'Comprehensive Transformation' of terminal

[FlyGLA]

For Iain - it’s all over Radio Scotland this morning and one of the aims is to reduce turnaround times for budget airlines - that will be a real selling point.

Excellent news. One of the members recently mentioned GLA’s investment in pre-boarding zones, a clear nod to the preferences of low-cost carriers, so I’d imagine that’s just one part of a broader investment strategy.

The target of reaching 10 million passengers within three years is music to my ears. It might sound bold, but in reality, GLA should already be operating above that level. Let’s not forget, upwards of 2 to 3 million passengers a year are currently being lost down the M8. This isn’t about building a market from scratch, it’s about reclaiming an existing one that’s already there and ready to fly from Glasgow.

[FlyGLA]

Interesting snippets from The Times article.

The aim is to attract new routes, including potential services to Milan, Madrid, Paris (presumably Air France), and long-haul destinations. Discussions are ongoing with airlines such as Ryanair and United Airlines to re-establish connections that have not rebounded since the pandemic. The terminal enhancements may expand floor space by up to 20%, allowing for additional gates and improved passenger amenities. Some upgrades are expected before summer 2025, with more extensive work proceeding into the winter.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/ar ... -tkdlk8lhl

[Clive]

Interesting snippets from The Times article.

The aim is to attract new routes, including potential services to Milan, Madrid, Paris (presumably Air France), and long-haul destinations. Discussions are ongoing with airlines such as Ryanair and United Airlines to re-establish connections that have not rebounded since the pandemic. The terminal enhancements may expand floor space by up to 20%, allowing for additional gates and improved passenger amenities. Some upgrades are expected before summer 2025, with more extensive work proceeding into the winter.

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/ar ... -tkdlk8lhl

This is sweet music to the ears, right enough. Add to this TK to IST, VS to MCO and QR to DOH and we’re heading in the right direction.

I’m sure glad my omnipresent insistence that GLA bosses are badgering Ryanair is confirmed in writing.

[Iain]

Link to full text for The Times article:

https://archive.ph/sB8A7

News of talks and a wishlist of airlines and destinations is kind of what we heard from his predecessor - and most of it it went absolutely nowhere. We've heard this all before, they actually need to actually produce results this time.

Surely very significant investment has to be put into attracting airlines as much as improving and enlarging a terminal that's already operating well under capacity. However, it seems like there are very concrete plans and funding for the terminal, but funding for incentives and routes development seems significantly less defined.

Wrt to turnaround times, given that a number of other UK airports with demonstrably worse avg delays like MAN and EDI are FR bases and GLA is not, I'm not particularly convinced that reducing them is going to make a critical difference in GLA's favor tbh. It's surely all about making charges as low as possible, so hopefully some of the investment is going to go to that.

The target of reaching 10 million passengers within three years is music to my ears. It might sound bold, but in reality, GLA should already be operating above that level. Let’s not forget, upwards of 2 to 3 million passengers a year are currently being lost down the M8. This isn’t about building a market from scratch, it’s about reclaiming an existing one that’s already there and ready to fly from Glasgow.

Exactly, they can build numbers significantly just by repatriating passengers from EDI, and that can be done without single extra holidaymaker, tourist or biz traveller having to actually travel to or from the GLA catchment.

I think getting to 10m pax would require about 7% growth for the next three years, so they're going to have to get going on that. Indeed, given currently announced routes, 8.5 million in 2025 seems a little bit ambitious.

[Speedbird Julie]

I'm sitting in the Concorde Room with a smile on my face right now. It's always a pleasure watching the heavies depart from here. Equally CDG is another favourite of mine in terms of aircraft. The airport has some wonderful connecting opportunities with very keen pricing too so I'd be very happy to see AF back at GLA

[buddyboy]

Another article behind a paywall....

www.heraldscotland.com%2Fnews%2F25110833.emirates-flights-talks-revealed-glasgow-airport-chief%2F&usg=AOvVaw2gNYiS6NV9qzNNFWp0EdcV&opi=89978449

Seems to be out of the same interview. Talking about getting the double daily back.

