Cardiff Airport - General Thread

[Jerry]

Cardiff Airports airlines and routes for summer 2017.

AlbaStar Palma de Mallorca (Seasonal Charter)
BH Air Burgas
Blue Islands Guernsey (New for S17)
Cobalt Aero Larnaca (Begins S17 start tba)
City Wing (Van Air Europe) Anglesey
Eastern Airways Aberdeen, Newcastle
Flybe Belfast City, Berlin TXL (New for S17), Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh, Faro, Glasgow, Jersey, London City, Milan MXP, Munich, Paris CDG, Rome FCO (New for S17), Verona
Iberia Express Madrid (New for S17)
KLM Cityhopper Amsterdam
Norwegian Air Shuttle Tenerife-South (Seasonal charter)
Ryanair Faro (New for S17), Tenerife-South
Thomas Cook Airlines Burgas, Dalaman, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Larnaca, Menorca, Orlando MCO, Palma de Mallorca, Reus, Rhodes, Tenerife-South, Zakynthos
Thomson Airways Alicante, Burgas, Cephalonia, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kos, Lanzarote, Larnaca, Menorca, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Reus, Rhodes, Tenerife-South, Zakynthos
Vueling Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca

Note: I have left out London City and Dusseldorf for Flybe, Malta for Thomson and Paris Orly for Vueling as none have been confirmed yet.
Edit: Updated on the 19/1/17. Dusseldorf and Malta still yet to be released

 

[Jerry]

New cruise flight from Cardiff. 15th March 2017 to Tromso for a 5 days Norwegian coast and Northern Lights cruise on the MS Kong Harald.

 

[Jerry]

The Cardiff to Anglesey route hit it's 100,000th passenger since welsh government backing in 2007 and also figures for November saw a significant increase from 2015 1062 passengers used the route in november 2016 compared to 858 in 2015, 878 in 2014 and 825 in 2013.
https://www.cardiff-airport.com/new...ey-passenger-figures-thanks-to-welsh-support/

 

[TheLocalYokel]

That won't help the call from many to have this route axed.

 

[Jerry]

Baggage handlers from the Unite union employed by Swissport will going on strike in a dispute over pay and terms and conditions for 48 hours from the 23rd December. They will also be going on strike at 17 other airports across the uk.
On a personal note i miss it by a day! I fly out on the 22nd so i'm lucky.
www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/baggage-handlers-cargo-crew-cardiff-12334370

 

[Jerry]

Baggage handlers from the Unite union employed by Swissport will going on strike in a dispute over pay and terms and conditions for 48 hours from the 23rd December. They will also be going on strike at 17 other airports across the uk.
On a personal note i miss it by a day! I fly out on the 22nd so i'm lucky.
www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/baggage-handlers-cargo-crew-cardiff-12334370

 

[Jerry]

That won't help the call from many to have this route axed

I wonder if the LCY route has boosted it. The numbers won't be spectacular but it only needs an extra 3 to 4 people a day using the service to get to London to give it a boost. Much quicker and easier than the train.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I wonder if the LCY route has boosted it. The numbers won't be spectacular but it only needs an extra 3 to 4 people a day using the service to get to London to give it a boost. Much quicker and easier than the train.

The timings of the two flights wouldn't work would they?

Also, it would be a bit of a risk for someone from North Wales to fly to London via Cardiff given the sectors would be point to point with different airlines and they'd be on their own if one was late or cancelled.

 

[Jerry]

The timings of the two flights wouldn't work would they?

There would be a big layover (4 hours) from the morning arrival till the afternoon departure for both flights. So it depends if passengers are prepared to wait. I've always wondered if they would be best off basing the aircraft at VLY and having it depart around 6 am. Unless there is some sort of restriction at VLY?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

One or two aviation fans might fly that way but I can't see many regular passengers hanging around for four hours mid-way, which would mean the better part of the working day would be taken up by flying-waiting-flying.

It would be interesting to know why the Anglesey service has picked up. Given the amount of public money involved it would be relatively simple and cheap (compared with the cost of subsidising the route) for the WAG to commission a survey of passengers.

