PRESTICK AIRPORT GUIDE (PIK)

QUICK FACTS Name: Prestwick Airport IATA Code: PIK ICAO Code: EGPK Opened: 1934 Terminals: 1 Runways: 1 Destinations served:50+ Passengers: 2.5m (2009)

HISTORY

Prestwick Airport began its history in 1934 as a lonely airstrip in a field reserved for pilots in training. One year later, the site had become popular enough for an aircraft hangar, control tower and offices to be built. The very first owner of Prestwick Airport (or at the time, airstrip) was David Fowler McIntyre who also stood at the helm of the Scottish Aviation company, backed by the Duke of Hamilton. In 1933, these men together set a world record of their time by being the first to fly over Mt. Everest.
 
The outbreak of World War II saw the airfield - and what would one day constitute the expansive Prestwick Airport parking area – become home to many of the aircraft belonging to the American and allied forces. The constant demand for the airport and its runway resulted in accelerated development and in 1938, passenger facilities were added. By 1964, the runway had been extended to accommodate the more frequent and heavier air traffic that was coming into the airport from both domestic and international origins. The link road, a parallel taxiway, the terminal buildings and Prestwick Airport parking facilities had also been constructed and opened.

In addition to the Prestwick site’s success as an airport, it has also been used for industrial purposes in the past. In fact, Prestwick airport’s original hangars and terminal building were used to build aircraft by owner McIntyre’s company Scottish Aviation. It was within the workshops and hangar bays of the Prestwick Airport that the Prestwick Pioneers, the Bulldog and the Jetstream fighter jets were designed and built! It was only in 1998, when the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act called for the merger of the Scottish Aviation and British Aerospace that the latter company took over the construction of aircraft.

It was also only until this merger that Prestwick Airport actually had monopoly over all transatlantic flights out of Scotland. Originally, this was because the good sea currents kept the weather on the Ayrshire coast relatively free of fog, unlike many of the other United Kingdom airports. It was this characteristic of the microclimate that earned the airfield its nickname “Britain’s only fog-free airport”.
 
And so, 75 years after Prestwick airport’s conception as a training field for cadet pilots, it has played home to the brave Allied airforce of World War II, been the building site of many innovative aircraft, expanded and developed its facilities, terminal building and flight program immensely and apparently, even seen Elvis Presley live in the flesh!