Profile: Matthew Hudson, Prestwick Airport's boss, can both shock and
surprise. He explains himself to David Steele
TO SOME he is a visionary and the saviour of a major Scottish asset,
to others he is misguided, a loose cannon and, to borrow a phrase from
his native North America, a general pain in the butt. What is in no
doubt, however, is that Matthew Chance Hudson has made what promises to
be a lasting impact on the Scottish business scene. Depending on whom
you listen to, that impact will be remembered as one of enormous benefit
or irreparable damage to the economy and well-being of Ayrshire and the
country as a whole.
The 52-year-old Canadian is chief executive of Prestwick Airport as
well as chairman of three divisions of PIK Holdings which have been
created in the past two years. In the chair when the main board sits
down to discuss the issues of the day is Lord Younger of Prestwick,
former MP for Ayr, ex-Secretary of State for Defence and now chairman of
the Royal Bank of Scotland.
It was Younger, then representing the local constituency at
Westminster, who contacted Hudson in late 1990 and asked if he would be
interested in being involved in a consortium aiming to take over
Prestwick Airport from BAA plc.
The former state airport operating company had made it clear that
Prestwick, which had been suffering consistent heavy losses, was
available at the right price. As it was put by BAA at the time, ''there
is no for sale sign outside Prestwick but if someone wants to talk about
buying it then we are prepared to listen''. Transatlantic flights from
Prestwick -- the Government's Scottish Lowland Airports Policy dictated
that all such services must go from the Ayrshire facility -- had
dwindled over the years to just those operated by Northwest Airlines and
by Air Canada. Previously many major airlines, including British
Airways, had used Prestwick.
Both had remained loyal to Prestwick but within months of so-called
Open Skies being declared both had moved their operations to Glasgow
International Airport -- the growing airport which Hudson insists on
referring to disparagingly as Paisley or Abbotsinch.
It was no coincidence that the announcement by Transport Minister
Cecil Parkinson in March 1990 came at the same time as George Younger
announced that he was stepping down from Government. His influence on
Mrs Thatcher and the Cabinet had been obvious.
Some would argue that, over three years on, the decision has been
vindicated with British Airways, United and American joining Northwest
and Air Canada in the transatlantic trade from Glasgow.
At all events, Prestwick was struggling and in the years up to 1991
lost its parent company, Scottish Airports, many millions of pounds with
little sign of improvement. Something had to give and by the middle of
1991 letters of confidentiality had been signed between BAA and six
potential buyers of the airport.
One of the consortia involved Matthew Hudson, who had been in
semi-retirement restoring historic Blanefield House near Kirkoswald and
trying to improve a struggling golf game.
It emerged that Hudson had a $20m law suit outstanding against him
after a property development in Atlantic City, New Jersey, had gone
wrong. He was typically robust when dealing with the reporter
investigating the case, on the one hand giving his account of matters,
on the other warning of legal action if he were misrepresented.
Indeed that robust attitude was to continue and to lead to an often
uneasy relationship with Scottish journalists whom he perceived as only
there as a conduit for Prestwick success stories while at the same time
ignoring any slip-ups along the way.
That notwithstanding the consortium went from strength to strength as
both Hudson and Younger built a network of contacts which included
respected local businessmen and political figures.
As he puts it now: ''I got in touch with friends and contacts and
asked if they wanted to be involved. I warned them that they would
probably lose their money but every one of them expressed an interest
and most are still heavily involved.'' Months of delicate negotiations
followed and Hudson began to emerge as one of the strengths in the
consortium known as Ayrshire Community Airport Campaign (Acap). It was a
name which inspired community involvement and this remains a theme in
the airport's development.
Not just the community but the local authorities in the area stepped
behind Prestwick Airport offering politicial, moral and, ultimately,
financial support to the buyers.
In the end, though, it was the intervention of British Aerospace which
clinched the deal for Younger, Hudson and the rest of the backers. The
multinational company employs almost 2000 people at its Jetstream
Aircraft factory on the fringes of the airport and remains the biggest
single user of the runways through Jetstream proving flights and the
activities of the neighbouring BAe flying college.
There was support from Strathclyde Regional Council and Kyle and
Carrick District Council to the tune of over #1m and while figures were
at the time, and to a degree remain, confidential, it appears that the
BAe/Acap partnership paid little or no cash to BAA for the privilege of
taking over the airport.
Hudson and Younger must have been doing something right to attract the
support of hard-headed businessmen at BAe and to persuade similar types
at BAA to part with an asset which, while haemorrhaging money, was an
asset worth a lot more than was paid for it.
On April Fool's Day 1992 the ink was dry on all the agreements
involving BAe, PIK (the international call sign of Prestwick Airport)
and the local authorities and the airport was under new management.
More than two years on, with some if not all of the cynics at least
undergoing a rethink, things are starting to happen at the airport which
many said could not survive.
