CWL - Lack of Ambition - Welsh Assembly Government
The passenger figures from CWL are truly catastrophic. Action is desperately needed at a strategic level.
Given that we have a devolved government in Wales with primary responsibility for transportation, the Welsh Assembly Government needs to take a lead in pushing for action. However they seem to be stuck on the very parochial north-south link. Whether this is a good idea or not is a moot point, as it is so marginal to building an airport worthy of a capital city of an autonomous country.
To begin with, the WAG has dropped the ball on transport links to the airport, which are a serious problem. Infrastructural links are crucial to success -- a direct rail link and a motorway connection are the first steps.
Next, WAG officials need to work with CWL staff and major airlines both full cost and LCC to build a portfolio of major cities.
If necessary, WAG should facilitate rebuilding a domestically-based airline -- the collapse in passenger figures coinded with the demise of Air Wales.
WAG, in line with its general lack of ambition and imagination, does not seem to understand that the airport is a key entry point to the country; business people coming here should first of all be able to fly directly to CWL and secondly should see this is a slick operation.
Unfortunately the sloth and general jobsworthness that has become dominant in Wales is echoed all over CWL operations - from the security who manage to take as long processing 10 people as STN takes doing 1000, to the staff who regularly leave passengers behind locked doors, to the UKBA staff who clog up the coffee lines in front of passengers.
It's all terribly embarrassing.
In this hypercompetitive environment we need to do far far better.