[helensburghexile]

Another article behind a paywall....

www.heraldscotland.com%2Fnews%2F25110833.emirates-flights-talks-revealed-glasgow-airport-chief%2F&usg=AOvVaw2gNYiS6NV9qzNNFWp0EdcV&opi=89978449

Seems to be out of the same interview. Talking about getting the double daily back.

He mentions ambitions of securing a narrow body on the second flight within the next 2-3 years, first I’ve heard of Emirates taking on any narrow body aircraft

[FlyGLA]

It seems there may have been a misunderstanding, perhaps lost in translation, I suspect "narrowbody" was meant to refer to a widebody aircraft such as A350 or 777, so second daily restored, just not the on the A380. Regardless of the aircraft type, it's disappointing to hear that the return of EK's second daily flight is still at least two years away. It's clear where Emirates' priorities lie, so I hope AviAlliance are now turning their attention to Qatar Airways instead.

I'm very pleased to hear that our new Managing Director recognises that Glasgow has effectively been subsidising EDI, and that he plans to address this. None of his predecessors ever seemed to acknowledge it, almost as if they weren't permitted to say anything remotely critical about Scotland's second city. The 14% estimate is interesting. If 14% of EDI's passengers are travelling to and from Glasgow, that is over 2 million passengers per year!

Mr Jandu also revealed his priorities for new routes, as he highlighted loss of market share in recent years and hopes that the major investment can drive passenger growth.

He declared: “Maybe about 14% of the people who could be flying from here are making the trip to Edinburgh.”

[bill]

Brilliant news. Well played, so far. A Ryanair base of just two aircraft would put between 1 & 1.5 million pax through the doors each year, so 10 million in three years is easily do-able imho. Just get it done and get this 14% back flying from their local airport. 'Sweet as a nut' as my brother in law used to say.

[Iain]

Here's the full text:

The new head of Glasgow Airport has revealed it is in talks with Emirates about the airline increasing its daily service to Dubai to double-daily.

In an interview with The Herald, Kam Jandu revealed hopes this could happen in the next two to three years, with Emirates operating a daily narrow-body aeroplane flight on the Glasgow to Dubai route in addition to the existing daily service on the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft.

He said Emirates’ current daily Glasgow to Dubai service on the A380 was “a huge deal” for the airport and a “feather in our cap”.

And Mr Jandu, who was speaking immediately after a huge investment in the airport was announced today, revealed: “We are talking about them expanding that to a double-daily.”

Asked if this was likely to happen, Mr Jandu quipped that he was not a betting man but added: “The double-daily - with the A380 and a narrow body [plane] - yes, I can see that happening in the next two to three years. And to have the second daily as a wide body - probably five to six years’ time.”

Mr Jandu also revealed his priorities for new routes, as he highlighted loss of market share in recent years and hopes that a huge investment can drive passenger growth.

He declared: “Maybe about 14% of the people who could be flying from here are making the trip to Edinburgh.”

Mr Jandu, who took over as chief executive of Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports owner AGS earlier this year following AviAlliance’s acquisition of AGS, also described the prospects of winning direct flights to North America as “good” and highlighted talks with US airlines.

He named Copenhagen, Madrid, Berlin and Milan as four examples of priorities for new direct flights from Glasgow.

Mr Jandu also hammered home his view that there was a need for “more connectivity” with three key European hubs with which Glasgow already has connections: Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt.

He flagged the importance of these hubs to people looking to fly from Glasgow Airport to many different destinations around the world.

Since around the turn of the millennium, Edinburgh Airport has enjoyed significantly better fortunes in driving passenger traffic up than Glasgow Airport.

Last year, Edinburgh became the first Scottish airport to ever exceed 15 million passengers in a year.

