The pandemic did not stop people flying to and from Prestwick, with a total of 43,991 passengers using the airport between April and November last year.

The data from the Civil Aviation Authority shows that the Spanish mainland was the most common choice of destination, accounting for 50 per cent of the total (21,800 passengers).

Italy accounted for 8,500 and the Canary Islands 8,300. These figures are well short of the number of arrivals and departures recorded at the airport in 2019, where 549,000 passenger journeys started or ended at Prestwick.

Up until recently the UK Government had a ‘travel corridor’ arrangement in place, meaning some countries could still be flown in and out of.

This policy was reversed earlier this month, when Boris Johnson announced the closing of all travel corridors and that all arrivals would have to have had a confirmed negative test result before flying.

Some have questioned why they weren’t shut sooner.

Labour’s shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said: “The Government’s dither and delay in taking action saw vital opportunities to help curb the spread of the virus missed.”