- Moderator
- #4,061
Financials aren't my strong suit either tbh but yes I'm sure its the first time CWL has been profitable in probably a long time.
- Moderator
- #4,063
Yep the rest of the covid rescue grant is considered as income. The wage bill is £10 million roughly, but the other £18 million of costs isn't stated as far as l could see.
CAN&I
Active Member
These things are seldom straightforward to be honest.
Boiling the numbers down to the important bits, there’s some interesting points to draw out.
Although PAX numbers were up 1.4% in the FY, income arising from traffic (including movements and services) was down by 5.5%. However, commercial income was up by 7.2% which meant the airport was making more money per passenger from passenger-facing value-add services (retail, car parking, etc). Impressive given the passenger increase was so small.
This and a 6.8% increase in tenancy income boosted overall revenue by 2.9% (£553,000) to £19,892,000, which demonstrates the airport's immediate focus of financial growth will be across the commercial and tenancy areas, although with PAX likely to be up by 6-7% this FY, we could feasibly see an increase across all three next time
Then there’s the additional income arising from the final drawdown from the WG Covid Recovery Grant (£11,750,000), giving a total income of £31,642,000.
Some would argue the grant is not “real” income, but, as with any other limited company, shareholders are allowed to invest cash to maintain the business. For accounting purposes, this is shareholder “investment” and is duly classed as income nonetheless.
Total costs and expenditure amounted to £31,408,000, which included the £18.3m investment required to meet the airport’s regulatory obligations, i.e. “next generation” security (which completed December 2024) and the runway infrastructure upgrade and rehabilitation project (which commenced during the financial year).
Income – Costs = an operating profit of £234,000, adjusted to £201,000 to allow for ancillary losses.
Given the point above around the WG grant, it’s up to you guys to draw your own conclusions as to whether the profit is real or not in your opinion. However, in true accountancy terms, the profit is technically real.
Lets face it, Cardiff Airport is no different from any other when it comes to financing projects, be that mandatory or to generate growth. Investment in capital projects is almost always needed to balance the books. Just look at Bristol Airport – their car park and terminal works were not paid for in-year by operating profit. They were financed through investment.
Without the grant, there would be a £11,516,000 loss. Although the capital investment (the grant) covered most of the mandatory regulatory expenditure, the key part of this is £6,784,000 of the overall cost was accounted for by CIAL’s own liquidity, which, again, shows the effort behind the scenes to grow a surplus of funds (more on that in a moment).
Finally, the business’ assets amount to £53,223,000, although total liabilities (including the WG commercial loan now amounting to £36,001,000 to be serviced from 2031) means that only £4,017,000 of the airport’s non-liquid assets can be attributed to equity.
However, CIAL does have a surplus of cash of £8,104,000 which is impressive under the circumstances and offers a far better picture than the £21.2m deficit posted last year.
It’s not easy to reach the right conclusions from submissions like these so hope the above proves useful.
Boiling the numbers down to the important bits, there’s some interesting points to draw out.
Although PAX numbers were up 1.4% in the FY, income arising from traffic (including movements and services) was down by 5.5%. However, commercial income was up by 7.2% which meant the airport was making more money per passenger from passenger-facing value-add services (retail, car parking, etc). Impressive given the passenger increase was so small.
This and a 6.8% increase in tenancy income boosted overall revenue by 2.9% (£553,000) to £19,892,000, which demonstrates the airport's immediate focus of financial growth will be across the commercial and tenancy areas, although with PAX likely to be up by 6-7% this FY, we could feasibly see an increase across all three next time
Then there’s the additional income arising from the final drawdown from the WG Covid Recovery Grant (£11,750,000), giving a total income of £31,642,000.
Some would argue the grant is not “real” income, but, as with any other limited company, shareholders are allowed to invest cash to maintain the business. For accounting purposes, this is shareholder “investment” and is duly classed as income nonetheless.
Total costs and expenditure amounted to £31,408,000, which included the £18.3m investment required to meet the airport’s regulatory obligations, i.e. “next generation” security (which completed December 2024) and the runway infrastructure upgrade and rehabilitation project (which commenced during the financial year).
Income – Costs = an operating profit of £234,000, adjusted to £201,000 to allow for ancillary losses.
Given the point above around the WG grant, it’s up to you guys to draw your own conclusions as to whether the profit is real or not in your opinion. However, in true accountancy terms, the profit is technically real.
Lets face it, Cardiff Airport is no different from any other when it comes to financing projects, be that mandatory or to generate growth. Investment in capital projects is almost always needed to balance the books. Just look at Bristol Airport – their car park and terminal works were not paid for in-year by operating profit. They were financed through investment.
