Glasgow Prestwick Airport celebrates e-commerce milestone

Glasgow Prestwick Airport’s Terminal E facility has reached the milestone of handling 25m parcels following the Scottish airport’s focus on the e-commerce market.

The airport said it had reached the milestone following “a year of sustained growth” that had seen it handle 600 e-commerce cargo flights, 10,000 pallets and 23,000 tonnes of imports since it handled its first scheduled e-commerce flight in May last year.

The increase in e-commerce shipments has been driven by the launch of new long-haul cargo services in 2025, with Air China Cargo and China Southern Airlines opening UK operating bases at the airport.

Prestwick now operates 12 scheduled cargo services per week direct to China, and these new trade routes are expected to facilitate £250m of cross-border trade in 2026.

Royal Mail and EVRi also established e-commerce hubs at the Airport’s dedicated 5,302 sq m e-commerce facility last year.

Ian Forgie, chief executive, Glasgow Prestwick Airport, said: “The volume of parcels handled at Prestwick demonstrates the strength of demand for a reliable, uncongested gateway to the UK, and the expertise of our team in delivering at scale.

“By growing our route network, investing in our processing capability, and continuing to recruit locally, Prestwick is strengthening the reach of Scottish exporters and creating skilled jobs and real economic value for Ayrshire and the whole UK.”

In a recent interview with Air Cargo News, Nico Le Roux, Prestwick’s business development director, said that the airport had benefited from changes to the de minimis rules for e-commerce shipments in the US.

“The strategy that we implemented took about a year to come to fruition, and I think the catalyst for it coming to fruition was the rate increases in the US,” says Le Roux.

“Because we got the same message over and over again, carriers want to fly to Prestwick, but they have no capacity available to fly the goods. And as soon as that capacity was freed up by not going to the US, we saw an increase of capacity coming into Prestwick.”