PIK-ing apart Prestwick

Advantages: Has a Train Station
Disadvantages: Small, dark, dingy, Not in Glasgow

...After a year full of weddings of friends and acquaintances, the end of November saw me head up towards Glasgow as my boss was tying the knot. The wedding itself was to be held in Ayr (around 30 miles from Glasgow City Centre) but for ease we all flew up on the Friday lunchtime from Luton to Glasgow International airport. However, whilst many of my colleagues were planning to fly home on the Saturday evening, I needed to get back sooner and started looking for alternative flights. Logic would have seen me catch the early return flight from Glasgow International but in full expectation of a hangover, I decided that an extra hour in bed would do and went against all my better judgement and booked a flight with Ryanair from Glasgow Prestwick which happened to be just 10mins from my hotel. Airport Background Glasgow Prestwick...

StereoMike1983 06.12.2007 · Read review
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Review of Prestwick, Scotland (PIK)

Buzz off, we're eating..

Advantages: Fantastic Atmosphere, Great Food
Disadvantages: None

...Elliots Restaurant and Bar ------------------------------- ? Meet ? Drink ? Eat ? Relax ? Dance - Party That?s their tag line and elliots is the newest and one of the most popular restaurants/bar/ nightclubs in Ayrshire and most definitely in Prestwick. Elliots (with a small e, unless it is at the beginning of a sentence) is situated in the heart of Prestwick?s Main Street. I opened its doors for business about two years ago, and has done a great trade ever since, quickly establishing itself as the place to eat and drink in Ayrshire. We first ate here and had a Sunday lunch, (which stretched into early evening) the weekend after it opened and the last time I ate here was?.2 hours ago. So I feel qualified in writing a balanced review on the place. Elliots was definitely part of the Buzzworks chain, although I don?t think...

helencbradshaw 20.01.2004 (23.01.2004) · Read review
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Review of Elliot's (Prestwick)

PIK an Airport

Advantages: User-friendly, uncrowded
Disadvantages: Limited destination choice, location

...Situated on the South Ayrshire coast, a few miles NE of the town of Ayr and some 28 miles to the south west of Glasgow, is Prestwick Airport (PIK). It has two runways, one of which is 2987m (almost 10,000ft), making it the longest in Scotland. The airport handled more than 1.5 million passengers last year (2002), a figure which is expected to rise considerably, and also around 60,000 tonnes of cargo annually. Prestwick is also the home of the Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre, as well as having military uses. There's evidence that the site was being used for landing aircraft as early as 1913 but it didn't really 'take off' as an airport until the 1940's. During WW2, it was developed to accommodate the transport of aircraft from the USA under the lend-lease programme when as many as 300 planes a day could be delivered. At this...

proxam 08.05.2003 (05.04.2004) · Read review
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Review of Prestwick, Scotland (PIK)

Pure Dead Brilliant???

Advantages: Very decent transport links.
Disadvantages: The slogan

...:: Background information and History :: Prestwick Airport or Glasgow-Prestwick as it is commonly known is an airport in the town of Prestwick and near the town of Ayr, Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland. It is nowhere near Glasgow as it is some 30 miles away - not really sure why its official name includes Glasgow. It was opened in 1934 and has been in active use throughout up until the 1980's when the airport was largely unused and was used for a while for ballroom dancing! Though in the 1990's it started up again as an airport when Ryanair started flights. :: Getting there :: Not including plane you can get there by bus, rail and taxi. The airport features a train station on the Glasgow to Ayr line and there are trains to and from Glasgow about every half hour and the journey takes about 3/4s of an hour to...

il_cacciatore 12.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Prestwick, Scotland (PIK)

glasgow airports little brother

Advantages: uncrowded, cheap airlines
Disadvantages: not in glasgow, limited destinations

...This Opinion written Sept 2003 Prestwick (PIK) also known as Glasgow (Prestwick) is situated roughly an hours' drive to Glasgow City Centre. Best case you might be able to do it in 40 mins. The road, A77, is mostly 4-lane but not much is dual carriageway and it is an accident blackspot. The road is busy with communters, day trippers in the summer and people rushing to the ports at Stranraer and elswhere The Airport had its heyday many years ago when transatlantic flights made a stop-over, it was also a training base for the military, a freight airport and important aircraft manufacturing site. Latterly these non-passenger activities kept it going. A new terminal was built by BAA in 1964 but they pulled out and passenger traffic effectively ceased The climb back has been gradual but is now taking on momentum and things are set to...

