Cardiff: Loganair Flights, New Routes & Schedule Updates

[geoff]

You are right Stan, a close family friend had to visit Edinburgh some weeks ago, the evening Sunday flight was ideal for him, but for some reason the Monday return after his business meeting was not operating, although he could have used BRS for the return flight, his car would have been parked at CWL, so he used BRS both ways. The price from CWL was a lot more than that from BRS, but that was of no consequence as it was covered by his firm.

 

[Nuffsaid]

No less than two flights a day between CWL - EDI will make the route appealing to business travellers and tourists, otherwise it will continue in its downward trend in numbers as it is now. GLA could probably support five flights a week and a few flights to JER. Possibly even Newcastle which used to do well.

 

[Samdorob]

Nothing too exciting but Loganair have added an extra flight on the Friday and Sunday for the Six nations game against Scotland. That’s the 7th and 9th of March.

 

[Jerry]

It's 5 weekly April, May, September and October. 4 weekly June, July and most of August.
The amount of flights don't exactly go with the rhetoric.

To expand on this a bit looking at the flight times it looks like in on Fridays and Sundays the route will be operated by the ATR 72 other days Embraer 145.
Winter is now onsale up to early February. The route will be 6 weekly (no Saturday flights) in November and December and 4 weekly in January and February with flights on Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday. Same aircraft types on the same days as the summer.

 

[Jerry]

I know it's Southampton but if Loganair are expanding fingers crossed Cardiff might see something.

Southampton: Loganair opens base a creates job opportunities

Loganair opens a new base in Southampton that it says will create new local job opportunities.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Samdorob]

I know it's Southampton but if Loganair are expanding fingers crossed Cardiff might see something.

Southampton: Loganair opens base a creates job opportunities

Loganair opens a new base in Southampton that it says will create new local job opportunities.

www.bbc.co.uk

On the one hand it would be great, but I’m sceptical. It would be nice to get EDI back up to 6 times a week year round.

 

[Jerry]

On the one hand it would be great, but I’m sceptical. It would be nice to get EDI back up to 6 times a week year round.

I don’t see the airport having any other options if they want routes like Jersey Cork Glasgow and Paris to return.
Even Edinburgh being daily would be good.

 

[Jerry]

In 2019 111,415 passengers travelled between Cardiff and Edinburgh. In 2024 it was 16,189. That's a loss of 95,226 passengers on the Edinburgh route.

 

[Jerry]

One thing that is noticeable is the difference between Belfast City and Edinburgh in passenger numbers are stark.
Belfast has a year round daily flight on an ATR72 with Aer Lingus partner Emerald Airlines.
Loganair chop and change the frequency through the year and mix between E145 & ATR72.
Edinburgh as a route doesn't have the consistency that Belfast has.

 

[Jerry]

I don't know if this has been posted before but Loganair have released flights for Edinburgh for the whole of winter 2025/26.
November, December and March are 6 weekly. January and February are 4 weekly.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday EDI-CWL 14.20-15.35 CWL-EDI 16.05-17.20
Thursday EDI-CWL 18.30-19.45 CWL-EDI 20.15-21.30
Friday EDI-CWL 17.35-19.15 CWL-EDI 19.45-21.15
Sunday EDI-CWL 18.30-20.10 CWL-EDI 20.45-22.20
Friday and Sundays are operated by ATR72 rest of the flights are operated by the E145
Tuesday and Wednesday flights don't operate in January and February

 

[geoff]

It's a pity that they don't keep it 6 weekly year round, and on the ATR72, it would certainly boost the figures on the route a little more,

 

[Jerry]

It's a pity that they don't keep it 6 weekly year round, and on the ATR72, it would certainly boost the figures on the route a little more,

Yep it's needed but I think the challenge may well be availability when it comes to the ATR. Hopefully they have more to come and maybe CWL will see more of them in 2026.

 

[Em0866]

Some of those departure times from CWL on the second half of the week aren't great and it's a shame they aren't earlier in the day as they are for the first half of the week.

 

[Jerry]

Some of those departure times from CWL on the second half of the week aren't great and it's a shame they aren't earlier in the day as they are for the first half of the week.

Fitted in around other routes especially Sumburgh and Kirkwall by the looks of it.

 

[Jerry]

@Severn posted this in the Loganair thread in Worldwide airlines

Loganair Bases - Summer 2025
*List does not include based standby aircraft.

Below is a list of the Loganair bases across the UK for peak-summer 2025.

SCOTLAND
Mainland

(5) Aberdeen (2x AT72 / 3x E145)​

(4) Glasgow (2x DHC6 / 1x AT42 / 1x E145)​

(3) Edinburgh (1x AT72 / 2x E145)​

(1) Inverness (1x AT42)​

(1) Dundee (1x AT42)​

Orkney Islands

(3) Kirkwall (1x BN2P / 1x AT42 / 1x AT72)​

ENGLAND

(1) Newcastle (1x E145)​

NORTHERN IRELAND

(1) Derry (1x E145)​

​

ISLE OF MAN

(2) Isle Of Man (2x AT72)​

Notes:
- ABZ sees at least 2x ATRs operating to LSI on Oil Contracts.
- The AT42 that overnights in Kirkwall is based in GLA but mainly operates to and from Kirkwall so I've counted it as Kirkwall based above
- The AT72 that overnights in Kirkwall is based in ABZ but mainly operates to and from Kirkwall so I've counted it as Kirkwall based above

In a Cardiff context 3 aircraft (1 ATR72 & 2 E145) based at Edinburgh could possibly be a part explanation of why they've not really expanded the route. Until they add extra aircraft to that base then it's likely Edinburgh will continue to stagnate as a route. Of course that's if they're minded to add extra aircraft to the Edinburgh base of course.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

SOU will see 2x E145's based from October. Hopefully they will be replaced by ATR72's in EDI and CWL will at least become all ATR72.

 

[Jerry]

SOU will see 2x E145's based from October. Hopefully they will be replaced by ATR72's in EDI and CWL will at least become all ATR72.

Fingers crossed 🤞

 

[Starflyer]

SOU will see 2x E145's based from October. Hopefully they will be replaced by ATR72's in EDI and CWL will at least become all ATR

I don't think there's any good news coming this way any time soon ...

 

[geoff]

Prior to the above posting by Starflyer, I had been wondering whether CWL could have persuaded Loganair to do something similar to what is happening at Southampton. I appreciate that CWL is in a different position to Southampton, but if the Edinburgh flight could have carried on to Jersey or Cork a few times a week, before returning to Edinburgh via CWL it would give CWL two extra routes which in the past have been quite successful.

 

[MrFenner]

Prior to the above posting by Starflyer, I had been wondering whether CWL could have persuaded Loganair to do something similar to what is happening at Southampton. I appreciate that CWL is in a different position to Southampton, but if the Edinburgh flight could have carried on to Jersey or Cork a few times a week, before returning to Edinburgh via CWL it would give CWL two extra routes which in the past have been quite successful.

Rumour is they’re closing their NCL crew base so am thinking they’re overall retracting rather than expanding things at the moment…