Cardiff Airport

[Feedback]

Re: Cardiff Airport

Ryanair are doing four routes from Cardiff at the moment, think it's Malaga, Alicante, Faro and Dublin. Nothing big or even close to Bristol, but there was a time when Ryanair were saying that they wouldn't deal with Cardiff as the taxes were way too high for landing, taking off etc. Small steps and all that. We need an Airport in this country. Hopefully it can thrive over the next few years or so.

We need a low cost operator to be based at the airport giving the masses plenty of flights to plenty of locations.

I wanted to fly to Dublin and I could have flown from Cardiff but it was around midnight. I went for the more expensive option in Bristol as it was at a sensible time. getting the routes is one thing, making them sustainable is another

[Feedback]

Re: Cardiff Airport

Good one. If O leary had his way, punters would be shot out from cannon gun onto the plane with an extra charge of £20 for the privilege.

[Tuerto]

Re: Cardiff Airport

We need a low cost operator to be based at the airport giving the masses plenty of flights to plenty of locations.

I wanted to fly to Dublin and I could have flown from Cardiff but it was around midnight. I went for the more expensive option in Bristol as it was at a sensible time. getting the routes is one thing, making them sustainable is another

We do need a low cost to commit to Cardiff. Wizz were involved for a bit just after covid? and they scrapped it, probably weren't getting the returns they'd hoped for. I wonder if Bristol have a bit of a hold over Easyjet, Ryanair, in terms of them committing to Cardiff, or the taxes and fees at Cardiff are just to high for them. It would be interesting to know why Cardiff can't get one of those to go all in.

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Re: Cardiff Airport

We do need a low cost to commit to Cardiff. Wizz were involved for a bit just after covid? and they scrapped it, probably weren't getting the returns they'd hoped for. I wonder if Bristol have a bit of a hold over Easyjet, Ryanair, in terms of them committing to Cardiff, or the taxes and fees at Cardiff are just to high for them. It would be interesting to know why Cardiff can't get one of those to go all in.

Ryanair approached Cardiff before Bristol but were turned down - they tried to negotiate fee reductions in light of all the concession business that would come the airport's way, but said F.off. All they had to do was look at what the Ryanair affect had brought to other regional airports. Bristol airport was deliberately located in an area prone to fog as it's initial purpose was RAF training in WW2. As for whether the Welshie Govt. can ever make a success of it, I seriously doubt it. I frequently fly to the Canaries from there and 2x in the last 3 years we've landed around 7pm, been the only plane parked up - right up to the terminal - and the luggage took 45 minutes to travel 40yds to the carousel ! Plus of course the ubiquitous gathering of hi-viz personnel clutching clip boards. It's got a long way to go..

[Rjk]

Re: Cardiff Airport

if it wasn't for the Welsh government buying the airport it would have long since folded.

back in 2003 Cardiff airport had just shy of 2 million passengers annually.
Bristol airport had almost 4 million passengers.

by 2013 Cardiff had halved to 1 million passengers at a time of growth in the industry. the owners simply didn't want to invest in the airport at all and were happy to let ot fail they bought it as part of a deal that gave them 2 other airports (I think possibly Luton and Belfast but I can't remember) and preferred to invest in those.

So in 2013 the Welsh Government stepped in and immediately began rising numbers again. It would have been over 2 million passengers again by now if it was t for COVID which hit at the worst possible time, and hit smaller airports disproportionately hard.

Had the Welsh government not owned it then if it wasn't closed already COVID would definitely have finished it off.

Now we're basically back to square one , about a million passengers per year. The government has shown it can achieve growth from this position before, and is one of the fastest growing in the country (but possibly because it was one of the worst affected by COVID).

I don't think th government purchase can be seen as anything other than a big success when you consider the likely scenario if they didn't buy it.

Airports run on an economies of scale model. the more passengers the more flights and overheads are spread more thinly so flights can be cheaper, which leads to more passengers etc.
Bristol now has over 10m passengers, so are able to offer much more favourable terms, but if Cardiff airport continues to recover then it can still be a success.

when more and more passengers are growing it then it also makes other infrastructure spending much more easy to justify I. e. better public transport links etc