Gosh for such a small airport it certainly gets plenty of posts.

I'm going to write in defence of the airport, before John Horne and his colleagues took over the running of the airport it had been neglected for many a year, capital expenditure had been poor to non existent with projects pushed back and back so that when the current hierarchy took over they were faced with a massive project of works just to bring the place up to standard let alone push forward with expansion. Many projects which most at the airport and certainly passengers will not be aware of have gone ahead which have costs hundreds of thousands if not Millions. We are now seeing an expansion of the terminal building, increase and improvement of stand layout and lets face it an increase to over 2 million passengers last year.

We can all stand back and say oh we aren't Bristol, we aren't Manchester but lets just look at what has gone on at the place. I have been here 7 years and have seen a marked improvement in the place.

Most of us with any connection to the airport wish to see it's success and that will most definitely include the MD and fellow board and other members of the management team. It is easy for those working for handling agents etc to say it's crap and nothing is happening but do you truly believe they just sit in their offices not trying to figure out how to make the best of the airport?

As regional airports go it is a lovely little place, airside is so much better than other small regionals I have been too, that isn't to say i don't want it to be improved and yes there is plenty of room for improvement but it is a dilemma for those trying to balance the books, they have to fund these changes and you only do that by the amount of capital you have.

Sometimes unfortunately you miss the boat and when Go was looking for a place to set up Cardiff wasn't in the position it is now, if it was who is to say how things would have been.

Just an aside in defence of Twin Aisle, where he and I may have certain personal differences of opinions he has been in the business of airlines for many a year, perhaps he does come across as arrogant at times, but then who doesn't when they talk about their own profession, his posts are worth reading and directed personal remarks are below the belt.

New routes but WHO is it?
 

Don`t these extra routes sound abit like Flybe`s ground Paris ,Aberdeen,Germany...??
Why does it seem to be refered to as a base if it`s not planned to be one at present??
Anyone know more about the north/south airlink?

North - South Route
 

aparently there will be an announcment in the next month of who has got the contract to operate it. In the last article i looked at it said there were three airlines competing for the contract.

Thanks Mathers,not long then:) Thanks

I'd like to publicly thank Flower for her comments. She is right, her and I have had a few personal differences of opinion, but her views on the airport are, typically for her, spot on. She, like me, comes at this with years of experience of the industry, her in a technical professional role, me in a managerial role, and spookily enough, we tend to reach the same conclusions. If I come across as arrogant, well I am sorry, but it does become very wearing on here reading all the spotter's wishlists for the airport, alongside the misinformed comments of those who think they could run the airport/its airlines/its ATC unit better than those who do. Those of us in the industry - and who are close to the industry in Cardiff in particular - know the players involved, and yes, I have questioned some of their decisions in the past. So has Flower - but in both our cases and others I am sure it is a case of frustration, optimism and to counteract the "Cardiff is a Dump" claims of too many on here. Could I do JH's job better than him? No, absolutely not, and I wouldn't even want the stress of trying.

Cardiff is indeed not as good an airport as many - I'm thinking Dubai, Singapore etc. But it is a DAMN sight better than many airports of its size. I won't name and shame the dozens of regional airports I can think of that come well below CWL in terms of investment, potential, and ease of use.

I am sure if JH and his team had a magic wand, or a shed full of tenners, they would probably start again and build 21st Century airport, probably not at Rhoose, with a mainline station on site, four runways, one amazing terminal and dozens of jetway-equipped stands. They would install chaises longues for all the passengers to wait on, and fountains full of asses' milk for the ATCOs to bathe in, and a free bar and gym on site for all the ground handlers.

But in the absence of a magic wand or shedloads of tenners, they, like all businesses, must do what they can with what they have.

Cardiff is visibly better than it was even two years ago, let alone the seven years that Flower referred to. It is building traffic, and building revenue - perhaps not as fast as many on here would like (myself and Flower may well be in that band!) but what can really be done about it that isn't being done already? Do you think, say, BA would still be there, or Emirates would be there, if the airport gave them zero costs? I don't.