 

[Jerry]

They may have cut the prices? I wonder if the autumn internationals and the soccer internationals helped with some fans flying down? I do know you can only book the flights direct and they aren't on the likes Skyscanner.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

We'll have to wait to see if the trend continues.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Airport 'nationalisation' announcement anniversary

It was four years ago this week that aviation watchers in Wales and further afield awoke to learn the surprising and unexpected news that the Wales Assembly Government had been in talks with the airport's Spanish owners for some time and agreement had been reached for the airport to be sold to the government (the sale took place three months later).

The price tag was said to be £52 million which some critics said was far too high and others (it has to be said that party politics played a part) complained that the airport would be forever sucking in public funds to remain operational.

The airport had seen annual passenger figures drop by 50% from the 2 million high point of 2007 and there were times that winter when the 12-month rolling total dipped below the 1 mppa level.

How has the airport performed since the government took it over?

Superficially it has thrived, with passenger numbers rising by a third; a significant based airline; two IAG airlines; the return of Ryanair; several important European city destinations that either had never previously been served or hadn't been served for a long time. I doubt that even the most optimistic CWL follower would have anticipated this spread of new business in such a relatively short time.

Clearly the aim is to continue this level of progress and there are already signs that next year will be positive in terms of routes, frequencies and passenger numbers. So far as I'm aware the airport is still not profitable and that is something that will assume greater importance as time passes by.

Although the WAG administration seems to have drawn back from its early intimation (at the time the purchase of the airport was announced) of eventually selling the airport back into the private sector, the plan now seems to be some sort of eventual partnership with the private sector but with the government still maintaining a substantial interest, perhaps (probably?) the controlling interest.

I well remember listening to the First Minister being interviewed on Radio Wales the day the intended purchase was announced in December 2012. He confidently told the interviewer that almost from the outset they would find a private partner and share profits with that partner but any losses would be borne by the private partner. The interviewer's reaction seemed to be one of incredulity and I shared her scepticism.

Unsurprisingly, no private sector partner could be found on those terms. The FM certainly showed his lack of knowledge of the industry at times and came out with some nonsensical statements in the ensuing months; fortunately, he now seems to keep his own counsel and lets others do the talking on airport matters.

I believe that some form of private sector involvement will occur in the future. The airport has some appreciable debts, not least to its owners, and may need help in some form to manage them, unless the government intends to throw money at it which would be politically and financially difficult as well as probably illegal.

The airport is becoming more attractive to the private sector by the day but the devil of any agreement would be in the detail. Another two years of growth along the lines of the last three might well see private sector players sniffing around, although they would want to be sure that routes were becoming self-sustaining.

CWL is better placed now than at any time in the past decade, arguably at any time in its history. The previous owner obviously had no time for it in the end and allowed it to run down almost to the point of closure. Although I'm not a great fan of politicians becoming involved in the ownership of airports I am in no doubt that, in the situation CWL found itself, public ownership was the only way forward.

 

[Jerry]

Baggage handlers from the Unite union employed by Swissport will going on strike in a dispute over pay and terms and conditions for 48 hours from the 23rd December. They will also be going on strike at 17 other airports across the uk.
On a personal note i miss it by a day! I fly out on the 22nd so i'm lucky.
www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/baggage-handlers-cargo-crew-cardiff-12334370

As an update to this post. Cardiff airport have tweeted that it won't be effected by the Swissport strike and from information from another forum there is only 6 UNITE members working for Swissport at the airport.

 

[Jerry]

Although the WAG administration seems to have drawn back from its early intimation (at the time the purchase of the airport was announced) of eventually selling the airport back into the private sector, the plan now seems to be some sort of eventual partnership with the private sector but with the government still maintaining a substantial interest, perhaps (probably?) the controlling interest.

I believe Roger Lewis has mentioned similar ownership models to MAN and BHX but it is several years away from any potential investor i would've thought and they would probably want some sort of guarantee from the Welsh government so hopefully the airport can continue to increase it's routes and airlines and the frequencies on a lot of it's routes especially to Spain and increase the aircraft is based there not just from the airlines who serve it but maybe as well charter airlines that are looking for cheap parking maybe and then could look to fly routes out of the airport as there could be routes that Flybe could do ie LPA but they don't have the aircraft for routes like that. So hopefully 2017 will be a good year and will see new routes and airlines announced for 2018.

