Ryanair to open second hangar at Glasgow Prestwick Airport

15/02/2010

By Nick Jones.

Low-cost carrier Ryanair will construct a second maintenance hangar for its aircraft at Glasgow Prestwick Airport.

The facility will cost some £8 million and is expected to create 200 new engineering jobs in Ayrshire during its construction.

Announcing the news, Scottish first minister Alex Salmond said: "I am delighted that Ryanair is strengthening its operations in Scotland and this announcement demonstrates that Ayrshire has the quality infrastructure and skilled workforce to secure this major project, having fought off competition from a number of European locations."

The minister added that the Scottish government will contribute £1.5 million towards the cost of the new hangar, which is expected to be fully operational by October 2010.

In related news, the Ministry of Defence announced last week that it will move its search and rescue services from Prestwick to Glasgow Airport as part of a new £6 billion private finance deal in which the Soteria Consortium is the preferred bidder.

Ryanair currently offers 29 routes from Glasgow Prestwick Airport and serves around two million passengers per month.