Greater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area (or conurbation). It does not relate to municipal government boundaries and its territorial extent is defined by the General Register Office for Scotland, which determines settlements in Scotland for census and statistical purposes. Greater Glasgow had a population of 1,199,629 at the 2001 census making it the largest urban area in Scotland and the fifth largest in the United Kingdom.
In addition to being the name of this true conurbation, the term Greater Glasgow is informally (and confusingly) used to refer to the general area surrounding the City of Glasgow. Despite this, Greater Glasgow should not however be confused with the wider Glasgow City Region, which consists of Glasgow City Council and 7 surrounding local authorities in their entireties, thus including not only the Greater Glasgow urban settlement but also other settlements fully detached from it. This city-region is described as a metropolitan area by its own strategic planning authority, and is similar to the Glasgow metropolitan area identified by the European Union.
In 1973, the Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive was created to take over control of Glasgow Corporation Transport (which included the Glasgow Subway). Following local government reorganisation in 1975, control subsequently passed to Strathclyde Regional Council. The former PTE is now the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, within Transport Scotland.
The Glasgow conurbation is served by the largest urban rail network in the UK outside of London, with 186 rail stations in the Greater Glasgow area. The city is served by the only metro system in Scotland, the Glasgow Subway; and by two international airports, Glasgow Prestwick International Airport and Glasgow International Airport
Glasgow Prestwick Airport (Scottish Gaelic: Port-adhair Ghlaschu Phreastabhaig) (IATA: PIK, ICAO: EGPK) is an international airport serving the Greater Glasgow urban area, situated 1 NM (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) northeast of the town of Prestwick in South Ayrshire and 32 miles from the city centre of Glasgow.
In physical terms, Prestwick is Scotland's largest commercial airfield, although in passenger traffic terms it sits in fourth place after Edinburgh Airport, Glasgow International, and Aberdeen Airport all of which are operated by BAA. Passenger traffic peaked in 2007 following ten years of rapid growth, driven in part by the boom in no-frills airlines, especially from Ryanair who is Prestwick's biggest tenant and uses the airport as a hub. Since 2007 there has been a significant reduction in passenger traffic with 1.6 million passengers passing through the airport in 2010, an 8.5% annual reduction.
Scottish Aviation built a factory using the original terminal building and hangars at Prestwick, which produced such aircraft as the Prestwick Pioneers, and later the Jetstream and Bulldog. One part of the factory, the large white art-deco building which remains to this day, had in fact been the Palace of Engineering that had been built as part of the Empire Exhibition at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow in 1938. When Scottish Aviation merged with British Aerospace as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act, BAe maintained aircraft production at the site until 1998, primarily updates of the Jetstream line. Today BAE Systems retains a small facility at Prestwick for its BAE Systems Regional Aircraft division, with the adjoining main manufacturing site, producing components for Airbus and Boeing aircraft, having been sold to Spirit AeroSystems in January 2006.
