Cardiff Airport has the potential to grow passengers to three million - Business News - Business - WalesOnline
This newspaper report presents a glowing almost messianic view of CWL's future. Perhaps the author has had tea with the Wales First Minister.
It concludes:
While it has to be seen as a long-term turnaround, there is no reason why Cardiff Airport, cannot reach three million passengers a year by 2020 – with a target by 2025 of overtaking Bristol – as a result of a focused public-private partnership approach and investment in transport infrastructure significantly widening Cardiff’s passenger catchment area.
That would be some performance because passenger figures would have to treble in the next eight years. They would then have to rise from 3 mppa to probably at least around 8 mppa in the following five years from 2020 to 2025, because if CWL was performing that well it can reasonably be anticipated that economic conditions had improved to the extent that other airports would have also enjoyed better fortune. 8 mppa would be the likely BRS minimum figure in 2025 in such market conditions - unless the Wales First Minister knows different of course for it was he a few months ago who said that CWL would catch then overtake BRS.
The optimism seems to be based on a new spirit of co-operation between airport, local interests and state; a hoped for improved rail connectivity; better bus services to the airport; the can't-see-why-it won't-happen arrival of a major low-cost player with Jet2 the favoured entrant; links to the East with such as Emirates; expansion of Lufthansa to bring in many thousands of toruists each year; more inbound tourism charters; devolvement of APD to Wales.
It all sounds like a political party manifesto.
If half of this happens it will be some journey.