Cardiff Airport

[pomeroy]

Wales is the only devolved Country in the UK where Airport Passenger Duty is not within its powers to control. It was not allowed by Westminster because its findings concluded that Bristol Airport would be adversely affected by the competition afforded by Cardiff Airport. This result after continuous lobbying by West Country Tory MPs such as Rees Mogg. Northern Ireland and Scotland have these devolved powers.
Apart from this Cardiff Airport has significant advantages over Bristol in that it has a far longer runway which can take the biggest jets in service. Bristol is unable to extend its runway due to topography. Moreover because of its low lying position Bristol is prone to fog and mist. The prospects for increasing especially cargo traffic seem very favourable notwithstanding long haul passenger traffic.
Let’s hope the new government in Cardiff is not so pusillanimous in its dealings with Westminster as the previous ones.

[splott parker]

Bristol airport is a right pain in the arse, it has more traffic than it can handle in my opinion. It’s a marathon walk to boarding gates, no travelators (moving walkways), bit daft after all what’s been spent on it. Same coming home, bloody chaos if a few flights are in at the same time. Getting there is a lottery, a huge sigh of relief if you make it through the Bryn Glas tunnels (not the airport’s fault admittedly but it’s still part of the journey), the CAZ thing and the worst thing is driving back from a late flight and there’s bollards closing the motorway approach after the Portway. Fur coat and no knickers. Don’t know the answer but Cardiff has to be encouraged & used.

[delmbox]

Cardiff Airport officially determined by the CAA to be the second fastest growing airport in the UK!

Hell yeah! Well done Mark

[Chris Pontprennau Blues]

Don't get me started, Drakeford is a complete fing clown and incompetent c**t

[Tuerto]

Don't get me started, Drakeford is a complete fing clown and incompetent c**t

He's the best thing to ever happen to this Country, Better than Tom Jones, May Boyce and even Shaky.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

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.

Do they reach the plane's door?

[Tuerto]

Do they reach the plane's door?

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.

[Hot Shot Hamish.]

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.

Coming back from Dublin on Ryan Air about 20 years ago we were put on the wrong flight (Bournemouth). When they realised their mistake they asked probably a dozen in total to alight the aircraft (it’s ok we hadn’t taken off🤣). As I was stepping off the air hostess asked me what was happening. I said we’d been told to leave the plane. In those couple of seconds conversation though they’d taken the stairs away. Fair play the air hostess just managed to grab my shirt collar as I stepped out onto nothing! If she hadn’t I’d have been a right mess on the tarmac. But my missus had made it onto the stairs, and it was so strange to see her holding on tight as the stairs were driven back to the terminal!! When we complained by letter to Ryan Air, their response was “it could never have happened “!!

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Coming back from Dublin on Ryan Air about 20 years ago we were put on the wrong flight (Bournemouth). When they realised their mistake they asked probably a dozen in total to alight the aircraft (it’s ok we hadn’t taken off🤣). As I was stepping off the air hostess asked me what was happening. I said we’d been told to leave the plane. In those couple of seconds conversation though they’d taken the stairs away. Fair play the air hostess just managed to grab my shirt collar as I stepped out onto nothing! If she hadn’t I’d have been a right mess on the tarmac. But my missus had made it onto the stairs, and it was so strange to see her holding on tight as the stairs were driven back to the terminal!! When we complained by letter to Ryan Air, their response was “it could never have happened “!!

Ryanair should have taken steps to prevent that.

[lincoln blue]

Don't get me started, Drakeford is a complete fing clown and incompetent c**t

Other than that he's a great guy!

[G rangetown Blue]

He's the best thing to ever happen to this Country, Better than Tom Jones, May Boyce and even Shaky.

He actually spoke a lot of sense, but he just looked, and sounded, a bit weird for ‘some’.

[North Cardiff Blue]

He actually spoke a lot of sense, but he just looked, and sounded, a bit weird for ‘some’.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cwyqn1r9qnro

There We Are Then

[Hilts]

The Sir Mark Drakeford Airport. When the great man gets his reward lets name the Airport after him. Fully deserved.

[tforturton]

He actually spoke a lot of sense, but he just looked, and sounded, a bit weird for ‘some’.

No, he never did. Not once.

[tforturton]

I’ve been planning a trip, which will mean long distance flights. I thought I’d make my life easier, by flying from Cardiff to Amsterdam, and transferring on from there. But it works out almost £500 more expensive to go via Cardiff/Amsterdam, than via Heathrow. Why is that? You’d think they would be trying to move flights away from Heathrow.

[North Cardiff Blue]

The Sir Mark Drakeford Airport. When the great man gets his reward lets name the Airport after him. Fully deserved.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cwyqn1r9qnro

[delmbox]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cwyqn1r9qnro

not sure why you keep posting this, it just looks like anybody's 70 year old grandad dancing, pop a video of you dancing up and show us how it's done!

[North Cardiff Blue]

not sure why you keep posting this, it just looks like anybody's 70 year old grandad dancing, pop a video of you dancing up and show us how it's done!

You must have had a fanny for a Grampy then, and he was the First Minister, well that was the title.

[G rangetown Blue]

No, he never did. Not once.

His refusal to leave the Union was his Achilles heel. Lots of Labour voters ideally would have voted Plaid, but used to be afraid of splitting the vote in Wales, and letting the Tories in…not any more!

[delmbox]

You must have had a fanny for a Grampy then, and he was the First Minister, well that was the title.

Thought you'd bottle it, all mouth no trousers you are

[Feedback]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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