Cardiff airport

Arbetis really pissed off Ryanair and it has taken the Welsh Government a lot of effort to secure those Tenerife flights. The problem is Ryanair and easy jet will not base aircraft at Cardiff as Bristol is a base for them. The best we can hope for is a Vueling base. Hopefully the extra rugby flights that Vueling are doing to Paris and Rome may prove fruitful and they decided to get a Cardiff Fiumicino link going.

1. money talks, and if Ryanair or Easy Jet were given enough incentive, they'd shift operations here. They could even keep their staff in BRS - technology is wonderful and allows us to do things like that these days.

2. I can't see one set of flights every two years is going to be a big enough draw for a permanent route.

1) from what I can tell from the internet EasyJet has 11 aircraft based in Bristol. The financial incentive for that would be enormous.

2) it can be used as market research. If it shows that there is a demand then it could provide the basis for a route. Italy is one of the most visited countries on Earth and we have no links there whatsoever.

Didn't realise you were an aviation expert now too Jantra. There's no need to be patronising.

1) from what I can tell from the internet EasyJet has 11 aircraft based in Bristol. The financial incentive for that would be enormous.

2) it can be used as market research. If it shows that there is a demand then it could provide the basis for a route. Italy is one of the most visited countries on Earth and we have no links there whatsoever.

Didn't realise you were an aviation expert now too Jantra. There's no need to be patronising.

I don't think you need to be an aviation expert to appreciate the dynamics of the market. the airport needs routes and that is it. get them and the rest will follow.

I also wasn't being patronising, I was stating the bleeding obvious. you cannot form an opinion about the daily/weekly running of a route based on the biannual six nations. that's madness.

I'm pretty sure you agree that Qatar isn't going to become the worlds number one holiday destination after 2022.

The aviation market is probably the most complex. Just throwing money at something doesn't mean they'll stay. We've seen it with flybe and Helvetic (I believe that's what they're called) and that fucked us over.

That's not what you were being patronising about.

Qatar is a hub airport and therefore is far more desirable to Cardiff than Düsseldorf for example. If we were to get a Qatar link then that opens Australasian flights too.

The aviation market is probably the most complex. Just throwing money at something doesn't mean they'll stay. We've seen it with flybe and Helvetic (I believe that's what they're called) and that fucked us over.

That's not what you were being patronising about.

Qatar is a hub airport and therefore is far more desirable to Cardiff than Düsseldorf for example. If we were to get a Qatar link then that opens Australasian flights too.

I wasn't being patronising so apologies if it came across that way.

I was referring to the 2022 world cup being held in Qatar. A one off sports event isn't going to create a tourist destination or market if it doesn't exist. That's the biggest sporting event in the world. A regional event like the six nations isn't going to drive new routes, if it was going to, it would have happened already

I have to say I do no have a lot of sympathy for the WAG decision in buying the Airport, they have nailed their colours to the mast and it will end badly. Four or five years down the line it will be sold and a large loss at that.

No airline will base aircraft at CWL with Bristols 6.6m Pax just an hour away, no matter what the landing charges.

Even its busiest by far route KLM flights to AMS doesn't attract the numbers it could, even on such small aircraft, they rarely get above 70% load.

A link to a major hub in the middle east is is pie in the sky, you would need at least 3 flights a day to make connections possible and the distance would mean A320/B737 type aircraft are out of the question.

If the WAG concentrated on matters closer to home I might support them.
M4 never ending saga of the Brynglass tunnels.
J33 improvements, WAG gave it to "Griffith Contractors" with their 4 JCBs, might be ready by 2016!!
Balfours would have had it finished by now and built a link to J34
North/South road and rail links are a laugh.

Cardiff Airport future is now set sure!

Nice press release for a sloooow news day:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-30631660

"Long-haul is one of the areas of focus for us," said Mr Thomas.

Presumably Short-haul is the other area of focus?

"We're confident that there will be some announcements in the near future."

I'm also confident of this!

"really positive going into the new year" after spending the last 18 months stopping the decline of passengers and improving the airport.

Has he not seen Novembers CAA Airport Stat's then?

This has turned into Bayscape, if an Airports success was all about spin and press releases then CWL would be equal to BRS, which just get on with things.

I found out there was a direct flight Cardiff-Las Palmas once a week and was all prepared to take it for a self-booked holiday - when I realised that the return flights are from £350 compared to from under £100 from Gatwick. Even with the added travel costs and inconvenience, that doesn't make sense.

Flights are coming back to the sunshine island of Dusseldorf! Pack your thongs!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-sout ... s-30722809