With the Champions league about to get to the quarter final stage i decided to look at the teams who have qualified and potential airlines who could airlift their fans to CWL or BRS to watch the final in June. This part 1 as only 4 teams have qualified for the quarter finals.
1. Barcelona. Vueling will be a definite as they already operate BCN to CWL so there could be a couple of extra flights for that weekend. Ryanair and Easyjet may just increase frequencies on there own Barcelona services to BRS but could we get a FR BCN service? Another possibility could be Norwegian as they do have a base both long and short haul at BCN. Also Air Europa do have a BCN base so they may well be a possibilty to.
2. Real Madrid. Iberia Express and even Iberia mainline will be a definite as they will operate to CWL. Air Europa is another one as MAD is there main base. Evelop Airlines who are a charter airline based at MAD may well operate as well maybe on behalf of another airline. Ryanair and Norwegian are also possible with FR a possible more for BRS than CWL. Another charter airline which could be possible is Wamos Air. Would be great to see there 747s and A330s at CWL.
3. Bayern Munich. As Flybe operate regular Munich flights then this will definitely benefit them and i'm wondering if BMI Regional at BRS might put the Cityjet Sukhoi's on their MUC flights as well. Air Berlin would be a surprise but they could be operating for Eurowings and we may well see Eurowings themselves. Germania may well turn up operating a charter for someone else possibly. Hopefully we'll also get to see Lufthansa as well even if it's Lufthansa regional. Niki and TUIfly are also possibilities to bring Bayern fans to CWL or BRS.
4. Borussia Dortmund. Dortmund Airport itself isn't very big and the main contenders from there would be Eurowings and Germania. The closest international airport is Dusseldorf so strong possibilities of Air Berlin as it is a big base for them. Eurowings also has a big base at DUS, for the spotters it would be great to see the Eurowings Borussia Dortmund liveried aircraft bringing in fans or the team themselves. Niki, Norwegian and TUIFly could also be possible airlines that could fly into CWL or BRS. I'm also wondering if for that weekend Flybe to could upgrade DUS to an E195 or maybe run some extra DUS flights over the weekend so they could benefit from an event this big.
Continued on 19/3/2017
5. Atletico Madrid. Essentially same as Real Madrid further up in the post.
6. Leicester City. Not really beneficial to CWL as there fans would mostly arrive by coach though maybe an airline like Flybe, Cello or CityJet might put on some charters from EMA i can't see any other airlines operating flights.
7. Monaco. Monaco itself doesn't have an airport. The closest one would be Nice Cote d'Azur. Easyjet may add some extra flights to BRS and CWL could see some HOP! or Air France flights and possibly Volotea charters but they won't be many as Monaco don't have many fans.
8. Juventus. Turin would be mostly charters to CWL as there is no scheduled service to CWL. Potential airlines to look out for would be Blue Air who have a base there and Alitalia which Turin is a focus city for also a possiblity could be Meridiana who do operate charter flights.
The worst final for CWL fans would be Leicester City and Monaco the best by would probably be Real Madrid v Barcelona considering the hype around El Clasico.
Real/Barcelona v Bayern Munich would be a good final for Wales itself as it would give good exposure to Germany for Wales as a tourist destination and Flybe CWLs main airline would benefit from it. Either it will be an amasing weekend in which Wales will get exposure to the world it has never seen before.
