Can Cardiff Airport take flight?

Cardiff is a great airport and has a huge choice of flights connecting Wales to the world and the Gov was absolutely right to buy it. Who needs Heathrow? Sadly, like the proposed M4 road it is being used as a political tool to gain votes.

"Recovery to pre-Covid passenger levels will not be easy. Many airports are 30% down and London City Airport worse than that. Cardiff airport’s profitability has similarly suffered". The truth is we (as in the uk and welsh govts) scared people too well during the pandemic. If you spend a year telling people not to use airports, trains and buses - backed up by legal threats - then dont be surprised if the effects of those strictures on the public psyche stay around for far longer than the pandemic itself (and passenger numbers continue to lag behind pre pandemic levels in all 3 of those transport categories). A lesson perhaps to our govts at westminster and cardiff on what not to do god forbid we are unfortunate enough to be struck by another such pandemic.

It was reported in November that the Canadians are trying to sell Bristol. Presumably if there are no decent offers they can look at alternative uses for the land, in a region with the most expensive housing outside London, to deliver the return on investment their pensioners rightly demand.

The Welsh Labour Government should ask NO DEMAND the London Labour Government that Wales be treated fairly i suppose that would be a NO Tory and Labour in London have done sod all for Wales except TAKE TAKE never give we should have a level playing field where Cardiff can compete mainly with Bristol by London taking the tax Cardiff have to charge both Parties have said it will Damage Bristol but its alright to damage Cardiff where are these Labour M P,s and Labour A Ms that are supposed to represent the interests of Wales

The airport needs much better road and rail connections to Cardiff and the UK if it is to develop and prosper. A metro link or LRT to Cardiff would be a start.

Seeing the Welsh Conservatives were quite content for Wales to be only the second country on this planet not to have an International Airport you can say Welsh Labour in their 26 years in government purchase Cardiff International Airport was a positive step for Wales. And I know the amount the initially £52 spent to buy the facility off its Spanish owners was contentious, especially the continuous financial support, but the Welsh Conservatives criticised money spent buying Cardiff and money spent upgrading facilities and attracting new carriers but we're happy to see public money spent to bail out the failing Southern Railway to the tune of £150 million per annum before it was taken back under their control when renationalised a tad hypocritical. Also, when the Welsh Government requested the power over Air Tax Duty afforded to both Scotland & Northern Ireland the English Conservatives aided & abetted by the Welsh Office flatley refused its devolution stating it was against EU state subsidy and would also give an unfair advantage over Bristol Air Port after they complained. A bloody regional hub dictating to a country makes my blood boil! And those against Wales having control of ATD forget that Bristol, as highlighted, is merely a regional airport, one of many, and England has numerous International airports thought the country , where Cardiff is Wales one only international airport. But let's wallpaper over this fact. Ponder this question. Seeing rail electrification went as far as Bristol not Cardiff ( or Swansea) promised in the Tory manifesto that was scrapped, how is it that Wales having control over it's Air Tax Duty is still deemed an advantage over Bristol when they have rail electrification. And seeing Britain (and Wales) officially left the European Union in January 2020, any subsidies given would not be against any EU state rules not being a member state anymore. With that said. Seeing Welsh Labour proclaimed like a cat that had the cream how a Welsh Labour government in Cardiff and a UK Labour Government at Westminster would work together and it would be more favourable to devolution, why then has those powers requested over the years by Welsh Labour been addressed? No return of our Brexit powers taken by Boris Johnson's idocracy. No power over Air Tax Duty. Zero movement on Policing , Criminal & Youth Justice, and our EU Structural Funding now controlled by Whitehall promised in full were partially retained by UK Labour when promised in full. Another blatant lie by Labour. We didn't have a change of government last May. It was merely a continuity. Soon it will be Saint David's Day/Dydd Dewi Sant on March 1st. Even though there's been numerous requests over the years and great public appetite for a bank holiday , we are still cynically denied the power to officially celebrate our patron saint where again Scotland & NI were devolved the power. As usual Wales being England's first trophy nation is denied the simplest of rights taken for granted by most, if not all, democratic countries. And If we don't all stand up and fight as a people will never be heard and forever be a forgotten backwater on the Western Fringe of England. That's how they want to see us. I and other Welsh Nationalists want better for our country. And if you truly care about Wales and its future. So should you too!

You will never have a successful International airport with B class type road access, not my words but the Head of BMI before they pulled out. A railway station that doesn't even serve the terminal building. BMI,Wizz Air,Swiss Air and Air France said goodbye to the airport. The Icelandic carrier Play only used it for the Nations League Football tournament. Qatar returned to every UK airport post pandemic except Cardiff. The only positive I can think of was Air Lingus allowing pre USA immigration checks at Dublin airport and even this has disappeared.

TfW need to deliver the promised 30 minute service on the VoG line. Services also need to start earlier so they can be used to reach the 6am flights.

