Two Scottish airports to change hands? Part one: Edinburgh sale in the spotlight

The UK has been at the global centre of airport privatisation, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The Scottish airports at the capital, Edinburgh, and at Glasgow Prestwick on the west coast were either acquired from BAA plc by a US-based investment funds manager (Edinburgh) or bought by a succession of what can best be described with hindsight as - 'chancers' (Prestwick).

Edinburgh carried on in the same ownership vein, but in 2013 an ailing Prestwick had to be saved by the Scottish government, which acquired it for almost nothing, and in the same year as Cardiff Airport was also saved by the Welsh government (although substantial money changed hands in that instance).

Over a decade on it looks as if both airports could be sold again in 2024, and in both cases representative of the changing mores of the airport sector.

In Edinburgh's case any sale would likely be to a major player in the industry, and it might be a partial sale. A complicating factor arose as this report was being prepared, namely the agreement of an acquisition of Edinburgh Airport's majority owner GIP by BlackRock.

In Prestwick's case a buyer might not only see an airfield. There are plenty of other potential uses for the land.

And it is always possible that the Scottish government might convert a share in Edinburgh Airport, located in the national capital.

This is part one of a two-part report.