Prestwick Airport is being put up for sale by the Scottish government.

The airport was taken into public ownership six years ago after it was threatened with closure following heavy losses.

Transport Scotland said an advert would be placed in the Official Journal of the European Union, inviting expressions of interest.

Ministers have regarded Prestwick Airport as a strategic economic asset, particularly for Ayrshire.

It passed into state hands after being bought by the Scottish government for £1 in late 2013.

The Scottish government said then that the deal would help protect the airport and safeguard thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

Prestwick has been looking to turn around it fortunes, including applying to carry out horizontal space launches from its 2,986-metre concrete case runway.

Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said: "Since the Scottish government bought Glasgow Prestwick Airport in 2013, we have been clear that it is our intention to return the business to the private sector when the time is right.

"The senior management team at the airport has continued to engage with potential buyers and investors to discuss proposals for developing the business under new ownership.

"Good progress continues to be made by the airport to increase revenue, deliver operating efficiencies and pursue exciting opportunities for the future, including Spaceport."

Mr Matheson added that any expressions of interest would be "considered carefully" before any decision was taken to divest the government's shareholding in the airport or any part of the business.

In January, it emerged that the debt owed by Prestwick Airport to the Scottish government had risen from £30m to £38.4m.

That was while revenue rose through a doubling of funds from refuelling aircraft at the publicly-owned facility.

Accounts lodged with Companies House showed the holding company made a loss of £7.6m in the year to March 2018, down from £8.6m the previous year.

Breathe wrote:

I'm not an expert in the field, perhaps it could do well just as a small cargo airport with other associated facilities like refuelling U.S military planes and Ryanair maintenance.

Breathe wrote:

I wonder where all the jobs at Spirit Aerosystems, Ryanair, BAE Systems Regional Aircraft etc. would go if the airport closed. GLA, EDI, downsouth or abroad???

Breathe wrote:

I wonder where all the jobs at Spirit Aerosystems, Ryanair, BAE Systems Regional Aircraft etc. would go if the airport closed. GLA, EDI, downsouth or abroad???

sassiciai wrote:

PIK was a very useful airport in the early days of TATL flights (and probably before for military flights and delivery flights). When in winter time much of the UK was covered in impenetrable fog that closed many/all destination airports, PIK had an unrivaled reputation for being fog-free (next to the coast with its prevailing on-shore wind), and was often used as a diversion airport.

Fog in Glasgow and Edinburgh has not disappeared as an occasional phenomenon, so closing PIK would eliminate that fall-back entirely

Someone above indicated that the desire is to close the PIK Terminal, as that is what racks up the losses. So close it, even demolish it!

It might then have a chance as a non-pax (ex emergency weather diversions) to make it as a refueling point for delivery for lighter aircraft, for cargo, for military, and for the Royal Navy S&R helicopters. I wonder if it could be developed as a logistics hub!

PRESTWICK Airport could be sold to a private bidder within four months, it has emerged.

Newly-issued official documents include an “indicative” sale completion date of October 4.

However they omit the £40m debt-pile burdening the loss-making operation.

The Scottish Government, which bought the airport for £1 in 2013to save it from closure, announced last week it was putting it up for sale in a bid to return it to the private sector.

It said an advert in the EU journal for public tenders would invite expressions of interest in order to “test the market”.

The move put a question mark over the £39.9m in Government loans keeping Prestwick afloat, with opposition parties questioning what if anything would ever be repaid.

The official documents for would-be bidders have now been released by TS Prestwick Holdco Ltd, the government owned company behind the airport.

The documents say the firm is “exploring the sale of 100% of its shareholding in Prestwick Aviation Holdings Ltd”, which owns Glasgow Prestwick Airport (GPA), and that the preffered bidder will be whoever submits “the most economically advantageous offer”.

They describe the airport as offering “a wide range of aviation services including freight, passenger military, specialist executive handling as well as general aviation.

“GPA is the only airport in Scotland to have its own railway station and railway link straight to the terminal. GPA has two runways serviced via six aprons.

“The terminal building was originally constructed for four million passengers and currently has capacity for 18 check in desks, 10 gates and 12 stands.

“GPA is located on a significant land bank of 356 hectares – 65 per cent of which is utilised for aviation activities.”

