CARDIFF - 2

[SWBKCB]

With all due respect SWBKCB it was where Cardiff Airport first started discussions with Vueling.

Really? No previous contact with one of Europe's major Loco's? No previous contact with a Spanish Loco when your major Loco routes are to Spain? What do these people do all day?

[merchant sailors]

No contact till routes event

Actually CWL met Vueling and Click Air back at routes in 2006 for the first time.
Long before their merger and before either were large companies.
At that meeting and the following meetings the airlines were curious about the market but not keen on coming into the uk.

Meeting them every year at routes world and routes europe helped to raise the profile and awareness further. It is far from a jolly. Attending these events is all about what the attendees do to make them fruitful. Ask most airports and airline and they will tell you it is a very cost effective method of seeing loads of relevant customers for them over 3 days.

CWL mentioning it in the media this year is more about helping to change stakeholder perceptions. This is crucial this year as the Politicians have been showing little interest in the value of aviation over the last 10 years, until when it finally suited them to take a more pro-active interest earlier this year.

[GROUNDHOG]

The scheduling meetings are a jolly, always have been and always will be. Cardiff Airport needs passengers not Politicians, Planners or Pen Pushers and there are simply not enough of the former. Accept it and tailor what you have to the limited market making revenue from other sources.

[WATABENCH]

4 Easyjets headed to CWL this lunchtime from BRS due WX.

Murcia, Alicante, Nice and Palma.

Enjoy my friends

[Suzeman]

The scheduling meetings are a jolly, always have been and always will be.

The IATA scheduling conferences are a different kettle of fish to Routes. Where else would you find "2,800 senior professionals who represent over 300 airlines and 750 airports as well as numerous governments, destinations and tour operators" under one roof?? CEO's, Vice Presidents, Senior Government officials?? Certainly not at the IATA scheduling conference.

I would suggest that if your airport is NOT at Routes, they will miss a massive opportunity to renew old contacts and make new ones. The fact that Vueling's interest stems from initial contacts at Routes some years ago is evidence that it does work. For the cost to the Marketing Budget of one trip to Routes, you can save a lot rather than if you had to make a number of speculative individual trips to see potential airlines.

And of course if you don't go, airlines will wonder why not and may take it that the airport is not interested in route development. Remember that the airlines are presented with many more proposals than they are able - or want - to take up at these conferences, but will follow up the most interesting in private after the short formal meetings, which is how the system works.

Don't expect instant results, but Routes is one of the best ways to get your ideas out into the market place at value for money cost.

On the other hand the IATA Scheduling conference is mostly about slots at slot controlled airports, with some airports being there to meet airline schedulers mostly.

Cardiff Airport needs passengers not Politicians, Planners or Pen Pushers

I'm sure many other airports share your sentiments. Unfortunately, the real world has these people who need to be brought into the loop. Airports need to inform and influence these people about a range of topics (APD for instance), otherwise they can cause a lot of damage to businesses.

Suzeman

[mathers_wales_uk]

The final count of diverts for Cardiff yesterday were six.

EZY444 Belfast Int - Bristol
EZY6072 Alicante - Bristol
EZY6012 Murcia - Bristol
EZY6114 Nice - Bristol
EZY6040 Palma - Bristol
TCX7175 Corfu - Bristol

Full details of these diverts and all other recent diverts can be found here

[Keyvon]

Lufthansa

Lufthansa is to launch a new route linking Cardiff with Dusseldorf, starting from 4 May 2013.
This is going to be a seasonal summer-only service operated on a weekly basis, on Saturdays, with a CRJ-900 aircraft.
It looks to be a semi-chartered flight for German holidaymakers visiting Wales on escorted tours.

[davidjohnson6]

Is there something particular which appeals to the German psyche to visit places like the Scottish Highlands, Wales, Cornwal and Jersey ?
Dusseldorf seems to be the only urban non-UK European centre with purely seasonal leisure routes to these UK destinations

[cornishsimon]

Well Germany - Cornwall is going full steam ahead.

