Cardiff Airport - General Thread

[aviatorconcorde]

More to the point, who on earth are netflights.com? Never heard of them.

Seconded. I wouldn’t be worrying too much.

 

[aviatorconcorde]

More to the point, who on earth are netflights.com? Never heard of them.

Seconded. I wouldn’t be worrying too much.

 

[Jerry]

I've booked the Executive Lounge for my next trip cost me £20. It's been critcised a few times on a social media page so i'm curious to see what it's like for myself!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I've booked the Executive Lounge for my next trip cost me £20. It's been critcised a few times on a social media page so i'm curious to see what it's like for myself!

Is that a breakfast visit to the lounge or later in the day?

 

[Jerry]

Is that a breakfast visit to the lounge or later in the day?

Afternoon booked between 15.00 and 18.00 for my Iberia Express flight to Madrid on the 16th.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Afternoon booked between 15.00 and 18.00 for my Iberia Express flight to Madrid on the 16th.

That's a good time to visit a lounge in my opinion. Ready for something substantial to eat plus one or two drinks. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I'm not a big breakfast eater and never eat much in lounges at that time of day.

 

[Jerry]

That's a good time to visit a lounge in my opinion. Ready for something substantial to eat plus one or two drinks. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I'm not a big breakfast eater and never eat much in lounges at that time of day.

Will be the first time I've used a lounge, generally i tend to mostly fly out of Cardiff on the 6 am Amsterdam flight and as the lounge doesn't open til 5 am I've never considered it good enough value to pay £20 for 30 minutes use. I'm looking forward to the experience!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Will be the first time I've used a lounge, generally i tend to mostly fly out of Cardiff on the 6 am Amsterdam flight and as the lounge doesn't open til 5 am I've never considered it good enough value to pay £20 for 30 minutes use. I'm looking forward to the experience!

We shall look forward to your report on the lounge in due course.

 

[Jerry]

'Disappointing' foreign tourist visits despite £5m campaign

According to Mr Calder Wales is standing still as a holiday destination compared to London and Scotland despite a £5 million campaign with visitor spending dropping by 17%.
Mr Calder said the lack of flights from major countries meant Wales was regarded as "an add on" to a trip to England rather than a destination in its own right.
To be fair to him he's probably right as Wales doesn't have the geographical position or the same sort of profile that Scotland has nor does it have the major airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet flying into it and thus promoting it as a destination.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45060541

 

[Bcn_boy]

This is why CWL needs to land a known brand airline such as Ryanair which is known throughout Europe, that is the only way Wales can increase its inbound tourism numbers. Flybe is very much a domestic brand in the uk.

 

[Jerry]

Flybe have been good for CWL but in reality they are at the airport because Easyjet aren't interested and Ryanair have little interest (i hope they prove me wrong). In the article he mentioned Scotland but not only does Edinburgh Scotland's biggest airport have Ryanair and Easyjet based operating European cities they also have several flag carriers not only the US and ME3 one's but most major European ones and they have a bit of isolation which means those airlines don't have close options in England like they do for Wales. What will be curious in the future is to what direction the airport pursues. The LCC airlines or flag carrier's or a Flybe super base. With the potential for 11 airbridges if there is a new terminal then it could be the latter 2 directions.
I do think though Wales could be advertised better in general as a destination.

 

[geoff]

I have just watched the BBC Wales news, the Chairman of the Wales Tourist Board stated that Edingburgh has flights from 7 American cities which surprised me. I knew they had several US flights but not from that many departure points, of course CWL has none. Many of the tourists to the UK arrive at the London airports and are not offered tours in Wales. Perhaps the Qatar flights will raise our profile in Wales. This my first contribution to F4A, having previously been a member on both WAN and WAF which I am unable to reach at present.

 

[Jerry]

I have just watched the BBC Wales news, the Chairman of the Wales Tourist Board stated that Edingburgh has flights from 7 American cities which surprised me. I knew they had several US flights but not from that many departure points, of course CWL has none. Many of the tourists to the UK arrive at the London airports and are not offered tours in Wales. Perhaps the Qatar flights will raise our profile in Wales. This my first contribution to F4A, having previously been a member on both WAN and WAF which I am unable to reach at present.

