Prestwick Airport announce 50 new jobs

PRESTWICK airport announced an 50 extra summer jobs today and said the outlook for 2013 was “very encouraging” despite Wizz Air switching flights to rivals Glasgow and the Ayrshire airport remaining up for sale.

The number of extra posts is similar to those created last year at Prestwick, which shed 200 staff in a series of redundancy programmes between 2008 and 2010.

New Zealand owner Infratil has also so far failed to find a buyer for the airport, which has been on the market for nearly a year.

Airport chief executive Iain Cochrane said monthly passenger numbers had increased by 29 per cent over the last three months compared to a year ago.

He said: “The outlook for the rest of 2013 is very encouraging as we continue to adapt to the challenges of an ever-evolving industry.

“Thanks to new routes and extra frequencies announced by Ryanair for our summer programme, looking ahead we expect passenger numbers will continue to rise.”

Ryanair - the airport’s last remaining passenger airline - will increase weekly flights from 86 to 95, to 27 destinations from next month, although Wizz will switch its two routes to Glasgow.