A group of Glasgow Airport taxi drivers have decided to give themselves a lift by losing some weight.
The cab-al of six drivers, Arshad Mahmood, 66, Stephen Pillar, 59, George Thompson, 55, Paul McDonagh, 63, and brothers Stephen and Brian McInally, 55 and 60, decided following the festive period that it was time to lose their spare tyres and get on the health kick.
The pandemic has severely impacted air travel with Glasgow Airport remaining open to support a small number of lifeline services during the current lockdown. As a result, there hasn’t been much work for the airport’s taxi drivers.
Rather than just sit in their cars at the rank, the guys decided to use their downtime to get fit and healthy and to date have lost a combined weight of more than six nearly 90lbs.
Arshad said: “The pandemic has had a significant impact of our work and things are quiet at the moment. We’re all mates and were talking one day about it.
“You hear of lots of people putting on a bit of weight during the lockdown, particularly during the winter months. Being a taxi driver, you’re in your car most of the day, so that doesn’t help either.
“We decided we should do something about it while we’re so quiet and decided to get leaner and healthier. It’s better to do it as a group as we all keep each other going.”
Arshad and the guys each try to get between 20,000 and 30,000 steps each day and make healthier food choices as part of their regime.
“They good thing about working at the airport is there’s plenty of spaces to get your steps,” Arshad added, who has lost over two stone so far. “When the weather’s poor we can walk around the terminal and forecourt. A couple of the guys even make use of the stairs in the multi-storey car park.
“When the weather’s better you can go long walks via the cycling and footpaths along the airport’s perimeter fence. There’s a great walk on the western part of the airport that takes in Paisley Moss Nature Reserve and you if you’re luck you’ll see an aircraft taking off or landing.
“The main priority for us all was to get fit and to put our quiet time to good use. I’m two stone down, but I want to lose three and a half stone so I’m fit and ready for when things start to take off again.”