mark-southside 26.09.2003 (30.09.2003) · Read review
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Review of Prestwick, Scotland (PIK)

Have I died and gone to hell

Advantages: Good transport links
Disadvantages: Dirty, old-fashioned

...Stepping into Prestwick Airport is like stepping back in time. To the grim 1970's or whenever it was when people had it rough and burned things and listened to horrible rebel music. After being exposed to nice pleasant airports- full consumer experiences with name branded shops, pubs, restaurants, pleasant smiley people and business suits- like London Heathrow, Stansted and even Gatwick, you start to wonder how there could even be airports that are still like this... It shouldn't be like this- Prestwick is right on the western coast of Scotland and you have beautiful views of the water if you manage to get out of the grimey airport. A covered walkway leads travellers out of the airport into the train pickup area where you can go directly to Glasgow within about 45 minutes. This is the best part about the airport- you can get out...

hooville 01.06.2001 · Read review
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Review of Prestwick, Scotland (PIK)

Budget travelling - if you're not in a hurry

Advantages: cheap to fly to, good public transport links
Disadvantages: it's in the middle of nowhere!

...Don't be fooled, Prestwick is not in Glasgow (the cunning ploy of calling it "Glasgow Prestwick" airport does cause a lot of confusion). In fact, it's about 1.5 - 2 hours by train from Glasgow. Also, don't expect to while away the hours in airport shopping - it's a tiny airport and shops are few and far between! The big advantage with Prestwick that it's cheap to fly to (though not very cheerful unfortunately!) It is in the middle of nowhere, hence the low price of flights there. Helpfully though, Ryanair do a very good deal in that if you fly by them, tickets from Prestwick train station to anywhere else in Scotland are half price. Which is good but if you actually want to get to anywhere in Scotland by train it's gonna take you a while due to the remote location. But, if you're travelling on a budget and you're not so...

sunstarrr 24.11.2002 · Read review
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Review of Prestwick, Scotland (PIK)

Cheap, not likely

Advantages: south west scotland
Disadvantages: it is not Glasgow

...Prestwick Airport has suffered from the loss of International traffic that used to be so popular, as Glasgow was unable to handle such aircraft in the past. With newer aircraft that can use shorter runways, Glasgow can now handle these and as a result Prestwick trafic levels have diminished. However, with the boom in low-cost carriers Ryanair is a key user of this airport. Ideally, situated to serve the south-west of Scotland and north-west of England access is by rail or road. Although Ryanair try to sell Prestwick as "Glasgow" it can take up to an hour to reach Glasgow although if already have your Ryanair ticket you can travel by train at a greatly reduced rate. The terminal itself is very dated, but this comes from both the lack of traffic and its location. No longer serving the trans-atlantic market the lack of investment...

MJKerr 22.05.2002 · Read review
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Review of Prestwick, Scotland (PIK)

None better for cheap flights

Advantages: Cheap, frequent services
Disadvantages: No frills, but who cares at that price?

...Ryanair has become a major rival for BA in recent years as a low-cost airline, which offers substantial cuts in price with a no-frills service. Based in Ireland (Website: www.ryainair.ie) , the company adopts a good attitude to customers - they are aware of how poor the national rail network is and take advantage of this, and quite correctly so. Currently, fares from Glasgow Prestwick to London Stansted are quoted at the astonishingly low price of £2 one-way. However, an inquiry for two passengers results in a final cost of £43.40! The fare is £4 for two. Then there is a £3 fee, £16.40 service charges, and £20 UK air duty. The economics seem crazy but the customer still wins. If Ryanair advertised their return flights to London at £21.70 all inclusive, they would still have to beat the customers off with sticks. Also, check...

Saltire 22.01.2001 · Read review
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Review of Ryanair - RYR

ryan air

Advantages: affordable
Disadvantages: no come back or way of winning an argument

...my husband and i took our two boys aged three and five down to london from glasgow prestwick, to see chitty chitty bang bang, the flight down was on time and perfectly fine for a budget airline . On the way back however my five year old son had taken ill and was quite sick, we arrived at the airport in plenty of time having been told by ryan air to be at check in 1 hour before our flight . As we approached the correct check in desk we could see there was a reasonably long que, so we walked over to join it . While carrying our children over we were met by one of the staff telling us we were late and the gate was closed ! to which we replyed but we are standing in the que? after basically arguing that we were not late and our boys were needing home as they were not well the very rude employee told us to pay 120 pounds to be put...

lhl31 06.09.2008 · Read review
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Review of Ryanair - RYR