GE Aerospace follows Ryanair in major expansion at South Ayrshire site
The continuing aerospace boom at Prestwick since the airport was nationalised for a nominal £1 to save it from closure 13 years ago was underscored on Monday with 150 new jobs being announced by an aircraft engine firm in a £57 million expansion.
Airport bosses say the move - by GE Aerospace - is a “major vote of confidence” in the transport hub.
It follows Ryanair pledging a further 450 jobs in March with a third hangar at Europe’s largest airline’s biggest heavy maintenance base beside the South Ayrshire airport, where it already employs 750 people.
The firms form part of an aviation cluster employing nearly 5,000 people which also includes BAE Systems, Boeing, Prestwick AeroSystems, Collins Aerospace and Woodward.
Nats, the former National Air Traffic Services, controls flight movements over the northern half of the UK from a base at Prestwick. HM Coastguard also has a helicopter base there.
Ryanair’s sole passenger carrier increased its total carried by 11 per cent to 620,700 in the year to March, with its two aircraft based there and more frequent flights on half its ten routes to Spanish and Italian holiday destinations this summer.
However, the airport, which employs more than 500 people, is focused instead on growing freight, announcing a 16th weekly cargo flight to China last month, which added a fourth route.
It has described cargo as its “primary driver of growth” after that increased four fold to 46,000 tonnes in 2025-26 compared to 10,000 the previous year.
The airport said that marked a “structural shift in its business model and underpins future growth expectations”.
Prestwick also recorded its seventh year in a row of profits, up from £1.1m to £3.1m in the year to March.
However, its biggest revenue remains in refuelling military aircraft from the RAF, US and Nato, generating £24m in 2025-26 compared to £5m from passenger flights revenue and £3m from cargo.
The airport said that strengthened its reputation as a “key defence aviation hub”, with other military activity including “operational deployments” and training activities.
But this has triggered political controversy, with First Minister John Swinney making a failed attempt to establish the scale of US military use of the Scottish Government-owned airport and the Scottish Greens waging an ongoing campaign to end it.
Ministers were seeking to return the airport to the private sector after they took it over from New Zealand owners Infratil in 2013 to avertv closure, but a series of sales have fallen through, the last one last November when an unnamed bidder pulled out.
However, the then Economy Secretary Kate Forbes said in February that a sell-off had been paused to provide the airport with a “period of stability” while it developed its cargo and military business.
It is not clear if Scottish Government loans now worth £62m including interest, which were paid to prop up the airport after being nationalised, would be written off as part of any sale.
The GE Aerospace expansion will involve a new building for maintaining, overhauling and repairing engines, with the new jobs due to be created over the next five years.
Scotland Office minister Melanie Ward said its £18m funding for the project would “help deliver a long-term future for Prestwick airport, ensure the region is a leading UK hub for the sector and provide the next generation of Scottish engineers with a world-class career path right on their doorstep”.
An airport spokesperson said: “The announcement by GE Aerospace is a major vote of confidence in the area's reputation as a centre of excellence for aviation and aerospace.
“The airport sits at the very heart of this thriving cluster. It is a vital strategic asset and plays an important role within the wider aerospace sector.
“Importantly, the airport is also enjoying transformational growth in its own right, attracting new business, creating skilled jobs and developing new international trade lanes.”