Cardiff: TUi Airways Flights, New Routes & Base Updates

[Jerry]

All the main Europe routes are covered with at least 1 rotation per week now,and some with multipule rotations now.TUI must be happy with what they have at CWL now,so hence not much of a change next summer.

Yes I'm really not thinking about next summer but more beyond that. Yes Brexit is an unknown and the effect it would have on the Welsh economy is an unknown but the way I see it at the moment is that as an airport one of the only airlines that's likely to grow in the long term at CWL is TUI. Thomas Cook is an unknown and could potentially be lost, flybe has cut and it's future at the airport is an unknown. Ryanair has the potential for growth in the future but by how much again is unknown so to me its a case of looking towards TUI and if there isn't much hope of TUI continuing to grow then I think there isn't much hope of CWL maintaining 1.5 million passengers a year let alone get to their target of 2 million.

 

[superking]

Im sorry my post seemed negative,but I could see no other way to put it. But in the short term cant see it changing,but in a few years time as we both agree who knows what will happen.The 2 major issues I can see is carbon emissions and Brexit which I think they are the 2 main issues.

 

[Jerry]

Im sorry my post seemed negative,but I could see no other way to put it. But in the short term cant see it changing,but in a few years time as we both agree who knows what will happen.The 2 major issues I can see is carbon emissions and Brexit which I think they are the 2 main issues.

Brexit is a big unknown of course but it's not just an issue just for CWL assumingit happens! The climate change issue I honestly don't think will stop people from flying. It might make people think more about their daily life stuff but people will still want to go on holiday to somewhere sunny!

 

[Jerry]

Just as a comparison which would give an indication of how many weekly flights a 4 aircraft base would generally need to fill.
BRS has 58 weekly flights operated by its 4 based narrow bodies while CWL has 45 weekly flights operated by 3 based aircraft. A difference of 13 weekly flights.
Thank you @Severn for the info from your posts!

 

[Severn]

TUI operate 3x aircraft bases at NCL, EMA, DSA and CWL. They operate up to 50 shorthaul flights per week from some of these bases using w-patterns and other operators.
It will be interesting to see what TUIs strategy is when it comes to the South-West of the UK, and whether any expansion is a way to create a stronghold in case Jet2 are looking to expand into the region... they've expanded at CWL and BRS this year, and summer 2020 will see an expansion at BOH and BRS with more flights and capacity.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Really can't see a 4th aircraft being added to CWL. Flights for summer 2020 have already been cut which might be a sign that the 3rd aircraft is sustainable but with each aircraft only doing the usual 2 flights per day, without some of the late evening departures that have been cut. If things were to grow, then these late evening departures would likely be reinstated, or 3rd party airlines/W pattern TUI aircraft would be brought in, then long term the 4th aircraft, which again is unlikely to happen.
If/when the max re-enters service, the only hope would be possibly have a Max10 or 2 based at CWL which would increase overall capacity without increasing based aircraft.

 

[Nuffsaid]

Unless the economy in the South Wales region booms there will be no based aircraft, no additional Ryanair and definitely no jet2. There is simply not the disposable income in South Wales to sustain more airlines and flights. Unless investment crosses that bridge it will forever remain a poorer backwater to be compounded by a no deal Brexit in November. It’s a case of careful what you wish for.

 

[Jerry]

Unless the economy in the South Wales region booms there will be no based aircraft, no additional Ryanair and definitely no jet2. There is simply not the disposable income in South Wales to sustain more airlines and flights. Unless investment crosses that bridge it will forever remain a poorer backwater to be compounded by a no deal Brexit in November. It’s a case of careful what you wish for.

Yet every year over 4 million people fly from and to the southern Wales region. The demand is there it's just not catered for locally. Yes Brexit is an unknown but so far it has not stopped airlines expanding and only time will tell what effect it will have on Wales if it happens.

 

[Nuffsaid]

Yet every year over 4 million people fly from and to the southern Wales region. The demand is there it's just not catered for locally. Yes Brexit is an unknown but so far it has not stopped airlines expanding and only time will tell what effect it will have on Wales if it happens.

Agreed, but South Wales is simply to poor. That’s a fact that you or I cannot escape from.

 

[Jerry]

Agreed, but South Wales is simply to poor. That’s a fact that you or I cannot escape from.

Parts of it is yes but other parts aren't Cardiff and the Vale is one of the richest parts of Wales and that area alone has 500,000 people in it and in general Wales prosperity is rising though not as much as other parts of the UK.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Agreed, but South Wales is simply to poor. That’s a fact that you or I cannot escape from.

I think you're missing the point Jerry is trying to make. 1.6 million use CWL, and approx 1.5 million Welsh use BRS. That in itself is over 3 millions journeys made each year. Add on those from South Wales that use other UK Airports there are still millions of journeys made each year. Citing South Wales as being simply too poor is quite a generalisation given those figures.

The likelihood of Jet2 is slim, we all know that, the likelihood of Ryanair is greater given the recent new routes added (Bearing in mind we still don't know the fate of FAO and TFS) and TUI has already proven there's a market for growth with the 3rd aircraft. No-one is saying any growth is going to happen, but we're all wishing for it. Likewise no-one can discount any possible growth because we really can't predict what's around the corner.

