Dale speaks to transport correspondent Alastair Dalton following his trip to see the upgrade plans for Glasgow Airport
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00:00Hello, and welcome to today's video bulletin for the Scotsman.
00:04I know it's Dale Miller.
00:05I'm Deputy Editor for the Scotsman, and I'm joined by our transport correspondent, Alistair Dalton.
00:11We will talk shortly about the latest on the transport news scene because there is plenty happening.
00:18But firstly, the front page of today's Scotsman.
00:21And we let on a single-sex toilet order for schools.
00:25So this is basically coming out of the Supreme Court verdict last week, but it will be a further push to make sure that schools provide single-sex or same-sex toilets.
00:41There has been a lot of debate about this.
00:43The government has been reviewing its guidance.
00:46You can read that story at scotsman.com currently.
00:50And I just want to draw your attention to one of the puffs in the top right corner, which is about Glasgow Airport, which Alistair announced details of a major transformation yesterday.
01:03You were at the airport.
01:05You spoke to the new chief who's taken over and had some interesting things to say about just what they've got planned for Glasgow.
01:15Can you talk us through?
01:16Yeah, so Glasgow Airport, along with Aberdeen and Southampton, have been taken over by a new company at the turn of the year.
01:24They're pretty much on the back foot against Edinburgh, which is now by far the busiest airport in Scotland.
01:32Historically, Glasgow was Scotland's busiest airport until 2007.
01:39It's now eclipsed by Edinburgh.
01:42There's almost twice as many passengers flying from Edinburgh than Glasgow.
01:47So the new owners are keen to get back into the game.
01:51They've seen so many routes and flights switch to the east.
01:57They brought forward significant upgrading plans for the terminal by about five years.
02:03They're going to start later this year and finish in about two years' time to expand the airside part of the terminal that passed security.
02:11There's more space for shops and places to eat and the place where you wait for to board along the piers.
02:19They say that some of that hasn't been upgraded for 30 years.
02:22They also want to make changes so airlines can turn around their planes much more quickly.
02:30I think low-cost airlines like to spend as little time as possible on the ground and then fly on to the next destination.
02:37But the acid test is whether this will be enough to attract airlines to come back to Glasgow.
02:42They recognise that some have moved to almost lock, stock and barrel to the east.
02:47Ryanair, for instance, there's almost 70 routes that that airline provides from Edinburgh, just seven from Glasgow.
02:58Virgin Atlantic ran a successful service between Glasgow and Orlando.
03:02That's now moved east as well.
03:05There's more than just people fly to cities, not to airports, as both airports will tell you.
03:12So you have to see whether that will be enough to attract more people back.
03:16It is an interesting situational position we've reached, Alistair, in this country, where Glasgow, clearly the biggest city population-wise, but it doesn't have the busiest airport by some distance at the moment.
03:29We do realise that Edinburgh is a drawcard for international tourists, though, for the castle, the festival, everything else, plus there's a gateway to some of the rest of Scotland.
03:40But investment in our airports, you could argue, is only a good thing.
03:46You were also writing about Donald Trump, who's in the news daily.
03:51We do know he's due to come to the UK for a state visit later this year.
03:55But there was talk about him meeting King Charles at Balmoral, and you've reported on some planning that's happening around that.
04:03Yeah, perhaps we can come on to Donald Trump in a minute, but I just wanted to make one other point about the airport situation, that Edinburgh does seem to hold all the cars much bigger.
04:14It's in a better position in central Scotland.
04:16It's better linked by transport.
04:18But I think there's a sign the Scottish Government are keen that both airports prosper.
04:24Yesterday's announcement, the Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes was there, and she was reckoning the airport could be complimentary, so it's not all over for Glasgow.
04:34But yes, as far as Donald Trump is concerned, there's a lot of speculation around whether he'll be coming to Scotland as part of his planned state visits to the UK.
04:44A lot of details yet to be confirmed.
04:48We don't even know exactly when it's going to be.
04:50It's suggested it'll be September.
04:52But we've spoken to various sources who reckon that Donald Trump will come to Scotland, to the northeast, to coincide with the opening of his new 18-hole golf course that's on the many estates north of Aberdeen,
05:08although the running of his businesses has passed to members of his family.
05:12The King has also invited Donald Trump to Balmoral.
05:17We don't know if that's been confirmed yet.
05:21And interestingly, Donald Trump didn't talk about Scotland when he was mentioning his forthcoming visit last week, but maybe that's a protocol thing.
05:31So what we're hearing is that if the flight does go ahead, Air Force One of the presidential jumbo jet will arrive somewhere like Prestwick, or maybe down south,
05:46and the president will be transferred by Marine One, the presidential helicopter, to Aberdeen for his tour of the northeast.
05:54So we're trying to gather more information.
05:58Obviously, Donald Trump in the headlines as well today for other reasons.
06:05We all know what happened in that White House meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky a number of weeks ago,
06:12and Trump's been scathing of the Ukrainian leader and his part or not in the ongoing Ukrainian peace talks and whether Russia ends up with parts of Crimea at the end of the day as part of this process.
06:27You can read all the stories we've talked about there at scotsman.com.
06:31Please follow us on all social media channels, including Blue Sky, which we're on as well, and go out and pick up a copy of the paper tomorrow.
06:39You'll have a full wrap from First Minister's questions today and everything else happening here in Scotland and abroad.