Originally Posted by
TOM100
i don’t fully agree with that last statement - the airport is fully in charge of a large chunk of their operating expenses and commercial activities. That’s like saying my local shop can do nothing unless customers walk through his door (which in the literal sense of course is correct) but if he has a commercial strategy to offer a diversified range of products, keeps his pricing keen, markets his shop intelligently and keeps his overhead costs low so he can invest in the former - he stands a better chance of getting people through the door and making money.
if the customers don’t come in the volume he needs - he needs to adapt by reducing cost to adjust to the volume reality, adjust his strategy, go out of business or hand over to someone else with new ideas and more forward thinking who can make a success of his business. He doesn’t have the option of saying well what can I do I am at the complete mercy of the customers who won’t come !
And the problem with their operating expenses is that they do not fall in proportion to the numbers of passengers the airport handles, and the balance sheet only worsens if they try and buy their way out of trouble by pretty well paying airlines to operate from the airport. I just wonder how much did Flybe actually contribute to the airport's koffers. I would suggest that directly it did little, and the business routes such as the domestics are largely travelled by people who don't spend in the shops and may not even park in the car parks.
Then the other issue you have is the relative wealth of the catchment area, and it is undeniable that the per capita income on the English side of the Severn Bridge, and the catchment for Bristol is very much higher than you'll find in South Wales. That means that airlines have to think very hard before investing equipment and marketing to a spread of destinations such as Bristol enjoys. Some routes that are good earners from Bristol probably wouldn't work from Cardiff. That's a shame, and it will take a lot of hard work from the Welsh Government to get the inward investment that will lead to increased wealth, and help Cardiff airport.
That doesn't mean for a moment that Cardiff is a basket case, things were going in the right direction until the double whammy of Flybe's demise and Covid-19 reared their ugly head. Cardiff is probably no worse off than many UK airports at the moment, aside of probably EMA because of it's cargo operation. Passenger wise it's still dire.