The documents say up to three bidders are expected, with companies told to lodge eligibility questionnaires by July 15.

An “indicative outline” of the next steps, which may change, says shortlisting of bidders could then be completed by July 26, due diligence work and the selection of a preferred bidder by September 6, and “transaction completion” by October 4.

The only clue in the documents to GPA’s grim financial position is a single reference to the Scottish Government being the preferred creditor, although the loan size is not given.

The documents say offers will be evaluated on “the price offered for the shareholding in Prestwick Aviation Holdings Ltd on a debt free cash free basis (to be applied in repayment of the Scottish Government loan first)”.

Offers will also be evaluated on “the level of transaction certainty and other terms of the Offer, covering aspects such as time period to completion, conditions attached to the Offer, terms of the sale and purchase agreement, and the deliverability of the proposals.”

Besides the £40m owed to the taxpayers, Prestwick also has around £8m in other liabilities, around the same as its assets.

According to its latest accounts, TS Prestwick Holdco Ltd made a £7.6m loss on a turnover of around £18.2m in 2017/18.

Ryanair is its last main commercial carrier, and its is increasingly reliant on cargo flights and refuelling services for business.

The SNP Government bought GPA, which supports 300 jobs directly and 1500 indirectly, from New Zealand-based Infratil after it tried in vain for a year to find a private bidder.

At the time, the airport was losing around £2m a year.

Then deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the government would produce a plan for “turning Prestwick around and making it a viable enterprise”, but it has kept making losses.

An aviation company chief who offered to buy debt-ridden Prestwick Airport fears it could be closed or scaled down if a sale cannot be secured.

Orbital Access chief executive Stuart McIntyre said nearly £40 million lent by ministers to keep the South Ayrshire site going was likely to have caused the sale to be delayed.

His comments follow transport secretary Michael Matheson admitting to MSPs that a deal could fall through, as The Scotsman revealed yesterday.

Mr Matheson wrote: “While efforts are currently focused on returning the airport to the private sector, which has been our intention since purchasing the airport in 2013, should this not be achievable for any reason we will consider options for taking the airport forward in the future.”

The airport was put up for sale in June, with official documents stating that a preferred bidder was expected to be chosen in the first week of September and the sale completed by about 4 October.

Mr McIntyre said his bid, which was made with investors independently of Orbital Access last year, had foundered because of the Scottish Government’s unwillingness to negotiate over the sale including responsibility for the £40m debt.

He told The Scotsman: “Our submission was rejected over the pivotal matter of the treatment of the Scottish Government debt.

“It was most certainly the stumbling block, and I would not be surprised if the debt question has become the problem in the current sale process.

“It certainly appeared to be a red line - the Scottish Government was unwilling to enter any substantive negotiations over it.

“The debt has been used to cover operating losses, not for infrastructure improvements, so it has had no economic value.

“Any acquirer of the airport will need to make significant infrastructure investment to put it on a level with competitors, such as to hangars and freight facilities.

“We proposed £100 million, plus a further £200 million from third parties.

“We decided not to renew our bid. Having been through it before, there was no point in spending on further bid costs.

“The fear of strategic Prestwick-based aerospace businesses such as ours is that the Scottish Government, if a sale isn’t achieved, will consider closure or a significant scaling back of airport operations with the associated devastating impact on the Ayrshire aerospace economy.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency said: “To protect the integrity of the process, we will not be making any further comment and will update Parliament at the appropriate time.”

Ministers bought the airport for a token £1 to avert its closure and the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Mr Matheson told MSPs last week that detailed scrutiny of bids by the airport’s management was taking longer than expected.

It is unclear who has lodged bids for the site, but both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports - Prestwick’s rivals - have denied they have made offers.

Cunard wrote:

Donald Trump as your fully aware is not permitted to involve his business activities along with being President of the United States of America!

The NHS is not going to be sold to Donald Trump, whatever is stated by the media it's just not going to happen.

How and why would Donald Trump run the NHS from an airport?

Let's get these ridiculous suggestions squashed before they are taken seriously!

PIK has had it's day as a commercial airport, that is a true fact, it's not fake news.

PIK has no real future regardless of the Spaceport intentions.