Why not Cardiff???

[pipertommy]

Why is Cardiff lacking airlines,routes ect.Most airports in Britain have news of major developments happening,but nothing at Cardiff.Just seems to be the same few routes are passed between carriers!Dont get get me wrong its a nice airport,but i guess thats not enough! Example the loss of of New York route to Bristol ?

[taffman]

Pull it down

Why dont they pull it down and build a real airport instead of the place that is full of stairs. The man who designed it must have had shares in a step building company. It rubbish and should be pulled down. I worked there and lived only 7 miles from the place. It was bad when it opened to replace the terminal across the runway and is even worse now. It took years, decades for them to build a ramp down into the sunken carpark to get a baggage trolly down to your car, let alone from the terminal building out to the stairs that took you down to the sunken carpark.

Why would people pay to cross the seven bridge to use an airport when they can get better flights from Bristol. Bristol has a much bigger catchment area than CWL. Just look at the place. Cardiff is only a short trip up the M4 to LHR & LGW. A train almost every half hour to London.

Cardiff airport is doomed to be a back water place and never a leader, just a feeder. The fares out of there are just sky high, lots of pun intended.

Think a bit first and then you will get the picture yourself.

Have a plane day

Taffman

[speedbird_heavy]

Cardiff has a major re-development in the pipeline. There is allready improvemnts to the rail and bus links being planned. Now the flying club has closed down, it would make sense to build a new "international" terminal southside and keep the current terminal for domestic/low cost flights instead of just tarting it up.

As for the New York route, TBI didn't push as hard as Bristol. All TBI played on was the length of the runway and sat back thinking that it would hand them the contract, whilst Bristol really made an effort and hats off to them, they won the contract.

[pipertommy]

Just have the feeling that the place is going backwards!When Bmi baby opened its base the airport changed over night,737`s in and out all day!went to 3 a/c from 2a/c now its back to 2 and a rumour of dropping to one 737! (the club is open again but now known as "Cardiff academy of aviation".Gutted the building and re-fitted it,excellent job!)

[nickmanl]

Cardiff are never going to be a major player whilst they are run by TBI. Everybody knows that TBI also owns Luton, which is their main focus airport. TBI is desperately trying to push Luton further in an attempt to break into the top 5 airpots in the UK. They have already sold other bits and pieces to raise the money to invest in Luton.

Perhaps when Luton is saturated (which could be one hell of a wait) they may focus on Cardiff, but I wouldn't hedge your bets on it.

[MerchantVenturer]

tommy

I have never worked in the business though civil aviation is an interest of mine, especially as it affects South Wales and South West England, because this is where I live and from where I want to travel. I tend to think of it as a combined region for air travel because CWL does have some flights that BRS does not - to Florida for example.

As to the EWR service there seemed to be a perception in Wales including the transport/aviation academics that CWL's longer runway would win the day - I read a paper from a Cardiff academic on this very theme several months ago.

As an outsider to the industry and thus taking a layman's view, I am surprised that CWL has lagged behind in recent years - they must be disappointed with bmibaby despite that airline's Tony Davis's fine words.

Surely somone must step in and try some of the current popular low cost destinations such as Barcelona and Budapest.

It has been said that developments are afoot at CWL including a railway connection, albeit opinion is divided amongst the 'experts' as to how effective this will be. At present I understand only hourly local trains will stop. The hope is to get the long distance trains to call there but if they did some think that the number of pax would not be significant. Only time will tell.

A hotel is being built next to the airport so that might help a bit. CWL does have piers from where you can walk straight onto the aircraft. BRS does not, even in the new terminal - the lie of the land and planning problems prevented this type of a/c access.

For many years in the 70s and 80s CWL and BRS had very similar pax numbers - it has only been in the past ten years that BRS has pulled ahead, and especially since 2001 with Go, later easyJet.

With Cardiff's position as Welsh capital and the influence/indirect financial backing of the Assembly and WDA, I cannot think there will not be some real improvement in CWL's fortunes.

Someone like ThomsonFly might well be looking and thinking that they could make a much better fist than bmibaby seems to have done.

Although my local airport and the one from which I invariably fly out of is BRS, I do have a soft spot for CWL and hope to see an improvement in services there very soon.