Welcome to Forum4airports Geoff. Yes EDI does have 7 US routes plus 1 Canadian.
JFK is operated by American and Delta.
Newburgh and Providence by Norwegian.
Newark, Chicago and Washington by United.
Orlando by TUI.
Toronto by Air Canada Rouge.
Would be nice to see one of them at CWL!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I have just watched the BBC Wales news, the Chairman of the Wales Tourist Board stated that Edingburgh has flights from 7 American cities which surprised me. I knew they had several US flights but not from that many departure points, of course CWL has none. Many of the tourists to the UK arrive at the London airports and are not offered tours in Wales. Perhaps the Qatar flights will raise our profile in Wales. This my first contribution to F4A, having previously been a member on both WAN and WAF which I am unable to reach at present.

I join Jerry in welcoming you to F4A, geoff. I hope your stay with us is a long and pleasant one and that we can look forward to further posts from you. Like you I used to post to both WAN and WAF.

Looking at CWL vis-a-vis inbound tourism, so far as air connectivity is concerned Wales is a very long way behind Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland. We are looking at inbound tourism which should not have a bearing on the local population size, but the below figures at least show that there is far less opportunity for visitors from abroad to fly directly into Wales and they also show a perspective.

Taking the populations and the number of air passengers (which is a good guide to the number and variety of destinations) in each of the above countries Wales's disproportion is all too obvious. The below figures are for the calendar year of 2017. I've counted the major airports in each country.

Wales
Population 3.2 million Air passengers 1.5 million

Scotland
Population 5.5 million Air passengers 27 million

Northern Ireland
Population 1.9 million Air passengers 8.6 million

Ireland
Population 4.8 million Air passengers 34 million

As has been said, Scotland is considerably further away from many of the main centres of England than is Wales and this is reflected, for example, in the number of air passengers carried between the main Scottish airports and the main London airports which in total was 7.2 million in 2017. Ireland and Northern Ireland are also separated from Great Britain by sea with Northern Ireland seeing 2.5 million to/from London and Ireland seeing 6.7 million to/from London in 2017.

Wales has only one airport worthy of the name, and that is situated at one end of the country, admittedly the most populous and most economically dynamic part, whereas the other countries mentioned have at least two significant airports, albeit in Northern Iraland and Ireland one of the airports is dominant in the respective parts of that island.

There are also English regional airports within shouting distance of Wales that are used in substantial numbers by passengers flying to or from the country: Bristol - South Wales; Birmingham - mid-wales and some South Wales; Manchester and Liverpool - North Wales.

For long haul, the presence of Heathrow means that most overseas passengers will use that airport and could only use CWL in meaningful numbers if the airport had a long-haul network approaching that of MAN which seems to be an unlikely prospect.

If Mr Calder is to be believed, the fact that these airports are not actually in Wales leads to a loss of identity for the country with a consequent negative impact on tourism. I don't know whether this statement was made following in-depth research and analysis or is an off-the-cuff remark after he was doubtless approached for a comment by the Welsh news media.

I've set out the current scenario as I see it but I'm struggling to come up with something transport-wise within Wales that would create a major surge in overseas visitors, especially those from further afield.

 

[Jerry]

Just a quick comparison route wise between CWL and Edinburgh for inbound tourist routes from Europe and Internationally i've highlighted the ones that CWL has these are operated by scheduled airlines.

Athens, Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Vagar, Paris CDG and Orly, Brussels and Charleroi, Alicante, Amsterdam, Basel, Berlin, Bilbao, Copenhagen, Geneva, Hamburg, Krakow, Lisbon, Lyon, Madrid, Milan MXP and Bergamo, Munich Memmingen, Prague, Keflavik, Seville, Stuttgart, Venice and Treviso, Vienna, Dubrovnik, Grenoble, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Sofia, Zurich, Helsinki, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Budapest, Malaga, Bergen, Oslo, Stockholm Arlanda and Skavsta, Barcelona, Bologna, Bratislava, Eindhoven, Gdansk, Gothenburg, Katowice, Marseille, Nantes, Porto, Poznan, Riga, Rome, Santander, Tallin, Toulouse, Valencia, Warsaw, Weeze, Wroclaw, Beziers, Bordeaux, Carcassonne, Frankfurt and Hahn, Baden baden, Kaunas, Pisa, Szczecin, Vigo, Instanbul, New York JFK, Newark, Chicago, Washington, Newburgh, Providence, Toronto, Beijing, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha.

