Brussels is a route that doesn't seem to work at Cardiff I know in the last 7-8 years it was tried and failed by both Eastern Airways and Air Wales.
Cork as a leisure route always seemed to attract bums on seats but the yield couldn't have been there with Aer Lingus Regional / Aer Arann as it was dropped. An ATR / Dash8 is a perfect aircraft size for the route and certainly since the Swansea - Cork ferry no longer operates it should be a no brainer. I wonder if Citywing could ever be persuaded to operate it in between the Anglesey rotations.
Venice and Nice may work as a leisure destination but not sure if it would be large enough to operate a weekly service in the Summer. I wonder if Newmarket Holidays will continue to grow the Venice offering in 2014.
We also need to look at Atlantic Holidays Funchal charters who will operate two this year and may further increase them in the future.
I certainly think Faro in Portugal is a no brainer for a destination to be added at some point on a higher frequency than the current 1 x weekly charter by Thomson.
Winter sporting charters to Ski resorts should also make a comeback soon as there's a large void left since the 3 x weekly bmibay to Geneva and the 1 x weekly to Innsbruck & Chambery by Thomson.
I do believe that the airport will be doing what they can to link to another hub for connections preferably in Germany I would imagine.
A major positive sign would be return to
4 x daily Amsterdam (Currently 3 x daily)
3 x daily Dublin (Currently 2 x daily, 3 x daily Th,Fri,Su)
2 x daily Belfast City (Currently 2 x daily)
2 x daily Paris CDG (Currently 1 x daily)
Several opportunities for Vueling who are pleased from the support they have from Cardiff Airport and their friends.
Mahon, Ibiza, Faro (However they tend to operate to Lisbon) there may also be increases on their current routes. I fear Barcelona may be removed but we will have to see. There's also a market to keep Alicante and Malaga year round.
Could there be a market for Pegasus to operate from Cardiff to Turkey.