I`m an instructor in Swansea and we now avoid Cardiff as its just to expensive!
Sad, its where I learned to fly from and do enjoy mixing it with the bigger stuff (when they had some).
I really struggle to see the problem with allowing GA in at a lower cost?
Why?

In Reply to Blue up

Southside pass required - yes I have the same problem I have an all areas pass for the airfield including south side but if I want to fly privately on the southside then my pass is not valid or so they say.

I must correct you on a few issues (this seems to be the pattern on this web site - people either get confussed or are trying to miss lead others) Mode S is not required for flight in the Cardiff control zone, neither is a transponder Mode A or C for VFR flight (IFR yes it is required by law). You can base an aircraft in a field inside the control zone, however, again by law you have to have a working radio - hand held is good enough and you would need to get an ATC clearance before getting airbourne. This can be done by phone if necessary. Mode S capable radar will be installed in February and operational for ATC to use by August!!

It is not expensive to landing at Cardiff it is the mandatory handling which can add up to £85.

Cardiff is not anti GA it needs the resturant owner on the southside to be able to take landing fees and let pepole in and out securely -as a proffessional pilot I am sure you will agree could lead to all sorts of problems like someone riding a bike down the main runway!!!!

Cardiff is not increasing it airspace, Bristol is to allow aircraft to climb earlier when departing runway 09. Cardiff is involved with this as it controls that part of Bristols airspace.

With the planned mandatory carriage of mode-S it became apparent that my wooden airframe and lack of any generator (hence no fixed radio or transponeder) would've made my aircraft unflyable, thus making the planned strip within the cardiff zone a pointless exercise. Those mode-S plans have obviously been dropped but the original date for mandatory carriage preceded the installation of mode-S capable radar.

Here's a thought Is the size of the Cardiff zone (increased in the recent past? 2006?) justified by the small volume of traffic? I guess this is a side issue and not pertinent to the Cardiff-specific thread.

My aircraft uses about 2 3/4 galloms of Mogas per hour. That makes it about £15 per hour for fuel. Would I really buy a small, efficient aircraft and then spend £85 for handling? Rhoose is not a place I'd want to visit, yet the US manages to have GA friendly ops where pilots are encouraged to visit. Surely having a restaurant, a flying school, affordable shelter/hangars and small landing/handling fees would be the way to generate an income through GA, albeit it would take time and investment.

It would be fantastic to fly from my local airfields. After all, Cardiff and St Athan must be the 2 biggest and best equipped strips of tarmac in the country. The fees are not in the right ballpark for me, though, since the £2400 p.a. cost of parking/landings will buy me 5 years of flying from a grass strip or pay the mortgage interest on quite a few acres of farm strip.

PS £85.50+vat plus £15+vat per day parking, according to the airport this morning! And no free doughnut or coffee!

According to http://cardiffstathan.************* Cardiff Runway closed 21:20 to clear snow.

Shame the BE1436 Couldn't get out just before.

flybe have cancelled the morning rotation to EDI on Easter Monday. I was booked on it, but can't wait until the evening flight (which they offered to put me on). I'm anxious about booking with bmibaby for their mid-afternoon flight as LH could do anything in the meantime and cancel more of their loss-making routes. Looks like I'll be off to LHR to fly with BMI or BA... or BHX is another option as flybe operate from there...

Would BRS be an option for you HDP? EZY423 BRS - EDI 0645.
Sorry CWL thread people, just trying to help him out. :ok:

Thanks for the suggestion WATABENCH, but getting to BRS that early in the morning is not an option! I've re-booked the bmibaby flight at 13:25 so let's hope they don't pack up between now and April! :ok:

Flybe
 

At last some good news for CWL, Flybe will be adding more flights a week to BHD following the withdrawal of WW BFS service. :ok:

Great news. A boost the airport needed :D

Monday- 2 Flights, 11:30 and 19:35
Tuesday-Thursday- 1 flight, 14:50
Friday- 2 flights, 08:40 and 13:50
Saturday- 1 flight, 11:40
Sunday- 2 flights- 12:15 and 16:10

Tom W10/11
 

Hear that TOM operating new and extra flights from BRS for W10/11. Even speculation of a second based 752.Anything extra for CWL or is it the same old story?!

Tom W10/11
 

Just had a very quick look but by the looks of it, its the same as this winter just some minor time changes to one or two flights. :sad:

All on TCX now, they added a few routes this year so fingers crossed they will for W10/11 also.

Its gonna be the same old story our one time 4 summer based a/c and 2 winter based a/c have long gone and will not return!
Shame as the capacity was there! As for Brs increasing there a/c it wont last!

For all you non-believers...... Take a look at the Flyforbeans website.....they are still around....:ok:

Fair point planenut. We'll wait and see what happens when the new website is launched. Lets hope eh?

Further to TOM's W10/11 schedules discussion-I note that their website advertises holidays to Punta Cana as well as La Romana.Is this one of the same as far as a flight destination from CWL as they have seperate airports.
Also note that none are bookable through the search engine stating 'flight is full'. Do they intend operating further dates if take up is apparently that good so early on?
Also note that additional TFS on a Sunday- is that all season?

Airport Terminal
 

Information has been released in regards to the airport terminal development.

News - Cardiff Airport

It is a shame that this will not be ready for the Ryder Cup but it will be better to complete this now and have minimal impact on passengers while the figures are low

Thomson
 

In regards to the cruise flights it will depend if more capacity can be given from Cardiff. I could imagine that they are allready selling the flights from various airports to feed the cruise ships at capacity allready.

However i would imagine that if another airport is selling slower then it maybe possible to switch allocation from there to CWL. This will not happen however if it is another airport from the South Wales catchment area BRS,BHX as they will expect the passengers to travel to them.

This can be seen on many routes by the charter carriers at BRS.

On the other hand they may do nothing and not increase capacity until the following year.

Thomson/La Romana
 

No BRS-La Romana from TOM next winter, nearest alternates to CWL would be EXT, BHX or LGW

TOM - ''Flights full''
 

We have tried to book Menorca for May/June and got flight full message advising using BRS/EMA etc...... Surely others may just book there and CWL suffers again.... can't see the point of this or am I missing something here ???

mrgittins, seems as though there must have been a system glitch as I am freely able to 'book' flights CWL-MAH on Fridays throughout May & June; some of which are considerably cheaper than BRS might I add!

PP ;)