Sadly the last Ryanair departure from Cardiff Airport to Tenerife is tomorrow. Tenerife was the first route they operated when they returned in 2014. Now they operate Barcelona, Faro, Malaga and Malta with Malta from tomorrow being their only year round route.
 
Sadly the last Ryanair departure from Cardiff Airport to Tenerife is tomorrow. Tenerife was the first route they operated when they returned in 2014. Now they operate Barcelona, Faro, Malaga and Malta with Malta from tomorrow being their only year round route.

I know that Ryanair told the parliamentary enquiry into APD devolution that they would be able to operate more routes at CWL if APD was not the obstacle they say it currently is, but they seem to manage all right at somewhere like Bournemouth.

As far as I can determine Ryanair operates year-round routes at BOH to Alicante, Dublin, Faro, Gran Canaria (although I think this one finishes at the end of this winter), Krakow, Malaga, Malta, Prague and Tenerife South with summer routes to Girona, Murcia, Palma and Paphos.

Considering BOH's FR network, the CWL FR situation seems odd and difficult to fathom.
 
Considering BOH's FR network, the CWL FR situation seems odd and difficult to fathom.
I can only think that with Bournemouth the catchment area being quite rich keeps them there.
I partly do wonder sometimes if Ryanair see Cardiff as an airport for West Wales rather than South Wales. Hence why they haven't opened a base because let's face it as an airline they aren't cautious like Easyjet is and history has shown that Cardiff has been able to sustain an LCC base and charter airline base. Hopefully maybe in 2021 they may have the aircraft to open one.
I think BOH operates 19 weekly flights in winter and over 30 in the summer. That would be pretty amazing if Cardiff had something similar.
 
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My wife & I flew CWL/TFS & return with Ryanair in Aug 2019,returned Sept for £450 approx. Price included upfront seats,hold baggage, & priority boarding. Ryanair comes in for a lot of press/media criticism , but I have to say they were 1st class ! This year for the same trip(same dates) we have from Cardiff a choice of Tui !! Using their website, and flying out 18/8/2020, return 11/9 2020, their price is---wait for it __£853 each !!! So, we have booked Easyjet flying from Gatwick for£461 ( includes upfront seats, hold luggage, priority boarding.) for us both. I think someone at Tui is having a laugh ! Come on Cardiff , you need to bring a competitive airline in a bit quick in my view, or things are going to start looking a tad grim.
 
I think someone at Tui is having a laugh ! Come on Cardiff , you need to bring a competitive airline in a bit quick in my view, or things are going to start looking a tad grim.
Was that flight only though? I hear a lot of criticism of TUI flight prices but that isn't the market that they are going for. They want people to buy packages and cruises not just flights. In a way that is why Ryanair at Cardiff is so good especially if it was a base as they provide for a different market and almost complement TUI and attract people like you to fly from the airport.
 
I am starting to think that a base is on the cards. Had it not been for the Max issue, there might've already been one.
I've always questioned why FR started some routes without the aim or bigger expansion. It's not really their style in the UK.
FR can use CWL to hurt EZY at BRS, similar with EXT. If they can match the prices of EZY then it's a no brainer for people of South wales to use CWL and similarly those in the Southwest to use EXT.
I don't think the fact that South Wales is a poorer region is a huge factor in it, as thinking about it FR are all about cheap fares anyway. CWL has always had a strong holiday market, it just doesn't provide the premium demand needed for certain routes and Airlines, although QR may be dismissing that theory.
There is certainly potential for a BOH sized operation, but I think once again, CWL has borne the brunt of bad luck!
 
Don't forget FR base 4 aircraft at BRS. They both do routes and don't hurt each other.I hope im wrong,but I don't see FR base aircraft at CWL or Exeter as it would hurt their base at BRS,and cant see FR going up against it self.
 
Not necessarily. EZY are the dominant ones at BRS and space is becoming limited. FR would have the knowledge of how many Welsh passengers they carry at BRS and even with those passengers displaced they would still be able to fill their aircraft and either attract more passengers from the local area or take some off EZY. BRS also has lots more potential for growing passenger numbers and could easily fill the void.
 
