New Chinese flights take off from Prestwick Airport with Beijing Capital Airlines carrying salmon and whisky
Second China airline to launch freight route from South Ayrshire airport Prestwick in five months
Beijing Capital Airlines has started flying between Prestwick and Zhengzhou as the third Chinese carrier to launch services at the South Ayrshire airport since May.
The carrier will export high-value Scottish produce such as salmon and whisky and import e-commerce and other goods on its four flights a week, which started on Thursday.
An Airbus A330 freighter aircraft will operate the service to Zhengzhou Xinzheng by Beijing Capital Airlines, part of the Hainan Airline Group, which runs twice-weekly, year-round passenger flights between Edinburgh and Beijing.
Freight dominates Prestwick’s operations, which also include Ryanair passenger flights to ten holiday destinations in Spain, Italy and Portugal.
Prestwick chief executive Ian Forgie said: “This third scheduled service underlines Prestwick’s position as one of the United Kingdom’s leading cargo hubs and demonstrates the strength of our e-commerce solution
“Our new partnership with Beijing Capital Airlines expands capacity, increases frequency, and offers exporters throughout the UK a new destination in mainland China.”
The Scottish Government-owned airport said the deal was part of its cargo development strategy to secure high-frequency routes that connect exporters with major international trading centres.
The move follows China Southern Air Logistics launching Scotland’s first Chinese freight route with flights to Guangzhou in May and Air China Cargo following suit the following month.
Prestwick hopes the four-times-a week China Southern Air Logistics service, which also carries salmon and whisky, will increase to daily. It also hopes the Air China Cargo service will increase to seven a week.
It doubled the airport’s scheduled freighter movements, which Mr Forgie described as a “game changer”.
Colin Dai, the airport’s country sales director for Greater China, said: “The airport has a long history and reputation for handling wide-bodied freighters, providing fast aircraft turnaround and cargo handling, delivered through our in-house team.”
Hong Kong Air Cargo became the first Far East airline to launch freight services to and from Prestwick in February.
The deal is a boost for the airport, as SNP ministers continue their attempt to return the South Ayrshire site to the private sector since buying it for a nominal £1 in 2013 to avert closure and the loss of hundreds of jobs.
Prestwick Airport has made a profit for the past four years, but management have said the surplus was needed to fund operations rather than pay off the debt. A number of previous attempts to sell the airport have fallen through.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said of Prestwick earlier this year the Scottish Government wanted the site to continue to operate as an airport after any sale.
She said in April: “Our aspirations to return Prestwick to the private sector remain and we continue to make progress in [achieving] that.”
Ms Forbes had said of the importance of jobs and employment supported by the site: “We have obviously saved Prestwick Airport more than a decade ago, precisely because of its strategic importance to the Scottish economy.”
She added: “My view is Scotland is small enough to be able to support multiple airports, but for those airports to be complementary to one another.”
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