Without the grant, there would be a £11,516,000 loss. Although the capital investment (the grant) covered most of the mandatory regulatory expenditure, the key part of this is £6,784,000 of the overall cost was accounted for by CIAL’s own liquidity, which, again, shows the effort behind the scenes to grow a surplus of funds (more on that in a moment).
Finally, the business’ assets amount to £53,223,000, although total liabilities (including the WG commercial loan now amounting to £36,001,000 to be serviced from 2031) means that only £4,017,000 of the airport’s non-liquid assets can be attributed to equity.
However, CIAL does have a surplus of cash of £8,104,000 which is impressive under the circumstances and offers a far better picture than the £21.2m deficit posted last year.
It’s not easy to reach the right conclusions from submissions like these so hope the above proves useful.
Last edited:
- Moderator
- #4,066
Update 21/1/26
This is what is onsale from Cardiff Airport for Summer 2026 at the moment. 29 destinations, 106 weekly departures. The largest airline is TUI with up to 56 weekly departures, then comes Ryanair with 19 weekly departures, KLM with 14 weekly departures, Aer Lingus with 7 weekly departures, Vueling with up to 6 weekly departures and WestJet with 4 weekly departures. Approximately 35,000 seats a week onsale during peak S26 an approximate 16% growth on S25.
Aer Lingus
Belfast City 7 weekly departures
KLM
Amsterdam 14 weekly departures
Ryanair
Dublin 7 weekly
Malaga 4 weekly
Alicante 4 weekly
Faro 3 weekly
Tenerife 1 weekly
TUI
Palma de Mallorca 7 weekly
Tenerife 4 weekly
Enfidha 3 weekly
Dalaman 3 weekly
Antalya 3 weekly
Alicante 2 weekly
Burgas 2 weekly
Corfu 2 weekly
Heraklion 2 weekly
Faro 2 weekly
Gran Canaria 2 weekly
Hurghada 2 weekly
Ibiza 2 weekly
Kos 2 weekly
Lanzarote 2 weekly
Larnaca 2 weekly
Malaga 2 weekly
Menorca 2 weekly
Paphos 2 weekly
Rhodes 2 weekly
Zante 2 weekly
Kefalonia 1 weekly
Dubrovnik 1 weekly
Fuerteventura 1 weekly
Reus 1 weekly
Vueling
Alicante 3 weekly
Malaga 2 weekly
WestJet
Toronto 4 weekly
Route map for Summer 2026
Last edited:
geoff
Well-Known Member
One Air B777-200F, landed at 1800hrs, Reg G-ONEH, now parked on Echo. It came in from Liege, I don't know if it's here for training or not.
- Moderator
- #4,068
Usual stuff.
Tories wanting to sell it without actually having any sort of plan.
Interesting comment from Luke Fletcher MS "As a nation, Wales deserves a national airport that works for the people of Wales, an airport that we can be proud of – something Labour has failed to deliver on."
I wonder what Plaid Cymru would do differently than Labour?
www.southwalesargus.co.uk
Tories wanting to sell it without actually having any sort of plan.
Interesting comment from Luke Fletcher MS "As a nation, Wales deserves a national airport that works for the people of Wales, an airport that we can be proud of – something Labour has failed to deliver on."
I wonder what Plaid Cymru would do differently than Labour?
Fresh row erupts with politics over Cardiff Airport after calls to end public funding
A fresh row has erupted over the future of Cardiff Airport, with calls to end public funding.
www.southwalesargus.co.uk
Qing4theloo
Member
Tory politicians spouting BS as usual.
I wonder if Peter Fox even bothered to look at 2025 passenger figures?
Tories, Plaid and Reform just looking for an excuse to criticise Labour.
Nothing to see here, just SW Argus looking for cheap headlines from lazy journalism. Where's the analysis?
Where's the insight?
I wonder if Peter Fox even bothered to look at 2025 passenger figures?
Tories, Plaid and Reform just looking for an excuse to criticise Labour.
Nothing to see here, just SW Argus looking for cheap headlines from lazy journalism. Where's the analysis?
Where's the insight?
Last edited:
- Moderator
- #4,070
This is what the departure board for Cardiff Airport will look like at peak Summer 2026.
Monday has 15 departures, Tuesday 18 departures, Wednesday 13 departures, Thursday 15 departures, Friday 16 departures, Saturday 13 departures, Sunday 16 departures.
In total 106 weekly departures.