A SENIOR airline figure recently described Matthew Hudson, perhaps
understandably, as something of an enigma and expressed surprise that he
could so easily shrug off a lawsuit which continues to rumble on in the
courts.
Yet it is part of his persona -- this ability to surprise and even
shock the often staid Scottish business establishment. He likes to style
himself as the new kid on the block who has come along to shake up an
establishment which he views as too set in its ways and in need of
change. A kind of Richard Branson without the jumpers.
Along the way he has made enemies but has still managed to impress
senior figures in companies who have come along to help realise the
Prestwick dream. Significantly, also, he has won the hearts and minds of
politicians at local and national level.
Many would view his performance to date as a model of 1980s
Conservatism but he put Tory noses well out of joint in Kyle and Carrick
when he re-appointed Labour group leader and long-time Prestwick
champion Ian Welsh to the PIK board after the administration had sought
to replace him with an official from the legal department.
His recent performance at the Commons select committee discussing
important aviation agreements which affect passenger and cargo services
in and out of the UK incensed some senior figures in aviation but
prompted some MPs on the committee to single him out for praise and
promise action on many of the changes he seeks.
In a recent interview with The Herald he claimed little personal
responsibility for what has happened at Prestwick Airport yet still
managed in the course of a couple of hours to slip in the odd word or
three about how some of his vision has come true and of how he perceives
the future.
Instead he praises the ''crew'' -- the workforce which has now grown
to 160 despite some painful partings of the ways and a wage cut which he
intends to put right when profits improve in the coming months.
He says: ''There have been casualties along the way, people who did
not fit in with what we are trying to do here and that is too bad. Now
we have people here who, like me, want Prestwick to work and who are
working for a fine managing director in Paddy Healy.''
The appointment of Paddy Healy, former Commander of the nearby Navy
helicopter base of HMS Gannet, raised eyebrows in the aviation world. He
had given up promotion to a high level in the Navy to join PIK and it
appears has won over a workforce less used than others to the ways of HM
Armed Forces.
Hudson is unstinting in his praise of Healy and indeed plans to step
back in the coming months to leave the day-to-day running of the airport
to the Irishman. ''I am looking forward to spending more time with my
wife and children and working on that golf game again,'' he claims. We
shall wait and see.
The establishment figures he has been taking on most recently include
the Secretary of State for Defence Malcolm Rifkind who, through his MoD
legal advisers was prompted to gain an interdict against PIK to avoid
helicopters or equipment being impounded or interfered with as part of a
continuing dispute over rent and air navigation charges.
Hudson laughs heartily when he recalls the court case. ''The first we
knew was when a newspaper called us for reaction to this story. The
thought of Paddy and I wandering across to Gannet to slap holding orders
on helicopters was so crazy as to be laughable. Yet the dispute
continues because they are not willing to pay the going rate for their
rent or charges.'' There are also whispers that a similar row could
damage the happy relationship between PIK and British Aerospace whose
flying-college planes are the biggest users of the locally-run air
navigation services.
These services were taken over by PIK from the Civil Aviation
Authority -- another Hudson-led bucking of the old system -- when there
was failure to set new levels of charges which both parties found
acceptable.
A visit to Prestwick Airport this Fair Saturday, for argument's sake,
might be the most telling example yet of the Hudson effect. There will
be cargo planes which have circled the world to visit Prestwick,
holidaymakers will be heading on package flights to a host of
Mediterranean countries, a new rail station should be operating across
the road and improvements to the car parks and terminal are likely to be
completed. And, perhaps most importantly of all, a new daily Ryanair
scheduled flight will be taking off for Dublin.
By an interesting coincidence the major travel company operating as
part of the summer season is Direct Holidays, the firm started by
another thorn in the side of the travel establishment John Boyle. Could
this be the same John Boyle who a while with Air 2000 fought the court
case which led to a Government rethink on open skies for transatlantic
passengers? Hudson is not finished, though, and his current cause
celebre is open skies for freight. A laudable goal but one which may
well backfire as complete open skies would bring BAA and other airport
operators out from cover to woo international freight carriers into
Stansted and other destinations.
Better perhaps to ask the Government to stand up and be counted in its
aim to boost the Scottish economy and instead give operators the right
-- under so-called fifth freedoms -- to deliver and pick up cargo at
Prestwick and take it on into Europe and beyond.
Hudson called a news conference in February to unveil his vision of
the future -- a #25m multi-modal freight terminal to compete with the
best that the US or the Far East can boast.
Asked to sum up what he has done at Prestwick so far, Hudson pauses
only briefly. ''I came along and found an airport which had been
seriously assaulted if not nearly murdered.
''Since then with a bit of help I have chased out the town bullies and
can now leave the town in the safe hands of people who want to run it
peacefully and successfully.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article