Dear God that is a truly awful design, what a let down!:(

Indeed, it is bad news for PIK…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-21228661

Here is an interesting video about Prestwick’s future…http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20664531

It’s currently up for sale, along with Manston in Kent, however a lack of investment by Infratil is what is being citied as the main reason as to why they’ve been unsuccessful in obtaining new airlines/routes at PIK, or had success in finding a buyer so far.

And its looking pretty bad for Infratil, especially considering that they bought PIK from Stagecoach back in 2001 for £33.4m, and its now currently being valued at approx £14.3m, and I’ve read some reports recently which seem to suggest it might be worth even less than that (some figures are as low as just £10.5m).

I was hoping/wondering whether PIK might try and poach KLM’s flights to AMS from GLA, as they recently managed to get KL to launch twice-daily flights from MSE (start on the 3rd April), but I guess GLA have managed to keep all their airline customers happy to date.

One thing though that I would like to pose…could some blame also be possibly be leveled at Ryanair, seeing as they try to get everything for very little or nothing at all in terms of handling and landing fees, obviously this means that airport will not generate as much revenue as it could/should that would enable it to invest in the infrastructre, or is that an unfair criticism?

I suppose the only saving graces for PIK at the moment are the fact that it has its own railway station that offers a direct link into Glasgow city centre, and also the fact that Ryanair have a big maintainence facility based at PIK, so there is always going to be aircraft going in and out of it, but again because they try to get everything for nothing, this limits the airports investment opportunities.

I do hope that a buyer can be sought for PIK/MSE soon.:)

As someone who works at LHR, I can help you with this…;)

Transferring between terminals is not that difficult as long as you prepare yourself in advance. 2hrs should be enough time to connect, although I am not exactly sure of the recommended minimum connection time between T5 and T1.

Assuming your not checking in any luggage and that you will have checked-in online and printed your boarding passes off prior to travelling, you can get off your EDI-LHR flight in T5 and follow the purple Flight Connections signs, where there is a free inter-terminal bus service to all other terminals. It will deposit you at security in Terminal 1.

If you have got luggage checked-in, but do not get a boarding pass for your onward flight, make sure you have a copy of your reservation handy as you can still use the Flight Connections option but sometimes Security can ask to see proof of your onward travel details.

If you are checking luggage, this should be checked all the way through to your final destination so you wont need to collect it in LHR and re-check it in, however if for whatever reason it is not checked-in to your final destination, then you will need to clear immigration in T5, pick up your luggage and then head for the Heathrow Express train and get off at the next stop for Terminal 1. This is also a free service.

Hope this helps, any further questions, please ask away and I’ll try to help.:)

Fantastic photos MANAIRPORTMAD!!

Really must make a trip up to MAN at some point…you & Rob can show me all the good spots for photography/spotting.

Thanks for sharing.:)

Oh dear, I don’t like that American Eagle one…not sure it suits regional aircraft as well as bigger ones.

Perhaps it would look slightly better if they used Air Canada Express as an example, i.e. make more of an empahsis of the “Eagle” word like AC do with the “Express” word in the picture below, and then have the “American” wording and the new logo smaller above the windows…

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=7455678&nseq=43

HMV…do we care?!

Errr, yes in some way I do care about HMV, but not from a business perspective…I’ve spent many an afternoon just browsing the shelves in HMV…it certainly helps to kill a few hours when your stuck with nothing to do. However, as it has already been said, I often found them too expensive and their customer service standards did seem to change for the worse. And as soon as I had found something I wanted, I made a mental note of the price, and then went home and bought it online via a cheaper retailer or just downloaded it via iTunes.

As for other shops that could be under threat…how about Waterstones; very similar in a way to HMV, has it adapated its business model enough to cope with the digital revolution…? I thought they were in trouble a while back after they bought-out Books etc. but maybe they somehow survived the first blow, I wonder when the KO punch will come?

And another few…BHS/Debenhams?

Might surprise some on here that I mention these two, however I find them both selling the same kind of things, all of which you can now tend to buy in the bigger supermarket outlets, and often at much cheaper prices.

Thanks for sharing these pics.

Amazed at the number of Embraer regional jets there…especially in Continental colours!

Sorry to hear of your issue Bmused…

Indeed, that does definately suck if the number of miles required increases because of the fare increase…some frequent flyer programs use the distance between the two points as a way of calculating the amount of miles needed, thus it does not de-value them. At least that’s what use to happen before Air Miles turned into AVIOS…

Having said that though, using UA’s Mileage Plus progam as an example, its done on a sliding scale…so you can get a flight for as little as 20,000 miles, however you have to pay a substaintial cash sum as well, whereas you could use 100,000 miles and pay just for the taxes…