Yes, Pipertommy, it must be a depressing time for my former colleagues at CWL. I guess I was fortunate to enjoy a period of growth in just about every KPI during my brief sojourn. But we didn’t see the credit crunch or even Zoom coming, at the time. Think yourselves lucky – at least CWL hasn’t gone the way of Coventry. But I agree, things don’t look too good right now.
Fixing it won’t just be a matter of waiting for the upturn and presenting hopeful statistics to route planners. There needs to be greater economic activity in south, west and east Wales; support for economic activity in the ten-mile area around CWL itself (including something, anything, that needs incoming or outgoing air cargo capacity); improved rail services from the airport station direct to Swansea/the West and to the Valleys – together with rapid transit from station to terminal); an alignment with Visit Wales that encourages them to point incoming visitors to CWL. Oh, and fewer roundabouts. And a Severn Barrage with a road on it. And a new pricing policy. And a convention centre. And some fresh intellect from Spain. And, and …
No matter how wishful PPruners are about routes and based aircraft, the reality is that CWL serves a catchment area with a much smaller population than Bristol and a far more limited economy. The answer is investment across a broad front to overcome these severe handicaps. Does anyone care that much about it? Probably not.
I imagine Patrick is doing a swan impression at the moment – appearing to glide along while his legs are kicking like crazy under water. Because most of what is needed is completely out of his control, while he is entirely judged by the airport’s performance. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pull some kind of rabbit out of the hat before long, though – he’s been at CWL for well over a year now.