Germans love cornwall thanks to Cornwall being heavily featured on German TV as a reult of Rosamunde Pilcher books being turned into TV films
Rosamunde Pilcher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The DUS-NQY route stated a few years ago on the CRJ200 i think off the top of my head and had a limited 6 or 8 week Saturday only run.

Now the route runs twice weekly, Saturdays on a mainline 735 and Wednesdays on a CRJ:
Dusseldorf from Newquay Cornwall Airport - Lufthansa increases flights for Summer 2012 | Newquay Cornwall Airport

cs

[mathers_wales_uk]

There are certainly reasons to be optimistic now - Return of German link to Cardiff Airport

Cosmos Florida 50% capacity increase
Vueling 35% capacity increase
Flybe additional weekly flights to Jersey
Thomson additional weekly flight to Malaga
Atlantic holidays additional flight to Madeira
Increase offering by Newmarket holidays
* New Weekly Lufthansa flights to Dusseldorf
* New Prima Reisen charters bringing inbound Austrian tourists to Wales
* New Lowcostholidays.com weekly charters to Palma de Mallorca

[airhumberside]

Is there something particular which appeals to the German psyche to visit places like the Scottish Highlands, Wales, Cornwal and Jersey ?
Dusseldorf seems to be the only urban non-UK European centre with purely seasonal leisure routes to these UK destinations

Helvetic also have a ZRH-INV, and there are quite a few Germany-Channel Island services on Summer weekends (and some from Rotterdam?)

And this Summer also saw some inbound charters from France to GLA, as a gateway to Scotland. EDI also has some seasonal services from continental Europe aimed at the inbound market (Niki, Orbest Orizonia from Madrid for example)

[J-Guy]

Is there something particular which appeals to the German psyche to visit places like the Scottish Highlands, Wales, Cornwal and Jersey?

The German flights to the Channel Islands have done well in recent years. I think the number of German-speaking tourists to Jersey has increased by something like 20% in the last 2 years. This has a lot to do with a good exchange rate, but also because outdoor activities are very popular among German tourists, as well as there being a large number of language students.

I have flown to Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Munich a few times with Lufthansa/Air Berlin (being the only Jersey person onboard) and they always seem popular. Great to see another UK destination getting in on the act!

[mathers_wales_uk]

Some good news coming from Cardiff Airport

Official announcement on Lufthansa route - click to view

Leading German airline, Lufthansa has announced it will be commencing summer services to Cardiff from Dusseldorf starting 4th May 2013.

KLM adjust summer 2013 schedule from Cardiff Airport - click to view

KLM has adjusted the schedule for Summer 2013 operations to and from Cardiff Airport.

[MerchantVenturer]

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.

[TwinAisle]

Perhaps the author has had tea with the Wales First Minister

I think you meant LSD, not tea.

Let me give you a great reason why Cardiff will not outgrow Bristol. THE MARKET. Bristol's is larger, more diverse, more affluent and has a higher PTF.

Notice as well that no-where does the article mention the airport's customers - the airlines. Wonder if Carwyn doesn't want to hear the truth?

TA

[xtypeman]

And the Welsh economy or lack of! Even Plaid admitted that the Welsh economy has been retracting for the past 20 years!......For the rest of the UK only the past couple of years and signs of slow recovery.....

[j636]

A new article found this morning states that 35% extra seats will be offered by Vueling in Summer 2013 from Cardiff compared to this year.

Palma de Mallorca route is still being evaluated.

Palma on sale for 2013 does that mean that there will be more than 35% increase in seats as PMI wasn't on sale when that was announced.

[mathers_wales_uk]

I'm not sure of the exact percentage increase however with all routes expected to operate on an Airbus A320 at present your probably looking at over 50% increase compared to 2012

[AirGuru]

Plans for CWL to be transformed from Regional airport to international hub with £250m

Well isnt this interesting ... http://www.walesonline.co.uk/busines...1466-32133491/ The Western Gateway project wants an investment of £250m into Cardiff Airport in order to become an international hub that can serve fully laden flights to the US west coast etc. The plan is being officially submitted to the UK Government today, so lets hope something comes of this in the future !

[Panther]

Very interesting. I have always thought that Cardiff had the potential to do something big, so lets hope this comes to something. Lets get the road built from the M4 now however..............