What Cardiff needs is a new, based operator committed to the area. It needs someone to give it a major boost in traffic and pax numbers, to get it through the 2.5-3m mark, and give it serious critical mass. This would then give the team at the airport more clout, more money and more ability to get the better shops, better restaurants, better bars etc that the airport would surely benefit from - but who are not going to give the place a second glance with low footfall numbers.

Perhaps the airport has someone in mind for this. Perhaps they will have to pick up whatever routes they can and build critical mass slowly. Whatever, some of us will carry on banging the drum for the old place!

TA

I do reailise the airport has come on greatly, i just sort off got on my soap box, i will apologise if i offended any one in my comments, and if i came acroos as a bit of a know it all that im not luckily. And thank god we got a PAris route back:ok:

Has this actually been announced by anyone? Nothing on any website I can find....

Well no, the route hasnt even been realesd yet. (That if it is too be realesed). To skeptical, I think not.

Through reading all this recent JH bashing, (And yes I have done this too) I must agree that the whole management team havent done that bad with what they had. There are some similar regional airports who have invested a hell of a lot less, with in some ways a worse management team. But sadly there are realities with CWL, such as the poorer catchment area, certinaley not on its knees, but certinaley not the wealth that the BRS catchment area.

I also read about the woman who was 'chucked' off a EZY plane at BRS going from BRS-NCL, because she had too babies and a stranger had agreed too carry the baby, but EZY wouldnt allow it on child protection rights, anyway back too the point, she was seeing her family in Cardiff, surley if a different airline such as BE came on that route there would be 3 more PAX (Never minding the fact they were ejected). That eastern, although having its own large market from CWL, isnt attracting too many Non-BIZ PAX.

The routes too mentioned are a bit like looking at the current BE routemap from the rest of the UK. We will only tell when the BE_BA debacle is over, and we see a better picture of what will be happening at BRS, and at BE after the merger.

Smile!!!

Totally off the subject of the past few post guys and gals, but it was said some while back, maybe over a year ago, that BA were looking at making a come back at CWL. Could this be why BE are coming in to CWL? Random I know but just a thought!

(EX! :) )BYCREWLGW

BA back at Cardiff? Well, past experience has taught me never to try and double-guess the people at Waterworld, but it would fly in the face of all logic if BA are winding up their regional operation just about everywhere else, only to, in parallel, reopen routes to someone else's low-cost hub.

I have a feeling this rumour can trace its routes back to wikipedia - someone suggested on there that BA were looking to run a 777 service to JFK from CWL. The danger of wikipedia is that anyone can write it, even the terminally clueless....!

It was removed very quickly, but this one seems to be doing the rounds... fuelled no doubt as well by the peripatetic A320 at Cardiff recently...

I would guess flybe are having a pop on the BHD to see what baby do, rather than to pre-empt a BA re-appearance, à la Banquo's ghost.

TA

TA, yeah thats probably where I got it from! Cheers matey!

Peripatetic A320
 

Funnily enough BMED have sent another load of fresh air down the M4 from Heathrow tonight, the first one since the new year.

No doubt it'll go back again around midday.....

I went to Amsterdam today from BRS with Easyjet, plenty of Welsh accents on both the outbound AM flight and return PM one, and different sets of people flying each way. Wouldn't Baby be a better idea if you didn't intend to do a day trip from South Wales?

MH.

Bmed @ Cwl
 

LHR - CWL (Night Stop) - LHR

This is due to having to keep the slot at LHR until it's new route is confirmed.

The reason it has not been operating since the new year, is that offices (im not sure if it was ATC in london) were being moved and no unecessary traffic were to move. This came from BMED ops but i doubt it would take a month to move offices.

According to the flightdeck, Virgin do similar things but they fly a light a/c instead of one of their fleet as it is cheaper on running costs.

I see that Rhodri windbag has said that there is no money for an upgrade of the Road to the airport or the New St Athan facility.

