Originally Posted by
caaardiff
CWL is still growing but I think there's room for improvement. Lets not forget this is an average analysis of fare price. Some routes may be performing much better than others. It was an E195 base until earlier this year where it's not 3x E75, so probably more empty seats flying around until those changes. That being said there's a number of domestic routes from CWL that could be downgraded to the Dash. Would a mixed crew base of Embraer and Dash actually make it more efficient?
What we also don't know is if Project Blackbird had payments up front or payments over the term of the contract. I would suspect the latter, meaning continual income from the base over the period of the contract. If it was up front then BE could take the money and run.
I would've thought a consolidation of poor performing routes over base closures would be better. BE could be making good money off some routes which may not be able to be operated if a base closes completely.
My feeling is that BE took money at the front end and Cardiff Airport made money on the back end. There has to be a reason why the 195s have been replaced with 175s but with about the same total capacity. Maybe something written into the contract.