 

[Jerry]

I saw a post earlier on Facebook where the Cardiff airport development team were visiting travel agents in Bristol and Exeter one of which was TUI store in Bristol and the other a Flight Centre store and not sure what the one in Exeter is. It made me decide to have a quick look at what holidays TUI are offering from CWL that aren't on their own flights.
For Summer 2020 it looks like TUI have onsale packages to Lombok and Bali in Indonesia. Phuket, Krabi and Khao Lak in Thailand and also holidays in Sri Lanka. All flights look to be with Qatar Airways.
There is also on select dates in November, March 2020 and April 2020 tours to Japan onsale using KLM.
Maldives comes up in the drop down but there is nothing onsale.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I saw a post earlier on Facebook where the Cardiff airport development team were visiting travel agents in Bristol and Exeter one of which was TUI store in Bristol and the other a Flight Centre store and not sure what the one in Exeter is. It made me decide to have a quick look at what holidays TUI are offering from CWL that aren't on their own flights.
For Summer 2020 it looks like TUI have onsale packages to Lombok and Bali in Indonesia. Phuket, Krabi and Khao Lak in Thailand and also holidays in Sri Lanka. All flights look to be with Qatar Airways.
There is also on select dates in November, March 2020 and April 2020 tours to Japan onsale using KLM.
Maldives comes up in the drop down but there is nothing onsale.

I'd have thought that the Flight Centre would be more productive. They sell flights worldwide as well as arranging holidays if required. There are three Flight Centre shops in Bristol, two in the central area and one at Clifton Down Shopping Centre. We used the Flight Centre the last time we booked our trip to Australia. The Flight Centre doesn't seem to have any shops in Wales which is a surprise and perhaps not ideal for local people looking to book long haul who might well use the Qatar service on their doorstep if they were aware of it (not all will be, any more than many Bristol area travellers were aware of the BRS-EWR service by Continental when it operated).

Trailfinders is a broadly similar organisation to the Flight Centre and we've used them in the past for Oz trips. They do have a Cardiff shop at Queen Street.

I'm sure that the Flight Centre and Trailfinders are aware of Qatar at CWL but personal contact from the CWL team is never a bad thing.

It would be fascinating to know how many people from Devon use CWL. One would not think that many do because of the distance involved, but the CWL team must think it worthwhile to get their message across as far away as Exeter.

 

[Jerry]

It would be fascinating to know how many people from Devon use CWL. One would not think that many do because of the distance involved, but the CWL team must think it worthwhile to get their message across as far away as Exeter.

From what I've seen its not the first time they've promoted the route in Exeter and they have also before been down to travel agents in Cornwall as well on previous trips. I think it's more likely that people from Devon and Cornwall would use packages from Cardiff if they are long haul holidays as people seem to be willing to travel longer to take them.
Hopefully the airports work will pay off by attracting new customers!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

]

From what I've seen its not the first time they've promoted the route in Exeter and they have also before been down to travel agents in Cornwall as well on previous trips. I think it's more likely that people from Devon and Cornwall would use packages from Cardiff if they are long haul holidays as people seem to be willing to travel longer to take them.
Hopefully the airports work will pay off by attracting new customers!

When the Qatar CEO said that CWL had a catchment of over six million around the time the CWL-DOH route was announced, he must have had in mind areas as far away as Devon and Cornwall. Assuming he would not want to risk diluting his MAN and BHX services he would not have been looking at North or even Mid Wales as part of 'his' catchment at CWL, neither would he have looked at the English counties south of BHX where people usually look to BHX as their local airport.

That could only leave South West England as the major part of his catchment outside South Wales.

I'm presuming - perhaps wrongly and I would welcome a challenge to this view - that packages that might tempt residents of Devon and Cornwall to use CWL would almost solely be long-haul with Qatar, or perhaps winter Caribbean cruise flights with TUI. It's a long way to travel to pick up a deal to Alicante or even Tenerife.

 

[Jerry]

It's a long way to travel to pick up a deal to Alicante or even Tenerife.

I think generally people will travel longer distance to catch a long haul flight rather than a short haul which would be offered local or at Bristol.

 

[Jerry]

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised about this but TUI have dropped Egypt for the winter. It ends at the end of October and begins again in May 2020. I'd imagine that the Monday Tenerife flight which is due to be operated by a non based aircraft will now be operated by the based aircraft. This means that Ryanair's Malta service is the only new route this winter.

 

[Pontyboy]

I wonder how likely it is for TUI to now use Smartlynx/Titan on a TCX scale in Summer 2020 to scale up at airports for Turkey/Canaries. Hoping it won't be too long to have some news in regards to this. Another way they can source out is to sell tickets and potentially rely further on VY for PMI,ALC, AGP freeing up more slots for Turkey and canaries.

 

[Jerry]

I wonder how likely it is for TUI to now use Smartlynx/Titan on a TCX scale in Summer 2020 to scale up at airports for Turkey/Canaries. Hoping it won't be too long to have some news in regards to this. Another way they can source out is to sell tickets and potentially rely further on VY for PMI,ALC, AGP freeing up more slots for Turkey and canaries.

With TUI I could maybe see them adding extra flights to Dalaman and Antalya maybe using Freebird and maybe Tenerife with Norwegian if that could be possible and maybe Rhodes with one of the based aircraft and possibly add an extra PMI. It would fantastic if one of our flights, maybe PMI got upgraded to a Dreamliner but thats just me dreaming!

As well it will be interesting to see if the 3rd based aircraft next summer will be TUI or leased. Leasing in a Smartlynx A321 instead of a 737 could give them a capacity boost without extra flights.

 

[Jerry]

Borrowed the link from the LBA TUI thread.
So hopefully we'll see some of the lost capacity at Cardiff replaced by TUI.

TUI Aims to Fill ‘Gap’ Thomas Cook Left in Greek Hotels | GTP Headlines

TUI is looking to pick up the pieces from the collapse of Thomas Cook, which left behind thousands of stranded tourists and lost hotel bookings in many countries, including Greece.

news.gtp.gr