Glasgow Prestwick International Airport, serving Glasgow, is located in Ayrshire.

* Berry, P ( 2005 ) Prestwick Airport and Scottish Aviation

Both Campbeltown Airport and Glasgow Prestwick Airport at around are the closest airports in Scotland to Stranraer.

On 4 April 2002, Ryanair started flights to Glasgow Prestwick Airport.

The British Airports Authority ( BAA ) took control of the airport in 1975 and when BAA was privatised in the 1980s, Glasgow Airport began to offer flights to other places around the world, flights which previously were facilitated by Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which was subsequently relegated as the city's secondary airport catering for low cost airlines and charter operators.

The UK Government had already committed millions into rebuilding Prestwick Airport fit for the " jet age ".

The political rows over Glasgow and Prestwick airports continued, with Prestwick enjoying a monopoly over transatlantic traffic, while Glasgow Airport was only allowed to handle UK and intra-European traffic.

When BAA was privatised in the late 1980s, as BAA plc, it consolidated its airport portfolio and sold Prestwick Airport.

The restrictions on Glasgow Airport were lifted and the transatlantic operators immediately moved from Prestwick, Glasgow Airport being renamed Glasgow International Airport.

Glasgow International also faces stiff competition from Glasgow Prestwick Airport, which has reinvented itself as a low-cost hub for budget airlines and which has a direct rail link to Central Glasgow.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport is Glasgow's second airport, it also serves the Greater Glasgow urban area, situated northeast of the town of Prestwick in South Ayrshire and 32 miles from the city centre of Glasgow.

In physical terms, Prestwick is Scotland's largest commercial airfield, although in passenger traffic terms it sits in fourth place after Edinburgh Airport, Glasgow International, and Aberdeen Airport all of which are operated by BAA.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport from the air

It is telling however, that many years since those proposals were made, Glasgow Prestwick Airport does have its own railway station, something that even Glasgow International Airport does not have.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport is considered to be the only piece of United Kingdom territory on which Elvis Presley ever set foot, when the United States Army transport plane carrying him home stopped to refuel in 1960, whilst en route from Germany.

In response, Mark Rodwell, chief executive of Prestwick Airport, told BBC Radio Scotland, that until it was proved otherwise Prestwick Airport remains the only place in the United Kingdom that Elvis Presley ever set foot.

* October 17 – The Open Championship, also known as the British Open, is played for the first time at Prestwick Golf Club in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Today, Ryanair now serves more than 20 destinations from Prestwick — now one of their maintenance hubs – and other budget airlines have also moved into the airport.

Cargo traffic has also become another stronghold of Prestwick with the vast majority of Scotland's Boeing 747 Freighter traffic entering via the airport.

Air Foyle HeavyLift and Volga-Dnepr are also occasional users of Prestwick with Antonov An-124 aircraft.

Irvine is also well served by several arterial roads, namely the A78 ( Greenock to Prestwick ), A71 ( Irvine to Kilmarnock and beyond to Edinburgh ), A737 ( through the Garnock Valley to Glasgow via the M8 ) and the A736 to Glasgow

Ryanair also has maintenance facilities at Prestwick.

Prestwick also has a Royal Navy Air Station, also known as HMS Gannet, where Sea King search and rescue helicopters are stationed.

Prestwick is also a major air traffic control centre, with both the Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre ( controlling 70 % of UK airspace ) and Prestwick Oceanic Area Control Centre ( Shanwick Oceanic Control-responsible for air traffic over the eastern half of the North Atlantic ) located at the NATS owned ' Scottish and Oceanic Area Control Centre '.

The authority is also responsible for providing communications in Shanwick airspace, with NATS providing the ATC from Prestwick.

( Using the callsign " Shanwick Oceanic ", the Prestwick Centre has 2 dedicated VHF frequencies specifically for the issue of Oceanic Clearances to westbound flights about to enter the Shanwick OCA, and also provides an ACARS based system called ORCA-Oceanic Route Clearance Authorisation-for suitably equipped aircraft to obtain such clearances without the need for voice communications ).

The Prestwick Centre is also home to the Scottish Area Control Centre, ( including, since January 2010, the former Manchester Area Control Centre ), and the Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre ( Military ).

Bermuda as well as being a destination in its own right was also useful as a staging point as was Prestwick near Glasgow, in Scotland, which had good weather conditions.

Prestwick has also staged the Amateur Championship on eleven occasions, most recently in 2001.

Prestwick, site of the airport, and Troon on the coast are also included.

The Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre ( Military ), or " ScATCC ( Mil )" as it is also known, is located within the Prestwick Centre, and is staffed by RAF Air Traffic Control Officers and Air Traffic Control Assistants.

In 1938 passenger facilities were added, which were used continuously until the implementation of a massive investment programme to make Prestwick compatible with the new jet transports which were becoming available.

For this reason, it is often used as a diversionary airport when weather conditions close aviation hubs elsewhere in the United Kingdom-heavy snowfall in the recent severe winters of 2009 and 2010-2011 resulted in large numbers of intercontinental flights bound for London Heathrow and elsewhere to be temporarily diverted to Prestwick.

Prestwick Airport ( used by RyanAir and several other airlines ) is connected directly to Wemyss Bay by FASTBUS 585, which runs twice an hour.

Prestwick was cross-routed from 1851 to 1882 ; the course had eight greens and 12 holes, with four of the greens being used twice for a 12-hole round.

It was the members of Prestwick Golf Club who first created the British Open Championship in 1860 with the club hosting the event twenty-four times up until 1925.

The Open Championship was first played on 17 October 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland.

Prestwick Golf Club, site of the first Open Championship in 1860 Open Championship | 1860.

The first fare-paying passengers to New York departed Prestwick on 21 December 1961.

Caledonian first applied to the ATLB for a licence to launch transatlantic scheduled services from London to New York via Prestwick in 1964.

The town was the first home of the Open Golf Championship, which was played on the Prestwick Old Course from 1860 to 1872.

The Prestwick Old Course hosted the first Open Golf Championship in 1860.

In the first, a fashion model, Miss Prestwick ( Court ), fled to this remote hotel in order to escape a married American reporter, Michael Carter ( McDermott ).

The Prestwick Club institutes the first Championship Meeting, a foursomes competition at St. Andrews attended by eleven golf clubs.

The Prestwick Club institutes a Professional Championship played at Prestwick ; the first Championship Belt is won by Willie Park, Snr.

Later that month a British Overseas Airways Corporation B-24 Liberator en route from Prestwick, Scotland, to Gander, made the first officially sanctioned landing during a weather emergency.