Monday
06.00 Bourgas TUI
06.00 Enfidha TUI
06.00 Dalaman TUI
06.35 Menorca TUI
09.45 Amsterdam KLM
10.25 Alicante Ryanair
11.35 Toronto WestJet
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
13.35 Malaga Ryanair
13.45 Tenerife TUI
14.20 Corfu TUI
15.45 Gran Canaria TUI
16.55 Antalya TUI
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
22.25 Dublin Ryanair
Tuesday
06.00 Alicante TUI
06.00 Palma de Mallorca TUI
06.00 Reus TUI
09.45 Amsterdam KLM
10.00 Hurghada TUI
10.00 Malaga Vueling
11.00 Faro Ryanair
11.35 Toronto WestJet
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
12.45 Kefalonia TUI
13.25 Tenerife TUI
14.30 Zante TUI
16.15 Malaga Ryanair
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
21.00 Alicante Vueling
21.45 Alicante Ryanair
22.40 Palma de Mallorca TUI
23.15 Dublin Ryanair
Wednesday
06.00 Kos TUI
06.00 Malaga TUI
06.35 Ibiza TUI
07.00 Palma de Mallorca TUI
09.45 Amsterdam KLM
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
13.40 Paphos TUI
14.30 Larnaca TUI
14.35 Rhodes TUI
16.25 Dalaman TUI
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
21.10 Alicante Vueling
23.50 Dublin Ryanair
Thursday
06.00 Bourgas TUI
06.40 Faro TUI
06.55 Lanzarote TUI
07.00 Palma de Mallorca TUI
09.00 Malaga Ryanair
09.45 Amsterdam KLM
11.35 Toronto WestJet
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
14.05 Gran Canaria TUI
14.10 Dubrovnik TUI
16.00 Antalya TUI
16.55 Alicante Ryanair
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
17.20 Heraklion TUI
22.50 Dublin Ryanair
Friday
06.00 Antalya TUI
06.00 Menorca TUI
06.25 Palma de Mallorca TUI
06.45 Enfidha TUI
09.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
09.45 Amsterdam KLM
10.25 Tenerife Ryanair
13.00 Corfu TUI
13.30 Zante TUI
13.45 Alicante Vueling
15.20 Tenerife TUI
15.35 Malaga Ryanair
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
17.15 Dalaman TUI
17.45 Faro Ryanair
22.45 Dublin Ryanair
Saturday
06.00 Enfidha TUI
06.15 Ibiza TUI
06.45 Alicante TUI
07.30 Palma de Mallorca TUI
09.25 Dublin Ryanair
09.50 Amsterdam KLM
11.35 Toronto WestJet
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
13.15 Kos TUI
14.15 Hurghada TUI
14.35 Rhodes TUI
15.10 Fuerteventura TUI
17.35 Amsterdam KLM
Sunday
06.00 Lanzarote TUI
06.00 Malaga TUI
06.25 Faro TUI
07.15 Palma de Mallorca TUI
09.35 Alicante Ryanair
09.35 Malaga Vueling
09.50 Amsterdam KLM
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
13.50 Larnaca TUI
14.15 Heraklion TUI
14.20 Tenerife TUI
14.45 Malaga Ryanair
16.15 Paphos TUI
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
17.40 Faro Ryanair
21.45 Dublin Ryanair
Monday has 15 departures, Tuesday 18 departures, Wednesday 13 departures, Thursday 15 departures, Friday 16 departures, Saturday 13 departures, Sunday 16 departures.
In total 106 weekly departures.
Monday
06.00 Bourgas TUI
06.00 Enfidha TUI
06.00 Dalaman TUI
06.35 Menorca TUI
09.45 Amsterdam KLM
10.25 Alicante Ryanair
11.35 Toronto WestJet
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
13.35 Malaga Ryanair
13.45 Tenerife TUI
14.20 Corfu TUI
15.45 Gran Canaria TUI
16.55 Antalya TUI
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
22.25 Dublin Ryanair
Tuesday
06.00 Alicante TUI
06.00 Palma de Mallorca TUI
06.00 Reus TUI
09.45 Amsterdam KLM
10.00 Hurghada TUI
10.00 Malaga Vueling
11.00 Faro Ryanair
11.35 Toronto WestJet
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
12.45 Kefalonia TUI
13.25 Tenerife TUI
14.30 Zante TUI
16.15 Malaga Ryanair
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
21.00 Alicante Vueling
21.45 Alicante Ryanair
22.40 Palma de Mallorca TUI
23.15 Dublin Ryanair
Wednesday
06.00 Kos TUI
06.00 Malaga TUI
06.35 Ibiza TUI
07.00 Palma de Mallorca TUI
09.45 Amsterdam KLM
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
13.40 Paphos TUI
14.30 Larnaca TUI
14.35 Rhodes TUI
16.25 Dalaman TUI
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
21.10 Alicante Vueling
23.50 Dublin Ryanair
Thursday
06.00 Bourgas TUI
06.40 Faro TUI
06.55 Lanzarote TUI
07.00 Palma de Mallorca TUI
09.00 Malaga Ryanair
09.45 Amsterdam KLM
11.35 Toronto WestJet
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