[speedbird_heavy]

CWL does have piers from where you can walk straight onto the aircraft

The airbridges need to be replaced. Apparently they are ex Birmingham Airport and have two axis of movement. Up and down and fore and aft. If an aircraft dosn't stop bang on the line, its call for the tug and push it back (and we all know how long it can take to find a tug driver at cardiff). But the best part about the airbridges is, they were designed to fit a 737 but CWL decided to put them on concrete blocks to raise them. They no longer fit on a 737 and this is the aircraft that operates most from CWL.

[dada]

why not cardiff - IT'S IN WALES. nuff said

[kala87]

Nickmanl: Luton is saturated already - with bizjets! Didn't they have 65 visiting on a recent day, many of them from the US?

[Allanhu]

I am a GA pilot flying out of Cardiff, and I do like Cardiff International Airport, after all, it is MY local airport. But, when it comes to family holiday's, and I like going to Italy, I cannot get a flight from Cardiff. The only options open to me are either Gatwick, or Bristol.

I have asked lots of people why this is, but none of them can answer the question. I want to support CWL, but if the flights I need, don't fly from CWL, what can I do??

[No_Speed_Restriction]

I must agree with Speebird_Heavy, The air bridges have definately seen better days. Also, use of southside for a new terminal would, in my opinion, be a sensible option. I always found that, for the physical size/looks of the airport from the outside, inside it doesnt offer the capacity/room it should give passengers.But thats my opinion.

[speedbird_heavy]

and I like going to Italy

I Cardiff's defence, EAC operate a weekly flight to Verona.

edited to say: during the summer season

[nickmanl]

kala87: Yes luton does have a lot of bizjets arriving, but they have got space for the bizjets, they don't take up parking space for the commercial liners. The runway at Luton can handle 30 movements per hour if needed.

Perhaps I should of said that TBI will focus on Luton (i.e. expanding it as much as they can etc) before they can expand no more.

Its only a night that Luton's stands are completely full with EasyJet and Ryanair not doing many night flights. Hopefully this problem will be eased when/if the temporary Easyjet tent is moved which will free up another 2 stands. There are also additional stands in the plans.

[LTNman]

2 new stands are under construction at LTN together with bringing stand 9L back into service for 737 use. With the move of the easyjet tent this will add a total of 5 new stands.

[pipertommy]

I think it would be hard to build on the south side because of the road link through rhoose(small village).How could you bypass that .Best bet would be to flatten it(as mentioned before),have stands/parking where the terminal is,and the terminal,not portercabins, on the car park area.Add some airlines some at the right prices.And the paxs will come. I`ll keep dreaming.

[speedbird_heavy]

Take the road down towatrds Llantwit past BAMC and bring the road in near the cement works. Very few houses and a lot of space for parking.

[pipertommy]

Good idea!Did`nt think of comming in from that side,probably work.And it would be the side for rail link? think a cash injection is required or cwl will suffer badly in the future.Or suffer more

[flower]

Designs for a new terminal building and a large increase in stands have already been drawn up. The terminal would remain North Side but further back from its current position. The current car parks would be altered to become multi-storey Car parks and there would be a new tower.
The designs on the face of it look good. There is however a problem in that the Airport Authority will not consider the development until ,we have heard , the airport has an annual turnover of at least 5 million Passengers.

The rail Link will no doubt help, a road link would help more. The marketing team at Bristol have really done an excellent job in selling Bristol, yes we don't have the same catchment area but I have no doubt should Cardiff acquire such a dynamic team we could considerably increase the services available at Cardiff then it would just be a matter of time before the impressive new terminal could be built.

[pipertommy]

Thats going to be a good few years off then,hope Air Wales employs a couple more ATR`S! New tower lucky you`s,what about the protacabin shantee town over the other side,forgotten about again!!!! only joking ! Think the next thing should be to rip down the domestic pier,what an eye soar .

[flower]

There was talk that the old domestic pier would be pulled down over last winter but as you see its still there. Part of the problem with that is Asbestos it is full of the stuff. It makes good sense especially with the 5 ATRs now operated by Air Wales to knock down that old pier and renumber the stands.
The asbestos issue though i think stands in the way.