Hopeless airport management
I've been through Cardiff on a couple of trips in the past few weeks, and have been trying to put my finger on why the experience is so utterly depressing. Here are just a few possible causes
1) Food - definitely the worst I have experienced at any airport, and that's if you can get served. They serve utter rubbish, at horrific prices
2) Public transport - the half-hourly service can't come soon enough. Hardly anyone takes the bus because an hourly pattern is totally impractical. The last thing you want on returning home is a 59 minute wait because you just missed it. And even if you're lucky enough to have a bus for your outbound flight, chances are you'll be coming back in the evening and be stuffed anyway because it stops so early.
3) Information for arriving passengers - absolutely no public transport info available at all (they've even closed the info point in the departures area now). Last week there was a comedy scrap of paper wrapped around a lamp post with the bus times on it
4) Security staff - undoubtedly the rudest I've encountered, and take pleasure in confiscating all manner of things regardless of whether they are on the Dept for Transport list of proscribed items or not
5) Security - incidentally, what's the point of confiscating a knitting needle, and then making metal knives and forks freely available in the bar after airside?
6) Lack of public engagement - I've tried to correspond with the airport on their public email address and got absolutely no reply
7) Information screens - what idiot decided they should alternate the gate information with full-screen captions saying 'Cardiff Airport'? Massively annoying.
8) Road access - the whole place is just a maze of bollards and concrete obstructions now. Nobody seems clear where to go, including the bus drivers. It's a total mess.
9) Who the hell decided to adopt the addresses cwl.aero and tbicardiffairport.com as their web domains? Might as well call it youwillneverguessourwebsiteaddress.com
All of which makes me think that the people in charge just don't have a clue about the experience of passengers using the airport, and until they do it's very unlikely that the environment is going to be conducive to more carrier coming in and any significant development.