Of course if we didn't have that waste of money called the WAG the money would probably be there, and they are already backtracking from promises made to Matrix. All bodes well.....not

Things are moving at CWL
 

bmibaby flying to Murcia from Cardiff, and upping flight to Faro, Jersey and Palma...

http://info.cwlfly.com/en/news/3/245...l-airport.html

Still

bmibaby
 

bmibaby are fighting back against TOM and flybe:

PMI going daily instead of 3 weekly
JER 3 weekly
FAO 4 weekly

BFS morning departure retimed to 7am instead of the stupid 1020

New route to Murcia 4 times weekly

Taking up slack in the schedule so no 4th aircraft

MB

This WM article came from a young lady who didn't seem to know anything about the field and didn't seem to be listening to the answers she got. I certainly made no reference to Paris and suggest that the entire piece could never stand up to PPrune scrutiny, shall we say? About as accurate as a caption on a Sun Page 3 picture.
Good to see realism among many of the posts now appearing here. We are still predicting pax growth but venture to remark that carriers need to see better yield from all UK airports this year ... 2006 was not good ... so the system should not add capacity in too great a measure. Unless everyone wants to work harder for less money, that is.

Doesn't sound like the WM they're normally so accurate!:}

No truth to this TOM Orly rumour then Peter?

MB

I've heard that rumour, too. :ugh:

nice to see that there will be extra flights by BMI Baby, i'm guessing that means the A/C will be coming in Later at night, S06 seen the ALC come in at 2am if i can recall corectly (if it does then good news for the handling agents). I'm guessing that the paris route was too expensive thats why their adding muricia instead.

What does the scheduling for the 3 a/c look like?


Murcia x 4 (New Route)
Palma x 7 From - From 4 times weekly
Jersey x 3 - From a Weekly
Faro x 4 - From a Weekly
Belfast x 2 - Changed schedule to make better for business pax
Glasgow x 1 - Reduced from twice daily
Edinburgh (Twic Daily) - Stays the same
Alicante ?

Advertising links removed

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The fourth A/C has definetly gone to Birmingham now, but i think it was a close call as it took them so long the make a decision on the last a/c.

I really am starting to get a bit annoyed by baby now, I fly on CWL-GLA every Thursday and Saturday and I always use it as a so called business day return but instead of ramping up Palma they could have sorted this one out instead! Looks like it won't just be me going to BRS and having to use ezy from march now that this is just once per day. Another thing that annoys me is the Welsh accent at BRS on flights like AMS!

And murcia?! Yes its a good route, but what about Rome or even Lisbon? Why can't they show a bit of innovation and try focusing on this so called base a bit more? Now that they have 9, yes 9, based 737s at BHX (with 5 daily Glasgow returns) and just 3 a/c here we all know where their interests lie. I'll make a point of never flying with them again because if they hadn't bothered coming here in the first place with such fanfare maybe we could have had a proper investment by Flybe then. Baby are pathetic and show no vision whatsoever, and the abomination that is the CWL management they need to be chucked out soon, because they have lost my business.

So whos going to operate a Rome route now? And paris, well that was just a joke anyway looks like the airport think thats not important anymore either. Looks like their wishlist will remain just that a piece of paper to ward off ever increasing criticism.

New Routes
 

Its good to see support for CWL Flower and TA. Heres another thought to ponder. If an airport gets a dominate airline EZY RYR or the like it could damp off interest CWL has attracted several different airlines a good case of not all your eggs in one basket. Flybe are trying BHD and may well look at other routes but only using a Dash 8 that limits the oportunitys (sorry guys do not know the performance of a Q400). Airlines have to plan well in advance for any new route. I start this week planning slots for winter 07 and the airline i am currently with already have an outline timetable for summer 08 as well. Operating between point A and B is a culmination of a lot of elements. A/c crew maintenance slots marketing etc etc.... If an operator is going to start ORY this summer then slots have just been finalised. As per Bmed this could be a holding route. Flybe some years ago operated an EXT-LGW twice daily with a Navajo just to hold the slots. Slots at major airports are worth a lot especially at peak times i hark back to Air Wales operation into CDG this was using a Bmi mainline slot that was avaliable at the time. CWL airport long live the wish list keep up the improvments and you never no what may happen!

Continued: http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...73#post3132073