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fox1 · Guest

This was forwarded to me...I don't buy the paper in question...

RYANAIR boss Michael O'Leary today launched a blistering attack on Glasgow Airport bosses.

Mr O'Leary claimed BAA had been "holding back Scottish tourism for the last 20 years by making people travel through places like
Birmingham and London to get to Glasgow."

The Ryanair the chief executive made the comments as he launched a new route to Sweden from Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire.
"Glasgow, owned by an English monopoly, has high costs and only caters to those airlines which charge high prices.
"Even easyJet is struggling at both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports because of high costs.

"All the other airports in Scotland are owned by the BAA, which is the high cost, high fare airport monopoly.
Mr O'Leary said BAA had done a poor job in developing Scottish tourism.

He claimed the firm's bosses had instead focused their energies on "building facilities that nobody wants but using all its
influence with the government to get it done".

He added: "At Glasgow Prestwick, we have an example of what can be done when local people work together.
"This is an airport that the BAA said 10 years ago shouldn't be here, there was no demand for it and they wanted to close it down.
"Today, two million passengers per annum later, clearly there is huge demand for it."

Mr O'Leary also said that tomorrow, Ryanair would be lodging a complaint with trading standards officials asking that Glasgow
International becomes Glasgow domestic airport and that Glasgow Prestwick becomes the new Glasgow International Airport.
Glasgow Airport, although offering Scotland's transatlantic connections, has just two daily scheduled services to continental
Europe, to Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

It has also failed in a succession of recent bids to lure more budget airlines to use it as a base.

Today bosses at BAA Scotland who own Glasgow Airport, which handles four times as many passengers a year as Prestwick, dismissed
Mr O'Leary's claims.

A spokesman said: "We respect Michael O'Leary's entitlement to complain if he feels it necessary.

"The fact Glasgow handled 3.5 million international passengers in the last 12 months, which has doubled Prestwick's total
throughout and the fact that Prestwick is not in Glasgow, I am sure will represent significant barriers."

Trading standards experts today said would be surprised if any name change bid for Glasgow airport was successful.

Meanwhile, today's announcement of the Gothenburg route was welcomed by tourism bosses.

The move represented a £120million boost for Prestwick with Ryanair buying two Boeing 737-800 jets, each costing £60m and able to
carry 189 passengers.

It also increases Ryanair's capacity at the airport by 60%.

Flights to Gothenburg go on sale today starting at £39.99. Ryanair is also offering free flights on some Prestwick routes.
Mr O'Leary added he would launch a second daily flight from Prestwick to Bournemouth on the English south coast in October.
And he added that the airline would most likely look at services to Italy or Spain.

Copyright © 2003 Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights Reserved

eurogen · Guest

POSSIBLE NAME CHANGES: Glasgow Intercontinental Airport
Edinburgh European Turnhouse Airport
Prestwick, O'Leary International Airport

Jon · Guest

[email]billy.gray6 (AT) ntlworld (DOT) com[/email] (eurogen) wrote in message news:<b8a73b88.0308181127.7d208196 (AT) posting (DOT) google.com>...

fox1 · Guest

On 19 Aug 2003 07:46:43 -0700, [email]chelsea_and_tania (AT) msn (DOT) com[/email] (Jon) wrote:

eurogen · Guest

fox1 <fox1 (AT) NOSPAMedinburghairport (DOT) org.uk> wrote