It's because of the lack of competition between them that has prompted the Competition Commission
Hullo, I'm Douglas Fraser, and I'm business and economy editor at ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Scotland. Welcome to my blog, where you can read my take on money matters, viewed from a Scottish perspective.
Comment number 1.
At 10th Jul 2009, foxunichakilo wrote:I remember 20 years ago that MPs were asked to look into the anti competitiveness of BAA.Nothing was done then and it looks as if because of this Glasgow will eventually lose out despite artificial claims that it requires money to develop.BAA have argued that west want to fly from west and east from east.Thats fine but many from the east have and still are being forced to travel west as there are not enough flights available from Edinburgh.The ownership should be split to eventually allow an even playing field.
The irony is that Glasgow is classed as an international airport, while Edinburgh because it is not open 24 hours is not,yet it still attracts more flights even with a curtailled flight arrangement.
BAA are guilty of social engineering which has come back to haunt.
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Comment number 2.
At 11th Jul 2009, manxieman wrote:As a regular traveller by air I try and avoid Glasgow airport if at all possible. There are three main reasons. These are delays crossing the Kingston Bridge, the A80 roadworks, and changes to the departure and arrivals areas which have made ground side cramped at the first floor.
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Comment number 3.
At 11th Jul 2009, Wee-Scamp wrote:I've pretty much given up flying anywhere on business but now use internet conferencing. Video and audio quality are not perfect but good enough and the benefits of not wasting all that time on an aircraft are huge. Flying is now so yesterday :-)
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Comment number 4.
At 11th Jul 2009, portsoyskink wrote:Off course Edinburgh Airport is busy - full of people escaping from the tram mayhem created by TIE and the Council.
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Comment number 5.
At 11th Jul 2009, alistairuk wrote:As someone who lives pretty much equal distance from them both, I always fly from Edinburgh purely because it doesn't involve traveling through the centre of a city! It takes 20 minutes to reach Edinburgh Airport, compared to the 40 minutes - 2 hours to reach Glasgow Airport depending upon the traffic on the M8 and I am pretty sure I am not the only one who does this!
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Comment number 6.
At 11th Jul 2009, kaybraes wrote:I'm an hour from Edinburgh, about one and a half hours from Glasgow, but for holiday flights , I take the easy option and go to Newcastle, about one and three quarter hours. Very little traffic getting there or back, easy parking, a bigger (vastly ) choice of destinations , and a huge ammount less flight supplement. Getting to Glasgow is a nightmare traffic wise and every flight (exaggeration ) seems to land either in the middle of the rush hour or at 4 am. The holiday companies also take a disgraceful ammount of flight supplement from Scottish airports , way in excess of actual cost I suspect.
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Comment number 7.
At 12th Jul 2009, Wee-Scamp wrote:Sign this........
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Comment number 8.
At 12th Jul 2009, TerryFayed wrote:One aspect Mr Fraser omits to emphasise is the relative strength of the local economy in the Edinburgh city region. Because of this factor Edinburgh Airport has been expanding at a faster rate than its western cousin for many years.
It also seems to me that the management failed to fully recognise the threat of budget airlines to Glasgow's strong but declining charter base.
Because of that failure, the range of Europen business destinations from Glasgow Airport is, frankly, sub-standard.
Fortunately, access to a fairly good range of such destinations is available from both Prestwick and Edinburgh Airports. Others have described the relative ease of surface transport to Edinburgh Airport.
Prestwick Airport is also easy to get to, by road or rail from Glasgow.
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