 

[Jerry]

The airport estimates over this 2 week period 35,000 passengers will depart from Cardiff airport and i'll be one of them flying to the US via AMS with KLM and then coming back via CDG with Flybe and i'm looking forward to my first flight with Flybe! It is a 9% increase on the same period last year.It also listed the top 10 destinations for this period.
1. Amsterdam (KLM)
2. Edinburgh (Flybe)
3. Tenerife (Ryanair and Thomson)
4. Alicante (Vueling and Thomson)
5. Dublin (Flybe)
6. Paris (Flybe)
7. Malaga (Vueling and Thomson)
8. Belfast (Flybe)
9. Glasgow (Flybe)
10. Lanzarote (Thomson)

https://www.cardiff-airport.com/news/2016/12/20a-busy-cardiff-airport-christmas-jet-away-this-year/

 

[Jerry]

Cardiff airport advertised on twitter today for 2 management positions. Air Service Development Manager and Director of Airport Planning and Development. Both sound kind of important! Honestly don't know if these are new positions or they are replacing departing staff.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

• 
  
  A BBC report today carries a story that a new terminal could be built at CWL during the next ten years to replace the existing one.
  
  The airport company chairman, Roger Lewis, pointed to the private sector as a means of securing funding with the airport's managing director, Debra Barber, saying there was a limit on the amount of money the Welsh Government could lend its airport company.
  
  The current Welsh Government, although not averse to private sector involvement in the airport, will insist that the Welsh Government retains the larger share.
  
  The current aim is to reach 3 mppa but no timescale is given.
  
  Full story can be seen at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38567395
  
  
  
  

 

[Jerry]

The current aim is to reach 3 mppa but no timescale is given

I read on another forum that they wanted 2 million by 2021 and 3 million by 2026.

A new terminal would be great! But whether they would be better off extending and refurbishing the current one rather than going through the whole process of building a temporary terminal and then build a brand new terminal on the current will be the conundrum. Me personally i think they should knock it down and build a brand new one with gates that you can sit at and have access to food and drink and duty free shops spread out along the concourse, as well as some brand new airbridges to board on! Will be interesting to see what happens and what designs they come up with. Though it will be many years until then.

 

[CraigW92]

• 
  
  A BBC report today carries a story that a new terminal could be built at CWL during the next ten years to replace the existing one.
  
  The airport company chairman, Roger Lewis, pointed to the private sector as a means of securing funding with the airport's managing director, Debra Barber, saying there was a limit on the amount of money the Welsh Government could lend its airport company.
  
  The current Welsh Government, although not averse to private sector involvement in the airport. will insist that the Welsh Government retains the larger share.
  
  The current aim is to reach 3 mppa but no timescale is given.
  
  Full story can be seen at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38567395
  
  
  

Apparently there is an aim to get to 2mppa within 5 years, which essentially means that a low cost base presence from VY,FR or an other operator will be in place, I'd like to think something productive will be reached by summer 18 on the LCC front, not necessarily a base but an increased presence from an operator in which a base could develop.

The terminal one is an interesting topic, the current terminal can take up to 3mppa, once there the current terminal would no longer be functional, hence the talk of a new terminal, there's only really so much you can do with a 70s building, Of course a lick of paint inside and a refurb have made it look nicer and the user expierence is much better than it was say 10 years ago but issues remain, The check in desk area is quite frankly poor when compared to other uk airports, it's not unusual for queues to stretch to the main entrance depending on the flight, expanding
this would allow extra desks ready for expansion

I personally would like to see the west side actually refurbished itself, from landslide and airside, the airside which when looked upon is a series of classroom sized cabins put together is essentially a holding area not a gate area, no seating is avaliable on Gates 12,13,14,15,16,17 which is used for both charter and scheduled flights, creating something more larger and permanent would certainly have a better passenger experience.

One of the things I think that is in need of looking at is indeed the airbridges, Gates 7, 9 ( not in operation and 10 could essentialy do with being replaced with something that is fully maneuverable, essentially then allowing smaller aircraft such as the 738 to use them, I believe they were raised in concrete blocks many years ago.

A fully maneuverable gate would allow all passengers on potential LH routes to use the air gate where as currently PC passengers use the gate and economy thr steps, I believe as things stand the only types of LH aicraft that could use gate 7 are the 787/9, A330 series. Potential translantic flights with 763, 752/753 aicraft could use both 7 and 10.

Certainly will be interesting to see what improvement works are taken over the course of the next few years.