Hansard

I am delighted that John Scott has brought this debate to the Parliament. I have had a love affair with Prestwick since I was a European business manager with Digital in Ayr. We regularly flew to sister companies by Bandeirante to Shannon and by Lear to Geneva. I was therefore surprised by the airport’s decline when I returned to Scotland and to Ayrshire after 25 years. Any suggestion that the airport might close was anathema to me and to many others.

I do not diminish the notion and passion that accompany the desire of other Scottish airports to become the UK’s permanent spaceport but, leaving parochialism aside, the questions in the Department for Transport consultation on supporting commercial spaceplane operations in the UK lead to only one outcome. On that basis, at the time of the DFT announcement, I said in a press release that Prestwick, which was one of the sites in the shortlist, would benefit from ultimate selection, and that the UK Space Agency in general would benefit from that, too.

I believe that Prestwick would secure at least the expected 10 per cent of the global space economy, which would boost not just Ayrshire and Scotland but the wider UK, through industry, economic growth and research and development. As John Scott said, the space economy already contributes £11.3 billion to the UK economy and supports nearly 35,000 jobs. By 2018, we can see immense growth in the deployment of, for example, variable-size satellites via new launcher technology and, of course, trans-global suborbital flights. It would not be the first time that Prestwick has been the base that is associated with man going where no man has gone before. The airport was founded by the Marquis of Clydesdale and D F McIntyre, who were the first to fly over Everest, in 1933.

We can and we will wax lyrical about Prestwick. There are two major concrete soft runways, of 3,000m and 2,000m in length. It has a weather record that is second to none. The föhn effect creates a warm and largely fog-free microclimate with little rain, and that is not available elsewhere in Scotland. There is extensive maintenance and repair operation capability and an aerospace campus at the University of West Scotland that also involves the colleges. There are aerospace skills and passion, with the largest community of space industry employees outside London. There are also space programmes at the University of Glasgow, the University of Strathclyde and the University of Dundee. There is more, such as the national air traffic control centre at Prestwick. However, above all, it is a resilience airport with high skills and military experience and it is the UK’s primary strategic diversion airfield.

I referred to the DFT consultation on the feasibility of locations for the spaceport. I will mention just two of the 11 questions. Question 2 asked whether the location should

“still be active but at a low level of aircraft movements”

and whether it

“should have existing and appropriate ground infrastructure/facilities and service provision”.

A view was expressed that

“The combination of several sub-orbital operations a day with moderate aircraft traffic, commercial service, military service and general aviation could be co-ordinated.”

Question 8 received a Government response that

“the safety of the uninvolved general public”

is “paramount” and that the Civil Aviation Authority’s

“strong recommendation on a coastal location for spaceplane operations is valid”.

Those are just two questions on which Prestwick fulfils the criteria.

For those and many other reasons, without in any way denigrating other propositions, I support the view that Prestwick is it. Those who are driving the bid—Stuart McIntyre and his team—are doing a great job. For me, the love affair continues as do the belief and dream that Prestwick’s positive future is not only in the stars but in getting there.