Originally Posted by
PDXCWL45
The bigger airport has much lower costs, it has the economy of scale and if you look at Bristol in particular it sits in one of the wealthiest areas in the country and with the large Easyjet base is able to attract passengers from much more than it's local area which then drains passengers from other areas away from other airports and that is magnified with their monopoly on Easyjet for the area. An airport like Cardiff can't compete with that hence why the playing field in my opinion isn't level. It's tilted very much in the favour of the larger airport and always will be. Though up until the Flybe announcement i do think the airport has been doing a good job of recovering.
As for Welsh government ownership there isn't a large amount of subsidy from what i've been able to find out. Yes they struck a marketing deal with Qatar Airways but the West of England combined authority can do the same, obviously budgets are different but they can still do it and of course the UK government could've done it as well. The money for the e-gates was a grant because CWL was too small to get them free off UK border like bigger airports can. The other money comes in the form of a loan facility which is paid back at commercial rates and has to come from the WG as if they went to a bank the amount would be deducted from the block grant every year.
As for APD tipping the scales in CWLs favour it won't it'll just level things up a little bit but the scales will always be in the favour of larger airports like Bristol.
Just my opinion and i'm sure many on here will disagree.
Thanks for sharing.... I understand where you're coming from better now.
Personally, I don't think the scales are tipped in the larger airports' favour.... It's just that the market - for the reasons you've identified - has chosen the larger airports. I'm sure others will disagree with me too(!), but the only scale-tipping has been the intervention of the Welsh Government in the market.... be it APD, the Qatar marketing deal, grants for e-gates or the purchase of the airport itself for more than it's value. All of this because the airport is unable to compete (or offer the services the WG think it should) without State aid. So I kinda understand why Bristol might be grumbling.
Given the flyBE withdrawal, I'd argue that even WITH State aid it's sadly struggling. I'm also not sure the Welsh tax-payer is getting value for money. Particularly when the levels of support are so opaque!
Back in 1990 Cardiff was the 15th busiest airport in the UK and Bristol was.......14th. A difference of about 180K passengers per annum. How did Bristol go about transforming its fortunes relative to Cardiff? What were the opportunities it took and the challenges it addressed? How did it lure passengers over the Severn? How can Cardiff grab back market share? I don't think State Aid and an unequal regulatory/tax environment were a factor in Bristol's success and they aren't the answer for Cardiff now.
BTW I used to be one of the (few!) frequent flyers on the Air Wales LCY and more recently on flyBE. I'd love the airport to be doing better and for there to more services (esp LCY - I live in SE18)!