It is not hard to see why Scotland’s troubled Prestwick airport is keen to expand its role as a stopover for the US military. At noon on a weekday the airport’s departures hall is deserted, the next of the day’s six scheduled flights still hours away. “It’s a ghost town,” says one of a handful of staff serving the terminal’s shops and cafés.
But Prestwick’s role refuelling US Air Force aircraft has put the Scottish state-owned airport at the
centre of a growing controversy over the extent to which President Donald Trump personally profits from spending by the government he heads.
A congressional oversight committee on Tuesday demanded the US defence department provide information on increasing expenditure at Prestwick and on spending on air crew accommodation at the Trump Turnberry luxury golf resort 19 miles further down Scotland’s south-west coast.
Prestwick has been a military stopover site for decades, but the number of US aircraft using the airport has increased dramatically in recent years, as has the number of overnight stays in the vicinity by air crew.
In 2015 there were just 95 stops and 40 overnights stays, according to a US Air Force statement to US media. By 2018 this had increased to 257 stops and 208 stays. This year, in the first eight months alone, there have been 259 stops and 220 stays, USAF said.
USAF crew have stayed at Turnberry on at least four occasions involving more than 60 service personnel since September 2018, according to Politico, the US news service.