I know there are a few on here that have grown weary of the BRS CWL discussion, but let's be honest, for there to be any accurate discussion on the main factors affecting CWL, BRS is going to come up. CWL shares a catchment area with an airport with higher passenger numbers than NCL. If Sunderland opened an international airport, I can guarantee NCL would dominate their forum.
The opposite is the case at BOH where the only other competitor outside of the London airports is SOU, and other than a substantial Flybe turboprop presence, there isn't much else beyond TUI packages.
BRS on the other hand has high double digit weekly departures to Spain on low cost, large aircraft. In that context it's no surprise a relatively small airport like BOH is able to sustain a leisure based presence from FR, where CWL struggles.
 
but I still think the Tui price is over the top !
The price is designed to get you to look at the package instead. Jet2 do the same.
Don't forget FR base 4 aircraft at BRS. They both do routes and don't hurt each other.I hope im wrong,but I don't see FR base aircraft at CWL or Exeter as it would hurt their base at BRS,and cant see FR going up against it self.
Then why operate at CWL or EXT at all? Personally I don't buy the whole basing at Cardiff will hurt themselves at Bristol argument as TUI seem quite happy basing at both and have expanded at both in the last few years. I think and I guess I am biased, that a base at both would complement their operation at Bristol and allow them to challenge Easyjet in the area more.
 
Whether people choose to believe it or not, for the majority the main factor in choosing flights is price. CWL is struggling to compete on that level so it's an unknown what effect it would have. However look back at bmibaby. They did very well during the summer seasons with at least daily flights on most of the core routes such as Spain & Faro. There's no reason why CWL can't support 4-5 or even daily flights to these destinations. VY and FR on Malaga are a current example of that.
I can't recall the exact figure but it's about 1.2m from the South Wales region that use Bristol. To put in to perspective, 1 based 737 operating 3 flights per day during a 7 month period (Apr-Oct) over summer accounts for just under 250k passengers. Unless FR were to launch DUB then I can't see them being able to schedule 3 flights per day with the potential routes they would operate. On that basis 2 flights (A 2 hr and 4 hr) would give just under 162k seats. Small fry in comparison to the leakage from South Wales and not forgetting the number of people that travel to other Airports such as BHX and London because of price.
My personal view of a potential FR schedule;
2 hour routes
PMI x2
IBZ x1
FAO x2
FCO x1
VCE x1
3+ hr routes
TFS x2
ACE x1
LPA x1
FUE x1 (Not available from BRS)
PFO x1 (Not available from BRS)
ZTH x1 (Not available to anywhere in the UK but a big void left by TCX)

With the current routes remaining on non based aircraft.
 
First of all, I think that BRS does potentially affect CWL and therefore the subject is a legitimate one in a CWL thread. The same applies in reverse where CWL's presence can influence BRS's fortunes with the Qatar Airways decision an example. If we ignore the effect the two airports can have on each other we are missing the full story and Ryanair certainly falls into that bracket.

I think the consensus amongst poster to this thread is that there is no reason why Ryanair could not expand its operations at CWL without bothering about any impact on BRS or BHX for that matter.

Because BRS has a larger primary catchment and sits between CWL and EXT and can and does take a substantial number of travellers from those areas there are probably some routes that would only work there. Few people from South Wales are likely to travel to EXT for short-haul, or people from Devon to CWL, because of the distance.

As has been pointed out by others there are routes, and Foxlimayankee has given some examples, that should work for Ryanair at CWL irrespective of what it does at BRS.

In fact, Ryanair might have used their Lauda operation to open a Cardiff-Vienna route instead of which they are commencing a Bristol-Vienna route that is already operated by easyJet. In recent years Ryanair have increasingly opened non-sun routes at BRS to compete with easyJet: Venice MP, Krakow and Milan Malpensa are year-round examples with Sofia, Turin and Grenoble in the ski season with Turin also operated by TUI and Sofia by Enter Air for a tour operator.

Not all of these airports are Ryanair bases but some are and could therefore have been used to operate a CWL service instead. I suppose that Ryanair didn't want to hand these routes in their entirety at BRS to easyJet.

Given that Ryanair have 'tested the waters' in the last year with new routes from both CWL and EXT, it might have been thought that both would see some expansion. Perhaps the MAX isue, not to mention Brexit and climate change and now the possible fallout of the recent US actions re Iran might be making airlines more cautious at the moment.
 
Malta

Forgive me if this has been mentioned before (I couldn't find anyhting in this thread when I did a very quick look back), but I note that both CWL-MLA flights each week this winter are being operated by Malta Air, albeit under FR flight codes. The same applies with EXT-MLA and also with one of the BRS-MLA flights each week.

I don't know if the Malta Air aircraft 'transferred' from its Ryanair parent are still in Ryanair livery.

Lauda, another of the Ryanair group of airlines, also operates some Ryanair flights at other airports under Ryanair flight codes, and conversely Ryanair aircraft operate some Lauda flights under Lauda flights codes.
 
All the Fr aircraft that have transferred over to Fr sub airlines are to be painted in due coarse.Lauda operate airbus A320 so in Lauda colors . New aircraft to these airlines will be in new colors.No idea if the aircraft at the subs now are staying or new airaft. A lot depends how things go,and with the problems on the max I would say airlines don't know what to do.Airbus has been talking recently so make of that if you will.
 

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