Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter has praised the Holyrood government’s intervention in saving Prestwick Airport, saying he does not normally support ministers running businesses.
He said the engineering, security and warehousing jobs being created in the aerospace sector around Prestwick “would have been lost” had the Scottish government not bought the loss-making airport for £1 in 2013.
However, critics have pointed out that it will be unable to pay off a massive loan from the taxpayer and a series of talks with private buyers have fallen through.
Writing on LinkedIn and X, Sir Tom said: “I always say that the government shouldn’t be involved in running businesses but I take my hat off to the Scottish Government here because if you hadn’t saved Prestwick, the great jobs that are all round there: Spirit Aviation… you have got jet engines being refurbished, you have got Ryanair doing their maintenance, those engineering jobs would have been lost.
“So I think Prestwick is a good success story and a rare example of the government stepping in.”
Much of the expansion has been due to the US military operations and growing cargo business with China which has enabled the airport to hire hundreds of workers.
Air Cargo China established its UK cargo hub at the airport in June last year. It was already servicing scheduled flights from China Southern Air Logistics and Beijing Capital Airlines.
In November Air Cargo doubled its weekly freighter services from four to eight, and added Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU), China, to its existing Guangzhou (CAN) service. This created a further 200 jobs.
A £1m investment into new equipment enabled Prestwick to launch a Scotland to China seafood export service in September.
In December Prestwick reported its sixth consecutive annual profit with an operating profit of £3.5m in the year to 31 March, about £300,000 up on the prior 12 months. It is understood it is on target to exceed this figure in the current financial year.
Sir Tom’s praise was drew a divided response. One said: “Credit where it is due , great to hear folks talking up Scotland.”
However, another said: “What about the loans still on the balance sheet? Will they be written off at taxpayers expense?”
Gordon Dewar, chief executive of Edinburgh Airport has long questioned how the government could justify subsidising the airport against commercial operators.
More than a decade ago Transport Scotland denied the airport was receiving state aid because it claimed any investment made would be repaid. However, that repayment remains outstanding and is believed to be a factor in the failure of talks to sell the airport to a private operator.
Some respondents pointed out that the Scottish Greens want to remove the US military which provides a lot of business for the airport which was also the landing point for Donald Trump last summer.
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