CARDIFF - 2

[mikkie4]

COULD A CARDIFF- LONDON SOUTHEND WORK?

[Fairdealfrank]

Basic routes to major hub airports at a reasonable frequency and price is needed.

Centre cities

Including an expanded LHR according to one of the versions of "Taking Britain Further" (map of existing and potential new domestic connections - page 14).

[xtypeman]

Mikie 4 in a single work NO. Its been tried to Heathrow (Cambrian) and London City (Air Wales). The railway at the moment is faster to London than a flight can be. It will probably become even faster with electrification.

Xtype

[Cyrano]

Originally Posted by Letsflycwl

let's hope it's more suited to the routes

In what way has the F50 not been suited for the routes? It is slow, true, but the F50 and ATR42 have approximately similar capacity and performance so I would not expect any change there.

The F50s in Cityjet/VLM were owned aircraft which were fully depreciated, so their capital costs were essentially zero. With the sale of VLM, Cityjet now has to pay a wet-lease rate to Stobart Air for an aircraft (including an amount for aircraft rental, plus whatever profit margin Stobart takes). I can see no way in which this could fail to worsen the operating economics of the routes.

[Fairdealfrank]

Mikie 4 in a single work NO. Its been tried to Heathrow (Cambrian) and London City (Air Wales). The railway at the moment is faster to London than a flight can be. It will probably become even faster with electrification.

Xtype

Yes, and there will apparently be some direct (no changing at Reading) trains to/from LHR when the western link is opened.

That's why CWL on a map of new domestic connections in "Taking Britain Further" was a surprise to me.

Guess Heathrow Airport Ltd. know better.

Cambrian was swallowed up by BA, maybe those slots were diverted to long haul routes. LHR was declared full in the 1970s, so scarcity of slots is not a recent phenomenen, and thin domestic routes were the casualties.

[Letsflycwl]

Little bit of good news today in the BBC, Thomson will be using the 787 Dreamliner in CWL flights, I'm assuming the Caribbean winter flights....nice bit of news there !!

On a seperate note, was looking to book a TCX flight for Summer 2015 and can see Orlando in the drop down menu - is this like last year and a one off around Easter or something new planned ???

[AirGuru]

MCO has remained in the list since they operated the one-off flight last April or so.

Good news about the 787 usage by Thomson, along with extra capacity on MBJ for next winter. Maybe its a pre-cursor for some long-haul routes from CWL for Summer 2016 ?

[Letsflycwl]

Now that be good, the return of TOM long haul....hope that materialises !! SFB, CUN & POP like they used to do before they hopped across the channel to BRS.

[AirGuru]

CityJet's CWL operations are to be upgraded to an ATR72 from Stobart Air from 30th March 2015. Assuming they are taking advantage of the routes dropped from SEN ?

On another note, there is still no sign of JER going on-sale despite being told numerous times it would be with CityJet, and GLA has seemingly gone for good (without any announcement superceding the one notifying us of a suspended service).

TOM has also announced an increased W15 offering from CWL with an additional rotation or two.

Links Air should hopefully announce more CWL routes shortly as per their initial press release, and I am also hopeful for more positive news shortly ... I'm remaining hopeful for growth for 2015 !

Hopeful is the word predominantly used, adequately describing CWL's fortunes in the last few years.

[Letsflycwl]

Good news if WX do upgrade to the ATR72.....more modern than the current ATR42 !!

Where could Links Air actually operate too though with their J31 ? I'm guessing at GCI, JER or IOM possibly ?? Any suggestions or guesses ??

Let's hope 2015 brings on some well deserved good news for CWL with new routes and airlines.

[AdamThePassenger]

Hopefully the new Links Air flights materialise soon, now they have the PSO contract I can see CWL becoming their new base as opposed to DSA.

Adam

[Letsflycwl]

But where could or would Links Air operate too with the J31's ? Any suggestions ?

[globetrotter79]

Limited weekly frequencies in summer only on CWL-IOM (no APD payable on 19 seaters on the IOM-CWL sector, plus opportunity to swap aircraft in IOM between the CWL and DSA operations if schedules are aligned??), possibly CWL-GCI too?

[Letsflycwl]

That's what I thought, Manx/BA Express used to operate a similar service to IOM, JER & GCI. A J31 be quite suited for these routes and will tie in with the VLY route too.

When would they announce ? I see they were advertising for a base representative at CWL that closed on 8th Dec....so hopefully soon.

[SWBKCB]

Surprised nobodies picked up on this?

Former Deputy First Minister insists massively subsidised air service is good value - Wales Online

and a bit of comeback..
Aviation expert savages Ieuan Wyn's defence of 'wasteful and polluting' north-south air link - Wales Online

add Holland to the list? Also like the way the same picture is used on both stories but with two different captions?!

Also this one:

BBC News - Cardiff Airport's long-haul flights aim

[MerchantVenturer]

All these linked articles have been discussed at some length on a forum dedicated to Welsh aviation which seems to be the main web conduit for CWL discussions these days.

[AirGuru]

Some form of positive announcement is due at CWL this week ...

[Fairdealfrank]

N-S Wales flights

Would also have thought that a link between CWL and CEG made sense, as that part of North Wales (Denbighshire and Flintshire) has a much larger population than Anglesey and therefore greater usage potential.

Also surprised that Cardiff-Anglesey by train is only 5 hours, thought it would be longer.

[davidjohnson6]

Would also have thought that a link between CWL and CEG made sense

Problem is that Cardiff to Chester takes 3 hours with a train roughly every hour, making it more difficult to justify an air link on a long term basis

[Letsflycwl]

What positive news ? Any ideas ? Let's hope it's exciting and more than a new IOM or GCI service (even though that be great), let's hope it ties in the the recent long haul ambitions if CWL that was on the news last week. Fingers crossed CWL