These airlines also serve Edinburgh with scheduled routes, the highlighted ones serve CWL as well.
Aegean, Aer Lingus and Aer Lingus Regional, Air Canada Rouge, Air France, American Airlines, Atlantic Airways, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Easyjet, Edelweiss Air, Emirates (future), Etihad (finishing), Eurowings, Finnair, Flybe, Hainan Airlines, Iberia Express, Jet2, KLM, Loganair, Lufthansa, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Qatar Airways, Ryanair, Scandanavian Airlines, Transavia France, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, Vueling and WOW air.

Not all of these routes will attract tourists but a lot of them will giving the world much better access to Scotland and i haven't even looked at Glasgow.

 

[geoff]

Thanks for the welcome, I hope to be able to contribute something worthwhile to the forum, but as I am knocking on a bit, I don't do as much travelling as I used to.

 

[Aviador]

Thanks for the welcome, I hope to be able to contribute something worthwhile to the forum, but as I am knocking on a bit, I don't do as much travelling as I used to.

A big welcome from me too. Age is no barrier here. Everybody is welcome!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thanks for the welcome, I hope to be able to contribute something worthwhile to the forum, but as I am knocking on a bit, I don't do as much travelling as I used to.

Neither do I and I might well be around your vintage (I'm a WW2 baby) but your views are equally valid whether you do so much travelling these days or not.

 

[rollo]

Thanks for the welcome, I hope to be able to contribute something worthwhile to the forum, but as I am knocking on a bit, I don't do as much travelling as I used to.

Wouldn't worry about it goeff there's one or two oldies on here you only have to look at the nostalgia threads my earliest memories are the pleasure flights at Elmdon in the late 1950s useing DH Dragon Rapides, it's a really friendly and informative forum although very,very occasionally gets a bit chippy but calm is quietly restored.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Just a quick comparison route wise between CWL and Edinburgh for inbound tourist routes from Europe and Internationally i've highlighted the ones that CWL has these are operated by scheduled airlines.

Athens, Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Vagar, Paris CDG and Orly, Brussels and Charleroi, Alicante, Amsterdam, Basel, Berlin, Bilbao, Copenhagen, Geneva, Hamburg, Krakow, Lisbon, Lyon, Madrid, Milan MXP and Bergamo, Munich Memmingen, Prague, Keflavik, Seville, Stuttgart, Venice and Treviso, Vienna, Dubrovnik, Grenoble, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Sofia, Zurich, Helsinki, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Budapest, Malaga, Bergen, Oslo, Stockholm Arlanda and Skavsta, Barcelona, Bologna, Bratislava, Eindhoven, Gdansk, Gothenburg, Katowice, Marseille, Nantes, Porto, Poznan, Riga, Rome, Santander, Tallin, Toulouse, Valencia, Warsaw, Weeze, Wroclaw, Beziers, Bordeaux, Carcassonne, Frankfurt and Hahn, Baden baden, Kaunas, Pisa, Szczecin, Vigo, Instanbul, New York JFK, Newark, Chicago, Washington, Newburgh, Providence, Toronto, Beijing, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha.

These airlines also serve Edinburgh with scheduled routes, the highlighted ones serve CWL as well.
Aegean, Aer Lingus and Aer Lingus Regional, Air Canada Rouge, Air France, American Airlines, Atlantic Airways, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Easyjet, Edelweiss Air, Emirates (future), Etihad (finishing), Eurowings, Finnair, Flybe, Hainan Airlines, Iberia Express, Jet2, KLM, Loganair, Lufthansa, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Qatar Airways, Ryanair, Scandanavian Airlines, Transavia France, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, Vueling and WOW air.

Not all of these routes will attract tourists but a lot of them will giving the world much better access to Scotland and i haven't even looked at Glasgow.

Looking at ONS stats there might be no direct correlation between overseas visitor numbers and direct air connectivity.

For instance, in 2017 Scotland's airports handled 18 x more passengers than Wales yet there were only three times as many overseas visitors to Scotland than to Wales (3.2 million versus 1.08 million).

There was a larger variation in the spend though with the £369 million in Wales a sixth of the amount spent in Scotland, which might be explained by the fact that air visitors tend to spend more per visit than those travelling by other means so direct flights might see some improvement in spend even though it's highly likely that most overseas visitors to Wales from afar already travel by air, probably via Heathrow in most cases.

See this link for details.

https://www.visitbritain.org/2017-snapshot

Edinburgh is easily the second most popular UK city destination for overseas visitors after London. How much this is the result of air connectivity is always arguable. These were the UK's top 20 towns/cities for overseas visits in 2017.

https://www.visitbritain.org/town-data