Cardiff Airport - General Thread

[mathers_wales_uk]

Yeah it has been here for some time probably two to three weeks now. Factory fresh.

 

[Jerry]

Looks like the airport PR team has been doing the rounds of West country radio stations and newspapers/media outlets. Hopefully a few adverts will follow!
View attachment 13456

 

[TheLocalYokel]

And there is Debra Barber, who is saying that APD devolution would help the environment because CWL would have more flights thus reducing road journeys to English airports, now trying to get people from England to use CWL and thus create the greenhouse gases that people coming the other way would have reduced.

Joking apart, I wonder what the airport is pushing in the West Country. The obvious one is Qatar because apart from Anglesey are there any routes at CWL not served from BRS?

As I don't listen to any commercial radio stations I shan't know unless someone is kind enough to tell me.

 

[Jerry]

And there is Debra Barber, who is saying that APD devolution would help the environment because CWL would have more flights thus reducing road journeys to English airports, now trying to get people from England to use CWL and thus create the greenhouse gases that people coming the other way would have reduced.

Joking apart, I wonder what the airport is pushing in the West Country. The obvious one is Qatar because apart from Anglesey are there any routes at CWL not served from BRS?

As I don't listen to any commercial radio stations I shan't know unless someone is kind enough to tell me.

I'd imagine they would be pushing the Qatar route but also I wouldn't be surprised if they advertise CWL as a whole looking at attracting people from the Newport/Chepstow area as many of those media outlets get broadcast in that area as well and they would look more towards Bristol than say someone the western side of the Brynglas tunnels, which makes me wonder if the scrapping of the M4 relief road isn't the blow to CWL that many people have been claiming but in fact would've made getting to BRS even easier. In the long term if CWL is to get back to the 2 million mark then it needs to become an attractive option for people from Gwent.

 

[Cardiffbay]

It appears Wizz have added a few flights to Cardiff for the Wales v Hungary euro match later this year.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1139469604173033472

 

[Jerry]

Oh wow! That'll be good to see!
Looking at the flight times there'll be 2 aircraft parked up during Tuesday after arriving in the morning.

 

[Jerry]

The search for a new chairman begins.

Cardiff Airport - Complaints Policy & Procedure – CWL

The official Cardiff Airport website for live flight information, news, airport parking, offers, booking flights & holidays.

www.cardiff-airport.com

 

[Jarvo]

View attachment 13491

The one thing that seems to consistently disappoint and leave people feeling ripped off in the airport (besides the Flybe baggage rubbish) is the 'Beer House' bar.
£12 for that insult of a sharer nachos makes me feel ashamed that it could be the last thing someone sees of Wales before they leave.
No more than 70p of ingredients.... Does anyone know who runs the beerhouse? They're making an absolute killing from that place and dragging the reputation of the airport and city down with it.
I've heard how the airport is taking more and more staff in house, so I'd like to hope when the current beer house's owners' lease expires they'd look at setting up a restaurant of their own? Rather than measly commission they could control the quality, showcase Welsh ingredients and more than likely make an even larger profit than through current arrangements.
If I am about to be shocked and be told the airport already runs it then I'm officially fuming that they think any of that is acceptable.
Charging £12 for a nacho sharer at an airport isn't a good deal, but it's also not really a shock. But when something of that size and quality turns up, I'd 100% feel sick to the stomach and robbed. Especially when doubling the size and adding more cheese etc would probably cost them no more than a few dozen pence when you're working with catering standard ingredients and suppliers...
Looking at Twitter, it's not just the nachos, every day there's a post about the quality of food, high prices and measly portions. Yesterday it was a soggy limp cheese toastie and when the passenger complained they were told "that's how we make them!"
The bad publicity alone is costing the airport dearly.

 

[bluebols]

That is genuinely disgraceful, I would have demanded my £12 back.

 

[superking]

I would be ashamed to give meals like that. Should get Gordon Ramsey in to sort out a good menu with Welsh food,and to sort out quality. Pigs would be happy to eat it.

 

[Jerry]

The Beer House is run by SSP UK. They also run Cafe Ritazza as well I believe.
With reference to the actual food was it a starter or a main as even sharing starters would be small.
Price wise unfortunately airports are expensive.
Below is what I got on my last flight to the US and I had no complaints about it. Price wise it was roughly around £15 if I remember correctly.
View attachment 13492
And below is what I bought when at Bristol in April and cost me £20.
View attachment 13493
Over priced food isn't just exclusive to Cardiff!

 

[superking]

Airport food is dear at airports around the world,but if you pay good money for it you want quality.

 

[Jerry]

Airport food is dear at airports around the world,but if you pay good money for it you want quality.

Then don't buy it from the airport. Its franchise restaurants no different than the motorway services.

 

[louis_walton]

All looks grim food offering is one of the most easy and important things to pull off.

 

[bluebols]

I can understand that there is a premium put on airport food, and I do not have a problem with that. The issue arises with distinctly sub standard offerings that look appalling and combine this with a poor portion sizes . This is my gripe and would put me off spending money at this outlet in Cardiff.

 

[Jarvo]

Then don't buy it from the airport. Its franchise restaurants no different than the motorway services.

I don't see why travelers should just accept that though. For most people, me included, not buying from the airport isn't an option due to the fact that I don't live that close and stopping for food can be a real risk to making my flight. Unless you're happy with bringing cold sandwiches from home (or WHSmith in the terminal) Beer house is the only hot meal option for most travelers.

Yes airports are expensive because of the fact they have a captive market, and I understand that, but in any market, especially catering you have to justify your prices. Merely being in an airport isn't enough justification, I think, to charge mid range - low high-end restaurant prices for the kind of food you could get from a leisure center cafe and still have change from a fiver.

When people see their poor quality, tiny portioned food arrive after forking out £80+ for a group of 4 to have a meal and drink, people don't think; SSP UK have really ripped me off here.... They think; Cardiff Airport has really ripped me off here, and that is a REAL problem for the airport's image.
Airports themselves (other than by having low cost and varied destinations) sell only one thing to passengers, and that's a quality customer experience. When people are stuck in departures for 2-3 hours as is recommended by the airport themselves, for that to be the only hot food option is really not okay.

For those who would like to see the kind of customer feedback being posted regularly on twitter to see what I mean search "Cardiff airport eatonthemove". (@eatonthemove is the social media company's account that handles complaints for the beer house.)

 

[superking]

Out of interest,does any one know how food at railway stations are like. or are they on par with airports.

 

[Jerry]

For those who would like to see the kind of customer feedback being posted regularly on twitter to see what I mean search "Cardiff airport eatonthemove". (@eatonthemove is the social media company's account that handles complaints for the beer house.)

I think in general you will see mostly complaints on Twitter because most people will just eat without thinking about it and just carry on with their day and not think about posting a positive tweet or review while for someone who isn't happy they'll look for somewhere to complain and Twitter is perfect for that so it might not be a good reflection of how many people are actually satisfied with what they got or not.
With the Beer House it comes over to me as a franchise pub chain style outlet and for the most part I imagine that the food is essentially packet meal food rather than made fresh from scratch but I could be wrong in that.
I do wonder if those nachos were more as a shared starter than a main meal hence the size of the portion but I'd need to see the menu to confirm my suspicion.

 

[Jerry]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1141275099351408640

 

[Seasider]

Here in PRG you can get a main course, dessert and drink for £8. Then you can watch the planes while you eat it