Admittidly the Cardiff-Brussels service is a little low on passengers and not sustainable for any airline but to establish the route for high fare paying business pax this is what the airline has to put up with ( without encouraging the rif raf ) like the 50p seats encouraged from that of the Loco's .
fuzzbear,
I must declare an interest in that I would be regarded as 'rif raf' who likes to travel on low cost airlines when possible given that I have to pay my own fare and do not have the luxury of it being paid for me by an employer.
Why would Air Wales or any other airline not want to attract more pax by lowering the fares a bit? Would it not be better to have forty pax @ £100 than twenty @ £150?
Shoot me down by all means, because I am not an aviation professional, but it does surprise me that the South Wales region cannot fill at least one ATR 42 to Brussels daily (I know the flights do not run daily at present) unless, as you seem to be suggesting, fares are kept deliberately high to attract the 'bourgeoisie'. I have read more than once that the best routes, in terms of sustainability, are those with a business and leisure pax mix. I would have thought that there is plenty in Brussels and places like nearby Bruges to interest the leisure traveller.
I have just returned with my wife after spending a few leisure days in Copenhagen. We would not have done so had we not been able to fly direct from our local airport at a reasonable price. Many others appeared to have the same idea because both outbound and return flights were well-filled (the outbound was virtually full with only a handful of empty seats). There weren't that many 'suits' on board so there is a leisure market out there, surely for CWL-BRU as well.
I really hope that airlines like Air Wales and the new Air Southwest can make a go of it.