An excellent article. The debate needs to focus on the whole of Wales and be aligned with the Senedds green vision. Airbus Uk's Hawarden Airport near Wrexham would be more profitable if it allowed passenger flights to an airline such as Tui; plus then people who need flights from North Wales and Chester / Cheshire would save time and carbon travelling that if they had flown from Liverpool or Manchester Airports. March 2006 boeing moved its' cargo hub from Copenhagen to Reykjavik to be better located for cargo between Europe and their North American factories. In 1990s i worked on the development team of Star Alliance with Air Canada; they follow the same strategy today of always launching new routes to future transport hubs - so lets designate Cardiff and Hawarden airports to operate car-free from 1 January 2026 and merge their management teams with Transport for Wales. For Heathrow to grow it would benefit from Air Canadas cargo hub closing, which would be better placed in Cardiff Airport as it is on the railway network; then UK can follow https://www.ertms.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/1.-ERTMS-from-trucks-to-trains-Final.pdf trucks to trains. Star Alliance would then launch flights to their hubs. This perhaps should be the priority above Cardiff Metro; plus add four trains per hour from the airport west to Swansea and east to Hereford so more businesses in those regions can gain easy access to the airport. In 1999 Mirabel Airport, Canada was empty and i was part of the strategy team to develop it into the worlds third largest aerospace airport https://www.admtl.com/en-CA/corporate/commercial-partnerships/ymx-overview their website is far more focused than Cardiff Airports on growing their economy. Cardiff Airport could also be part owned by a Canadian consortium if it brings flights to Canada and connections to USA.

Poor access by road and a smaller catchment area could be the reason for Bristol airport doing better than Cardiff airport (though Bristol is no easier to get to than Cardiff and the catchment areas are not really that much different). However, the main reason is Cardiff airport is dearer to fly from than Bristol, and this is due to the tax subsidies Bristol gets for being closer to the London airports. This means many from South Wales also oft to fly from Bristol rather than Cardiff. Cardiff is a great airport but it fights an uphill battle from the start - the playing field is just not level.

“Wales must have an international airport”. Why? Why when virtually no-one north of Merthyr would use it (Manchester and Birmingham alternatives)? Why when virtually everyone down South uses Bristol far more? Why when it’s fundamentally in the wrong place for an international airport transport links notwithstanding?

A taxi to the city centre from the airport cost me £40 a couple of weeks ago (the airport rail shuttle bus had not arrived). A bus from Bristol Airport to Cardiff centre cost me £15 a few weeks earlier. Cardiff airport is always my first choice despite knowing I'll be paying more to get to and from. Incidentally I tried to hire a car for next month but the car hire closes at six and the flight arrives at seven thirty. I live in hope that the bus will arrive this time.

Cardiff airport's biggest problem is that it is owned by an organisation that is ideologically opposed to increased use of fossil fuels. Sustainable aviation fuel is still at least a decade away from being available in meaningful quantities, hence the Welsh Government can't significantly increase flights from Cardiff without contradicting its net zero ambitions.

I notice that the people who don't support Cardiff Airport are also those who think that we in Wales are too poor and too pathetic to make our own decisions and be able to make meaningful connections to the big bag world, and probably think that Wales would be better off being part of England. First all each of the four UK nations have their own national tourist boards, (similar to FIFA where home nations are independent) and are individually responsible for promoting their countries around the world. Before the pandemic I had conducted surveys with travel agencies and tour operators in the US and Canada, and they all told me that England, Scotland and Ireland were all popular destinations, yet Wales is disadvantaged because it does not have direct flights. So yes Wales does need an airport. Remember Cardiff Airport can be used by not just the people of South Wales but also tourists coming to Wales, who will come here, spend their money and boosting local economies. What needs to happen is for transportation and infrastructure projects to be fully devolved, this includes Air Passenger Duty. We cannot be denied these powers simply because of HS2 or Bristol Airport, those are English concerns. Allow us to develop a better rail infrastructure between north and south as well as boosting Cardiff Airport, allow us to compete individually as a tourist destination We are no different to any other country of our size, look at Luxembourg. They are less than 700,000 in population yet they even have their own airline: Luxair, so why can't Wales do the same? The reason why Air Wales in the 2000s failed was because they were a point-to-point airline, the same with the Cardiff-Anglesey link. Point-to-point does not allow passengers to make through connections, where you are able to check-in from your point of origin to your final destination on one itinerary, having your luggage checked through as well. I see no reason why a Welsh airline could not be established with a Cardiff hub, linking flights to Holyhead and Hawarden in the north and to major hubs on the continent - Paris CDG, Frankfurt, Madrid, Brussels, Milan etc, Form interline agreements with major airlines at their corresponding hubs making it easier to connect onto their final destination.

So Professor Stuart Cole, "CBE. Emeritus Professor of Transport (Economics and Policy), Prifysgol de Cymru / University of South Wales" has participated in at least THREE different "studies" on Cardiff Airport - but seems to be uncertain about how much was paid for the airport by the Welsh Labour Government. .....Was it "£52 million"?. (see first paragraph) or was it "£67.9 million"? (the price quoted in his paragraph on the "Financial Position"). ...And, pardon me for asking, but how much did he get paid from the public purse for his "advice" - given that none of the projects he advised upon were "followed up" by the Welsh Labour Government? Perhaps it should also be pointed out that what he calls "RAF Roose" is spelled "RAF Rhoose".

This is a TRUE PICTURE of this useless Welsh government. They buy on a whim but have no idea what to do. They install their own Director/managers who may have tried to enlarge the business but their hands are tied by ministers in Senedd. We get the same rhetoric everytime this comes up from the Welsh government. Nothing has changed , no road route no rail route , 20mph to get there it’s all a joke as a taxpayer I’ve protested many times if they sell is how will people get there ?? That’s why no one wants it