Cardiff: Route Development & Rumours

[Tinkerman]

I don’t think you can get anymore clues than that … Anymore and you may as well say it !!

Great news for CWL.

One usual poster is spot on.

 

[79MX]

Mounties, Beavers. Anymore clues?

I took it to mean Canada. Westjet have been named in SeanMs post about the new ACL coordination report, so maybe that could be it (I hope)

 

[fly4gigs]

YYZ then?

 

[Jerry]

YYZ then?

If it is then Toronto is the most likely as it's on the Welsh government hit list. IF it is frequency will be interesting.

 

[Samdorob]

IF it is frequency will be interesting.

Twice weekly would be my guess.
I’ll be very disappointed if we don’t know by this time next week.

 

[Qing4theloo]

IMO from YYZ, Air Transat looks to be more likely - they already go LGW, MAN and GLA, and an A330 would take advantage of CWL's slightly longer runway compared to BRS

 

[Jerry]

IMO from YYZ, Air Transat looks to be more likely - they already go LGW, MAN and GLA, and an A330 would take advantage of CWL's slightly longer runway compared to BRS

Air Transat would look to operate an A321neo to Cardiff.

 

[Nuffsaid]

Let’s hope it is WestJet and with a decent frequency more than twice a week. They have excellent onward connections to the rest of Canada, the USA (pre-clearance in YYZ) and Central America and the Caribbean.

 

[Tinkerman]

With YYZ and WestJet, you’d want more than 2x weekly as they do like to sell the connections to other Canadian and US destinations. That doesn’t work so well with such a low frequency, so I would guess somewhere around 4-5 weekly would be ideal for it.

 

[geoff]

So who is the airline, which has been granted 4 weekly slots to CWL, in SeanM's Xpost a few weeks ago which was perceived to be long haul, if it is anticipated to be 4 weekly and is to Canada, I suspect it is Westjet, although Air Transat operated CWL to Canada regularly many years ago, I guess we'll know in the near future.

 

[8mileshigh]

Having followed local and national aviation matters for 60 odd years I am reluctant to rain on somebodies parade but I’m surprised that an airline thinks it can make a trans Atlantic flight work from Cardiff. Even Birmingham at about 15 times the size of Cardiff cannot get such a route.
I accept lots of work has probably been put into trying to secure a service and plenty of research done but the evidence in history of such adventures is not instilling belief that it would last.
I hope for Cardiffs sake it would work but I’m just trying to instill a sense of realism into this debate

 

[Tinkerman]

That’s the million dollar question … And quite frankly, nobody knows.

On the plus side, it’s a route that’s not available from the whole region so could attract a fair number from outside Wales. Of course they’ll be targeting inbound tourism too via Visit Wales, and selling connections through to Vancouver, Calgary, NY, Florida and all sorts of other places.

 

[Jerry]

I hope for Cardiffs sake it would work but I’m just trying to instill a sense of realism into this debate

I think it depends on the airline and what they're looking for as a destination for their passengers and of course they'll want passengers from the UK to fly to their country. Wales as a destination has a lot of history ie castles etc along with the Celtic connection.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Having followed local and national aviation matters for 60 odd years I am reluctant to rain on somebodies parade but I’m surprised that an airline thinks it can make a trans Atlantic flight work from Cardiff. Even Birmingham at about 15 times the size of Cardiff cannot get such a route.
I accept lots of work has probably been put into trying to secure a service and plenty of research done but the evidence in history of such adventures is not instilling belief that it would last.
I hope for Cardiffs sake it would work but I’m just trying to instill a sense of realism into this debate

Some very good points and I often use BRS as a benchmark for routes. If its not served from there, there's likely a reason.

That being said the point about no other options to Canada from the Southwest or Midlands can only work in CWLs favour if people want to avoid London. Similarly with no early morning departure with KLM, there aren't even connection options from CWL.

Historically Canada has always been strong from CWL, but that was well over a decade ago, and markets have changed.

Fingers crossed if it is true that everything is put into the marketing of the route.

 

[fly4gigs]

4 weekly is high.

Was Zoom seasonal?

 

[Jerry]

4 weekly is high.

Was Zoom seasonal?

Zoom started Toronto at 1 weekly then went to 2 weekly in 2008. Vancouver was 1 weekly. I believe both were operated on a 767. Pretty sure any potential new route would be operated on a narrow body.

 

[gulftraveller]

You should hope for a sustainable frequency - twice weekly - and maybe see it grow. I fear 4 or 5 weekly would lead quickly to the route’s demise.

 

[Qing4theloo]

Even Birmingham at about 15 times the size of Cardiff cannot get such a route.

Don't Montego Bay and Cancun count as transatlantic flights then?
Just kidding, I know what you mean. BA and Continental (and probably others) tried a regular flight to JFK and EWR (Newark, NJ) respectively without success. I asked one American colleague I knew and he said he was happy to go with Aer Lingus via Dublin, especially as you could go through US Immigration there.

 

[geoff]

There is a large Welsh Society in Canada, who would be delighted to have a direct flight to CWL, When you consider that there is no direct route to Canada from an airport west of London, it must have some chance of success.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Zoom started Toronto at 1 weekly then went to 2 weekly in 2008. Vancouver was 1 weekly. I believe both were operated on a 767. Pretty sure any potential new route would be operated on a narrow body.

I think the YYZ schedules started as a 767, then one 757 direct and one 767 LGW-CWL-YYZ, and eventually becoming 2x 757 CWL-YYZ only and a 767 CWL-BFS-YVR.

Passenger numbers under Zoom:

2005 - Toronto - 10414
2006 - Toronto - 13954
- Vancouver - 4285
2007 - Toronto - 9318
- Vancouver - 3642