There once was a point when both Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports were experiencing year on year growth. Now though, Edinburgh has been racing away from Glasgow in terms of airlines, flights and passengers.

Let's break down the two main markets at Glasgow and see what has changed over the last few years.

Long Haul Market

Anyone who knows Scottish Aviation would tell you that Glasgow was the city to fly from if you wanted to travel "Long Haul" for a holiday. After all Emirates have served the airport since 2004 and United Airlines since 1998!

Here is everywhere "Long Haul" you could fly from the airport in 2018 alongside the airline who flew the route:

  • Cancun - Thomas Cook, TUI
  • Dubai - Emirates
  • Halifax- WestJet (flight continued to Toronto)
  • New York JFK - Delta
  • Newark - United
  • Orlando Int - Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic
  • Orlando Sanford - TUI
  • Philadelphia - American Airlines
  • Toronto - Air Canada Rouge, Air Transat, WestJet
2018 Long Haul Map from Glasgow

It is also worth noting that Las Vegas and Vancouver were both served until 2017.

Glasgow also hosted a number of charter flights to Seoul in 2015/2016.

Nobody can deny, that's an impressive list for an airport that handles less than 10 million passengers per year (pre-pandemic)

However, looking forward to 2022, here is that list again with the airlines that have confirmed flights will resume to Glasgow:

  • Cancun - TUI
  • Dubai - Emirates
  • Halifax - WestJet
  • Orlando - TUI (the airline are moving from Sanford to Melbourne airport in Florida)
  • Toronto - Air Transat, WestJet
2022 Long Haul Map from Glasgow

Not an impressive list is it? Obviously airlines may announce flights closer to Summer 2022, and Covid Impacted this list. Although the airport was impacted by the collapse of Thomas Cook, both destinations that they flew were served with additional capacity in 2019.

European Market

This market was growing until 2018, when Irish Airline Ryanair closed their base at Glasgow and culled the routes they served from 23 down to just 3!

Alicante Berlin Bydgoszcz Carcassonne
Chania Charleroi Londonderry/Derry Frankfurt
Gran Canaria Lanzarote Lisbon London Stansted
Madrid Malaga Palanga Riga
Sofia Valencia Warsaw
The routes in Bold were exclusively served by Ryanair

This left the airline serving only Dublin, Krakow and Wroclaw, however the airline has since re-added flights to Alicante, Malaga, Warsaw and had returned to Charleroi (no flights are on sale, so the jury is out on if the route will return.)

5 of those routes moved to Edinburgh: Berlin, Derry/Londonderry, Lisbon, Riga and Sofia

Wizz Air have also stopped serving the airport. In their peak they served: Gdansk, Katowice, Lublin, Poznan, Warsaw, Budapest, Vilnius and Bucharest.

The airline has since launched flights from Edinburgh to Budapest, Bucharest, Gdansk and Warsaw.

Thomas Cook collapsed in 2019, ending service on their 21 routes.

Flybe collapsed in 2020 ending service on their routes

Eurowings ended their service to Dusseldorf in 2018

Lufthansa have ended their route between Glasgow and their Munich Hub

Air France ended their flights to Paris CDG in 2017

Where have these flights gone?

Air France, Lufthansa's Munch flights, Wizz and Ryanair all now serve Edinburgh and not Glasgow

American and Virgin Atlantic moved to Edinburgh

Delta, United and Air Canada have not yet provided any updates on their Glasgow plans.

Why is Glasgow failing so hard at maintaining routes?

Well remember how airlines started bailing out in 2018, well that also the year the airport got a new CEO, I somehow do not think that is a coincidence.

The airport has to sell themselves and Glasgow as a whole to airlines in order to encourage them to fly there. However, the airport seems to be failing to do this, bare in mind how easy it is to get from Glasgow to anywhere else in Scotland, so market yourself as a gateway to Scotland!

It is not entirely the airports fault though, the SNP Government pledged in the 2011 election to scrap Air Passenger Duty tax on all flights from Scotland, and guess what, it's still here. With a mandatory tax on flights, airlines need to pick 1 airport in Scotland and most seem to be picking Edinburgh, despite the fact Glasgow has more take-off slots available, and has more passenger capacity than Edinburgh.

Although it isn't being helped by the Government, the only people who can help Glasgow Airport are themselves, and they don't seem keen on doing that.