Glasgow Airport, which has seen a strong rebound in its passenger numbers in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, had around 8.2 million passengers last year.

AviAlliance, the wholly owned airports platform of one of Canada’s largest pension investors, today revealed plans for a “comprehensive transformation” of the main terminal building at Glasgow as part of a £350 million investment in the growth and decarbonisation of its three UK airports over five years.

It declared its plans constituted the “single largest capital investment programme in AGS since it was formed in 2014”.

The 'concept designs' are aimed at showing 'the art of the possible' as the 'comprehensive transformation' of the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport moves ahead

Asked if he believed the investment would help Glasgow Airport close the gap with Edinburgh Airport in terms of passenger numbers, Mr Jandu replied: “Yes and no. I think [yes] in the sense [of] the more flights we get to come to Glasgow.

“They (airlines) will come here because they see an opportunity and because we are the biggest city in Scotland, and that is an opportunity for them to come back.

“Our conversations with the airline - it is not an either or [between Glasgow and Edinburgh].”

Mr Jandu highlighted the fact that the likes of Jet2 and easyJet fly from both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports.

He declared: “Edinburgh are going to face challenges with capacity at some point.”

However, he added: “This isn’t us against Edinburgh. We want to get our market share back.”

Mr Jandu observed: “The reality in modern aviation is we don’t just compete with Edinburgh…The goal is not to steal anything that wasn’t naturally ours back from Edinburgh. Our natural market share has shrunk over the last decade and that is not right.”

Asked what had caused the drop in market share at Glasgow Airport, Mr Jandu replied: “The main reason is because there are more airlines that took the decision to fly from Edinburgh, whatever the reason.”

He added: “Slowly but surely, we are optimistic about regaining some of that share.”

Glasgow Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stuart Patrick has been among those to highlight Glasgow’s lack of direct flights to North America in recent times as a key issue for the airport and the regional economy.

In decades past, Glasgow Airport had several North American flag carriers operating out of it.

Asked about the prospects of Glasgow winning North American routes, Mr Jandu replied: “The prospects are good. There is a whole macro, political discussion going on in America [with] trans-regional traffic going down. All four of the major US airlines are saying, ‘We might have some extra capacity’.”

He expressed hopes that Glasgow could win some of this extra capacity, highlighting these airlines’ extra-long-range, narrow-body aircraft, and declared this was “potentially on the radar” for 2026 or 2027.

Mr Jandu also emphasised the importance of ensuring quick turnaround times for airlines for which this was a key priority, and the part which the planned investment could play in this for Glasgow Airport.

He said: “Airlines are saying to us, ‘We want to go where we can operate punctually’.”

Mr Jandu highlighted the importance of the major investment being embarked upon at Glasgow Airport in the decision-making of airlines when they were considering “growth and expandability”.

He said the “vast majority” of the £350m investment would be in Scotland, and the “vast majority” of that would be at Glasgow.

AGS Airports noted that the “transformation” of the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport was likely to increase the space by around 20%.

Mr Jandu highlighted plans to invest in the retail and dining offerings for passengers.

AviAlliance, a wholly owned subsidiary of PSP Investments which has stakes in Athens, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, and San Juan (Puerto Rico) airports, also plans direct investment into airfield infrastructure and energy-efficiency initiatives.

Scottish Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes joined Mr Jandu at Glasgow Airport at the announcement of the investment, with what an AGS Airports spokesman described as “concept designs” around “the art of the possible” on display in the check-in area.

Ms Forbes said of the planned investment: “This is huge. It is transformational.”

She added: “This significant investment in Scotland by AGS will bring incredible benefits through improved infrastructure at both Glasgow and Aberdeen airports, and to our wider economy.

“Good international connectivity is key to economic growth in Scotland. It enables flow of trade, investment, labour and tourism, which will contribute to our prosperity. Additionally, the commitment to sustainability is welcome as we progress towards a net zero future.”