Glasgow
Glasgow Airport is Scotland’s principal long-haul gateway and the busiest of its three main international airports.
How did we perform?
While our 40th anniversary was a historic year for us and our airlines, we need to do more to keep passenger satisfaction at the levels we pride ourselves on. Passenger numbers grew 0.5% to 8.9 million, helped by easyJet welcoming its ten millionth passenger from Glasgow, Continental passing the one million mark on its Newark route, and Emirates and flyglobespan both enjoying a year of spectacular growth. Underlying operating profit was £26 million and underlying revenues £62 million. However, due to large expansion works and tough security measures, our passenger satisfaction scores fell slightly from 4.2 to 4.1 (5 = excellent; 1 = poor).
How will expansion help things?
Following the August security alert, Glasgow undertook a major upgrade of the security search area to improve the travel experience for our domestic passengers. Now re-branded ‘Skyscreen’, the new-look security zone provides state-of-the-art features and more personal interaction between staff and passengers. In our continued efforts to meet both the destination and airport demands of our growing customer-base, our route network expanded to include 13 new services, while the new Skylounge and several new shops, bars and restaurants opened as part of a multi-million pound expansion. Even more excitingly, a £290 million master plan was unveiled in October, confirming the extent to which we intend to expand the airport whilst improving the passenger facilities.
BAA and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport also reached agreement in October on the proposed Glasgow rail link. With the project moving apace, it is expected that the service will be operational by 2010.
