THIS week brought mixed fortunes for two of Scotland's major airports.

Firstly, the saga over Glasgow's failed rail link project appears to rumble on, with allegations and counter allegations regarding the sell-off of land which had been acquired to facilitate the development.

This essential piece of transport infrastructure would have formed one of the key legacy components of the forthcoming Commonwealth Games. Its abandonment continues to cause political tension.

Those tensions were doubtless heightened this week, with the announcement that the Edinburgh tram and airport rail link were being tested with real trains and are now on target to start running in earnest, next summer.

The irony of the moment will not be lost upon those who will be reflecting on the arrival of an Edinburgh rail link, at the same time that Glasgow is gearing up to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Commonwealth Games... minus its own vital lifeline link from the airport.

And then we also learned this week that Prestwick Airport far from being 'pure dead brilliant' is mostly just dead!

The dearth of airlines flying from what was once Scotland's international airport speaks for itself. Now only one carrier, Ryanair, uses the Ayrshire hub.

The owners of Prestwick - or Glasgow Prestwick as they would rather it be known - estimate total annual losses of almost £7 million per year.

The Scottish Government announced this week that they were making the decision to take Prestwick Airport into public ownership, a decision with which I whole-heartedly agree.

Prestwick Airport employs some 300 staff with a further 1400 jobs indirectly linked to the airport's activities.

In addition, a further 3000 aerospace jobs are provided across a region within which the airport serves as a central hub.

It would have been unforgivable to allow the current owners to close the airport, with the consequential job losses that would have followed.

However, this airport has some problems - not least its location some 30 miles from Glasgow city centre.

It is also fishing in the same pond as Glasgow Airport which, although not actually in Glasgow, but Renfrewshire, is still only eight miles from the city centre.

Prestwick benefits from its direct rail link and its coastal position - however it is simply too far away from most of its customer base to be considered a long term, viable alternative to its bigger neighbour.

Prestwick has a solid freight and cargo base but that is unlikely to be sufficient to turn round its fortunes.

It is questionable whether the population of west Central Scotland is large enough to sustain the operation of two major airports.

Whilst welcoming Prestwick into the arms of public ownership, I would question both the viability of its business model and its potential to navigate its way out of its current financial turbulence.

Fasten your seatbelts, we may hit some turbulence...

WEDNESDAY saw the start of the Queen's Baton Relay for Glasgow 2014. Buckingham Palace looked splendid in the autumn sunshine as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh waved off the baton on its travels.

The events were screened live on both terrestrial and satellite news channels.

What a great advert for Glasgow and for Scotland.

Over the next 280 days the baton, carrying a message from the Queen, will be relayed throughout 70 nations.

At the end of its journey, the message it carries, will be read by Her Majesty at the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games on July 23, 2014.

To see Sir Chris Hoy carry the baton into Buckingham Palace and legendary sprinter Allan Wells carry it away down The Mall was quite a sight. I look forward to its return to the sunshine of a Glasgow summer.

BIG well done to Professor Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University on being awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

As a young lecturer at the university in 1964, Peter predicted the existence of a tiny particle or "God" particle which now carries his name, the Higgs boson.

It was almost 50 years from publication of his theory, to it being proven as a fact. It was most certainly worth the wait.

When the Nobel prize award was announced, the self-effacing Mr Higgs was off walking in the Highlands and had taken the precaution of leaving behind his mobile phone.

The 84-year-old has never enjoyed being in the limelight and I for one think - good for him.

The late great Lord Kelvin once said: "In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting".

Perhaps this weekend I'll ask my barber to explain the nuances of this discovery to me, as he seems to know something about everything in the world... he'll probably say something like, "Well it's not rocket science, is it?" But of course... it is!