I am absolutely behind TA on this one.
An airline is not going to start a massive operation from Cardiff presented with the current facts:
- Passenger figures nearly halfing in 4 years
- Core routes such as AMS, DUB, CDG, EDI all dropping
- Airlines dropping like flies out of the airport and reductions from many such as WW, WOW, FCA, TOM, BE, TCX. The promised BE expansion still to this day is far off occurring.
I am not saying this is all down to CWL, it's not. As mentioned above the economy has hit the fan and things don't seem brighter for the foreseeable future. New airlines that have come in the Cardiff in recent months have only launched a small number of routes, which goes to show their uncertainty and lack of trust of the S. Wales market. None of these new routes have best start either. MON dropping to twice monthly (you comment on how the flight looked packed, I gauge this is from the Facebook pictures. Remember CWL arrivals isn't that big and they cut out half the flights so that is effectively 2 loads of passengers) , 2L to ZRH won't be around for much longer with loads never about 30% and VY achieving okayish figures for the BCN route but considering this collided with Easter break it doesn't look too good. Also ticket prices for the rest of the summer say it all. And I have got a feeling that with no BCN... there will be no VY.
When Baby pulled out there was a massive gap left in the Cardiff route map and how many airlines jumped at the chance? Not even TOM who has a monopoly at CWL on those routes did. If airlines were sure of the market then they would of been all over CWL like a rash. VY is a start but it is going to be a long uphill struggle, and again they only launched the baby core routes (PMI, ALC) at a low 3 weekly with no AGP, IBZ, MAH... etc which were served regularly by Baby.
I have said this thousands of times... CWL need to support the routes it has currently, get growth on those routes and then airlines may start to consider CWL. Currently it isn't looking great.