14.05 Gran Canaria TUI
14.10 Dubrovnik TUI
16.00 Antalya TUI
16.55 Alicante Ryanair
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
17.20 Heraklion TUI
22.50 Dublin Ryanair
Friday
06.00 Antalya TUI
06.00 Menorca TUI
06.25 Palma de Mallorca TUI
06.45 Enfidha TUI
09.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
09.45 Amsterdam KLM
10.25 Tenerife Ryanair
13.00 Corfu TUI
13.30 Zante TUI
13.45 Alicante Vueling
15.20 Tenerife TUI
15.35 Malaga Ryanair
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
17.15 Dalaman TUI
17.45 Faro Ryanair
22.45 Dublin Ryanair
Saturday
06.00 Enfidha TUI
06.15 Ibiza TUI
06.45 Alicante TUI
07.30 Palma de Mallorca TUI
09.25 Dublin Ryanair
09.50 Amsterdam KLM
11.35 Toronto WestJet
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
13.15 Kos TUI
14.15 Hurghada TUI
14.35 Rhodes TUI
15.10 Fuerteventura TUI
17.35 Amsterdam KLM
Sunday
06.00 Lanzarote TUI
06.00 Malaga TUI
06.25 Faro TUI
07.15 Palma de Mallorca TUI
09.35 Alicante Ryanair
09.35 Malaga Vueling
09.50 Amsterdam KLM
12.00 Belfast City Aer Lingus
13.50 Larnaca TUI
14.15 Heraklion TUI
14.20 Tenerife TUI
14.45 Malaga Ryanair
16.15 Paphos TUI
17.15 Amsterdam KLM
17.40 Faro Ryanair
21.45 Dublin Ryanair
- Moderator
- #4,072
Hopefully they have some sort of load.
- Moderator
- #4,074
2 day court case is next week
www.walesonline.co.uk
Cardiff's Airport's hopes of a brighter future face two critical days in court
The fate of Welsh Govenment £205.2m subsidy plans will be decided by a Competition Appeal Tribunal
- Moderator
- #4,075
Celtic International has been sold to Two Seas Hotel.
www.barryanddistrictnews.co.uk
Major hotel that serves Cardiff Airport sold to new owner
Celtic International Hotel on Port Road has been acquired by Two Seas
www.barryanddistrictnews.co.uk
Qing4theloo
Member
Behind a paywall.2 day court case is next week
Cardiff's Airport's hopes of a brighter future face two critical days in court
The fate of Welsh Govenment £205.2m subsidy plans will be decided by a Competition Appeal Tribunal
Still, don't expect it to be unbiased and/or tell us anything we don't already know ...
- Moderator
- #4,077
I was only able to read part of it.
Obviously we'll have to wait and see what the verdict will be but even if the Welsh government lose and Bristol succeed i expect very much the Welsh government will look to appeal. They've been pretty adamant in supporting CWL and keeping it open and I don't think that'll change and I don't see it changing under Plaid Cymru either if they win in May. A Reform government is more of an unknown but tbh I don't see them being willing to close it. They'll probably sell it and any clever new owner will get them to keep the subsidy in place.
- Moderator
- #4,078
Bristol Airport's £205m subsidy legal challenge against rival Cardiff Airport
Welsh Government plans to subsidy the airport over the next decade will be decided by the Competition Appeal Tribunal
- Moderator
- #4,079
The BBC article about the hearing that starts todayBristol Airport's £205m subsidy legal challenge against rival Cardiff Airport
Welsh Government plans to subsidy the airport over the next decade will be decided by the Competition Appeal Tribunalwww.business-live.co.uk
Cardiff Airport subsidy challenged by Bristol at tribunal
Lawyers for Bristol Airport will claim it breaches competition rules.
www.bbc.co.uk
geoff
Well-Known Member
Bristol Airport must be getting worried, they are even advertising Toronto to Bristol fights on the microsoft news page, even though some of the journeys take over 17 hours. TUI are also advertising heavily on the same pages for their flights from BRS, but I think that's because they are being affected badly by the success of Jet2, and Easyjet holidays at BRS.
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Well it looks like I'm off to Australia and New Zealand next year! Booked with BA from Manchester via Heathrow with a stop in Singapore and returning with Air New Zealand and BA via LAX to Heathrow. Will circumnavigate the globe and be my first trans-Pacific flight. First long haul flight with BA as well and of course Air NZ.
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