The airport serves the urban cluster surrounding Ayr, including Kilmarnock, Irvine, Ardrossan, Troon, Saltcoats, Stevenston, Kilwinning, and Prestwick itself.

Passenger traffic peaked at 2.4 million in 2007 following a decade of rapid growth, driven in part by the boom in low-cost carriers, particularly Ryanair, which uses the airport as an operating base.

[10] Until February 2016, part of the Prestwick site was occupied by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm with RNAS Prestwick, officially known by the Royal Navy as HMS Gannet, where a detachment of three Sea Kings provided a search and rescue role, covering one of the largest SAR areas of the UK including Ben Nevis, the Lakes, Northern Ireland and 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) past the Irish coast.

[12] Since November 2013, when the Scottish government took control of the facility, service contracts have been established with the USAF, USN, USMC, Defense Logistics Agency and National Guard.

[14][15] However, on 21 April 2008, during a BBC Radio 2 interview with Ken Bruce, theatre impresario and chairman of Everton FC, Bill Kenwright, said that Elvis actually spent a day in the UK being shown around London by Tommy Steele in 1958.

[21] 1992 marked the beginning of a renaissance for the struggling airport when purchased by "Canadian entrepreneur"[22] Matthew Hudson in a "dramatic rescue".

Manston was sold to a shell company owned by Ann Gloag, a co-founder of Stagecoach, Prestwick's previous owner.

In April 2005, Infratil completed a major refurbishment of the terminal building, and rebranded the airport using the phrase "pure dead brilliant", taken straight from the Glasgow patter.

Despite objections that it promoted the wrong image of Scotland to foreign visitors and embarrassed local travellers, the airport management insisted the logo was "fun and visually stimulating".

[29] The car park and A79 outside the terminal building have been reconstructed to comply with governmental movement and access restrictions mandated in the aftermath of the Glasgow International Airport terrorist attack.

The plan proposes "a central pier that provides adequate circulation and waiting space prior to boarding the aircraft" to cope with a continuing increase in passenger departures.

Then-Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told BBC Scotland that work would then begin on "turning Prestwick around and making it a viable enterprise".

[34] In June 2014, Ryanair announced the relocation of some routes from Prestwick to Glasgow International Airport by October 2014; included among them were flights to Warsaw and Dublin.

The airport would consequently remain in public ownership, but the government stated it was committed to "returning it to the private sector at the appropriate time and opportunity.

"[42] As of January 2023[update], no private investor has been found yet but there was ongoing debate if the airport is financially viable or will require further loans from the government.

[43] The following airlines operate regular scheduled passenger and cargo services to and from Glasgow–Prestwick:[44] Prestwick Airport used to host a bi-annual Air show, the first of which was held on 30 September 1967.

[51] The revived Scottish International Airshow was brought back by 3 Ayrshire aviation and events professionals Danny Anderson, Bob Alexander (2014 and 2015) and Doug Maclean.

It started with the RAF Typhoon doing a first dusk display and ended with the Aerosparx Formation Team flying in darkness and discharging pyrotechnics from the aircraft wing tips.

It was announced that the airshow would return for 2023, organised by South Ayrshire Council and rebranded as The International Ayrshow - Festival Of Flight beginning on the weekend of 8 September 2023.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency Media related to Glasgow Prestwick Airport at Wikimedia Commons