Cardiff: Infrastructure & Construction Updates

[mathers_wales_uk]

Just an addendum, I notice on my way to work this morning that a Flybe E175 was parked with airbridge attached (Airbridge 7) so it goes back to my theory regarding training.

 

[Jerry]

I'd imagine that the staff they do have trained would be scheduled mostly for shifts when Qatar would be due in and out.

 

[Jerry]

With the airport now having an extra £21 million to invest in facilities what do people they should invest it in or will invest it in?
Me personally I wonder if they could build some sort of covered walkway to the car parking and drop off/pickup zones from arrivals and departures and the car hire.
Or build a new lounge upstairs!

 

[aviatorconcorde]

With the airport now having an extra £21 million to invest in facilities what do people they should invest it in or will invest it in?
Me personally I wonder if they could build some sort of covered walkway to the car parking and drop off/pickup zones from arrivals and departures and the car hire.
Or build a new lounge upstairs!

some refurbished toilets in arrivals wouldn’t go a miss. A little tatty.

 

[Jerry]

some refurbished toilets in arrivals wouldn’t go a miss. A little tatty.

I've never used them but i have heard a few complaints about them.

 

[Sean123]

I feel the whole arrivals procedure needs a revamp, ie the whole climb up the stairs, turn the corner and go back down, there were lots of grumbling from the elderly and young families when we last used the airport in Sept

 

[Foxlimayankee]

I had heard the Western walkway was to get a revamp, maybe it's a whole new walkway planned.

 

[Jerry]

I feel the whole arrivals procedure needs a revamp, ie the whole climb up the stairs, turn the corner and go back down, there were lots of grumbling from the elderly and young families when we last used the airport in Sept

I had heard the Western walkway was to get a revamp, maybe it's a whole new walkway planned.

That's the walk from stands 11,12,13 and 14? I've never arrived at that part of the airport probably because most of my flights are with Flybe and KLM. It does get mentioned quite a lot on social media though. I possibly wonder if they could do a new boarding pier at the same time?

 

[mathers_wales_uk]

The Walkway from Stand 11-14 received was built in 2007 if I’m correct.

I can’t however see how they can improve the whole going up and down because of the infrastructure of the airport.

The gates however are not large enough to handle efficiently aircraft on a short turnaround.

The best gate at the whole airport when I was working was Gate 11. That gate however could only comfortably handle up to a E195.

There is a ACC meeting being held next week so wonder if any light will be shed on what’s happening.

 

[Jerry]

If they do revamp that area it will be interesting to see how they get around the need to go up and down and get rid of that so it's just a straight walk through.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

There's no possible way to have a ground floor only arrivals from the Western side because of the baggage sortation area location.
What can be done though is a more freeflowing walk.
To give an idea of the walk, when arriving from 12-14 you walk in to the edge of the walkway and around to where Stand 11 arrivals come in, then it's 2 flights of stairs (or easy lift access), at the top come back on yourself then walk along adjacent to the terminal building until getting near Stand 10. This is where there's a short flight of stairs up (with a basic open lift), in to the old immigration corridor, then a narrow staircase back down (with lift access) and in to the arrivals area. In reality it's not that bad, but it is a bit of a mish mash. Whatever Airport you go to, because of the separation of arrivals and departures, it's a high chance there'll be split levels.
The outbound gates themselves are of a very basic design. Basically just containers put together with some lino flooring and a few wooden bench/chairs for disabled passengers, little else.
Ryanair usually use Gate 13, and although it probably won't bother Ryanair themselves, as it's regularly used for their flights there may have been numerous complaints from passengers. It's been in use as Mathers says for nearly 13 years and has always been functional, but maybe now as funds are available, it's time for a revamp & upgrade. It was always meant as a temporary structure, so maybe it's reaching it's shelf life.

 

[mathers_wales_uk]

It was a stupid design down there. If your boarding at gate 13 with 189 passengers you cannot easily board from Gate 14.

What the airport is hugely missing and that is holding gates. Gates where you can pre-pull then passengers can be held in the holding seating area until called Forward for boarding.

The way it is achieved at Gate 13 is not ideal as it actually uses Gates at 13 and 14.

Gate 11 has a holding gate but not large enough.

Gate 4 has a smaller holding gate also but even smaller than Gate 11.

What is needed is some clear thinking and also not looking at what needs to be done now to overcome obstacles but to plan ahead.

Without doing so it is going to cost a lot of money in the long run. The Western pier was an example of that where it was the right idea however wrong size gates.

Another obstacle for the airport is actually a lack of tarmac for parking. There has been so many large events where the airport has failed to fully utilise the potential parking areas and converting the lot of wasted grass into tarmac.

This Would be purely a speculative investment in the hope that the ICC Wales will generate a lot of high profile events along with more in the Principality Stadium. Plus of course the amount of area available for diversions be it widebody or narrowbody.

 

[Jerry]

With the western end of the airport I wonder if instead of just revamping the walkway and a few gates the airport might go bigger and build a new pier roughly where the old one was and concrete over the grass to move the 6 pack of stands there?

 

[mathers_wales_uk]

I remember the original Masterplan had the pier extend further westwards over stand 13.

Instead of a Six Pack the stands would face each other.

This however meant that the disused would have had to be re-opened and also the buildings near the hire car company be replaced.

In my opinion the airport on the northside could extend tarmac off of Echo to increase the parking area. This however would be outside of the CP but the CP can be extended.

There is also likely to be room on Stands 4/5/6 Eastwards which could create an additional Stand within the CP.

Stand wise however within the CP there is obviously ample room as Stands 15-17 are rarely used along with 4-6.

I personally would like to see more tarmac Southside with an extension of the Cambrian Apron or Concrete coming off of Golf to extend a parking area. I don’t think however the airport would invest in something like this but the airport could certainly handle far more executive aircraft in hi-profile events.

As mentioned previously I think it could be the Western Pier and maybe some toilet facilities added too as that’s usually another complaint customer have.

Another possibility could be to expand the cargo facilities/re-locate them.

It’s hard to think what will cost around £21m but of course doesn’t mean it will be spent on one project and immediately.

 

[Jerry]

It’s hard to think what will cost around £21m but of course doesn’t mean it will be spent on one project and immediately.

The timeframe is supposed to over 6 years so could possibly be several smaller projects and of course it doesn't mean that the airport has to spend the entire amount of the loan as well. It'll be interesting to see if there are any works this winter as with Flybe now not basing 3 aircraft the western part could be shut down to be worked on without causing much disruption.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

This is the closest thread I could find in which to pose this question. How many stands are there at CWL that can take wide-bodied aircraft?

 

[Jerry]

This is the closest thread I could find in which to pose this question. How many stands are there at CWL that can take wide-bodied aircraft?

3.
Stand 10 can take a 767, Stand 7 up to A350 900 maybe a 777 and Stand 6 up to a 747.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

3.
Stand 10 can take a 767, Stand 7 up to A350 900 maybe a 777 and Stand 6 up to a 747.

Many thanks.

 

[mathers_wales_uk]

Stand 10 - B767 no longer due to restricted movement of airbridge. Max A320family I believe.
Stand 7R - B787-9 (A350 encroaches the taxiway begins & inaugural QR flight was only incurrence and closed stands 1-3)
Stand 6 - B777-300/B747-400/A340
Stand 2 - B767/A330 but would result in closure of Stands 1 & 3 and possibly 7R

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thank you for that detail, mathers.