Publicly owned Prestwick Airport has posted a £4 million operating loss.

The Ayrshire hub, which was bought by the Scottish Government in 2013, saw a 15 per cent improvement in 2016/17 on the previous financial year’s accounts which saw it £4.7m in the red.

The airport is run on behalf of the government by a holding company, TS Prestwick Holdco Ltd, which saw annual turnover had risen from £11.5m to £13.6m in the last financial year.

This was due mainly to better revenues from military, cargo and private flights activity, its accounts stated.

Aircraft movements increased by 8.2 per cent to 25,891 with military activity continuing to rise and contributing to an improving financial performance. Improved passenger numbers were also reported during this period with 678,886 people using the airport in the year to 31 March 2017 – an increase of eight per cent on the previous year.

The airport’s chairman, Andrew Miller, said: “Financial performance has started to improve with 2016/17 seeing progress and visible upturns across the business.”

Mr Miller added the airport remained a “strategic asset for Scotland. The airport was uniquely placed to offer a wide variety of services, from long-haul air cargo to emergency landings, and cited the potential for space flight, he added.

Mr Miller said the objective remained to return the airport to private ownership, but said there was ‘still a significant amount of work to do’ to achieve this.