Glasgow Prestwick Airport (PIK) has supported National Airlines’ in completing its longest-ever cargo flight, transporting a critical aerospace component from PIK to Melbourne Airport (MEL), Australia, for a grounded aircraft.
The nearly 20-hour flight covering 9,849 miles drew on PIK’s unrestricted, round-the-clock operating environment, in-house cargo handling capabilities, and proximity to one of the Prestwick aerospace clusters.
“Glasgow Prestwick combines unrestricted operations with experienced in-house teams and direct access to an established aerospace cluster, allowing us to support complex and time-critical missions at short notice,” said Jules Matteoni, Chief Executive Officer, Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
“Congratulations to our valued partners at National Airlines on this impressive achievement. We believe this flight is also the longest commercial cargo flight operated by B777F anywhere in the world.
“We are proud to have played our part and stand ready to support urgent charter requirements whenever speed and flexibility are required.”
The flight was operated by National Airlines using their new B777F brokered through Golden Aviation in response to an urgent aircraft on ground requirement, with the component transported directly from PIK to MEL.
“More than record-setting, this historic mission further demonstrates the airline’s ability to deliver mission-critical cargo anywhere in the world, combining speed, operational excellence, and global reach,” said Alan White, Chief Growth Officer, National.
“Our flight operations, maintenance, dispatch, and ground teams are equipped to position our freighter fleet within hours of such a customer enquiry and execute unique, time-critical missions with exceptional precision.
“We also extend our sincere thanks to the Glasgow Prestwick Airport team for their operational flexibility and specialist support in facilitating the movement of the AOG components and ensuring the mission was completed on schedule.”
David Giles, Director of Operations, Golden Aviation, added: “This was essentially a ‘go-now’ B777F, something that can only be pulled off with all stakeholders coming together to arrange the landing, handling, parking, processing, loading, refuelling and slots over the weekend, enabling the flight to operate ASAP on the Monday with the aircraft positioning that very next morning.
“The team at Prestwick delivered a flawless operation from start to finish, ensuring the aircraft was handled efficiently and departed exactly as scheduled.
“They were a real safe pair of hands throughout, and this time-critical charter simply would not have been possible without their professionalism, responsiveness and willingness to move quickly across every aspect of the ground handling operation. A huge thank you to everyone involved for making this urgent charter a success.”
The airport sits at the centre of the Prestwick aerospace cluster, which brings together aircraft manufacturing, maintenance, engineering, and air traffic management expertise.
