This country has an obsession against Government ownership. CWL maybe owned by the Welsh Government who like a shareholder is investing because they’re looking for a return, wether it’s a direct profit from the airport or the economics that come from the airport in employment, taxes and the rest that will be lost if closed.

2nd Public ownerships only seem bad in this country and the US. Germany (RWE, VW Group, DB), France (EdF, GdF, SNCF) Belgium (SNCB) I can go on! In fact most of the UK rail companies are owned by European public utilities the Dutch, German, France and even the Paris council own our railways!! Our power company’s are owned by French, German and Basque Governments!! MAG and BHX have investments from their local council. Don’t argue they don’t as the councils are shareholders and that’s what shareholders do invest in infrastructure to provide returns. Yes MAG and BHX make profits and maybe they borrow money from the markets but they’ll also receive money from shareholders.

On another note all airports have the same access to Government funds, we have two Parliaments and two Assemblies not forgetting Mayoral assemblies that can invest money. The British Government obsession is London hence crossrail, Thames link, HS1 & 2. Government will spend billions on the infrastructure for LHR RWY 3. So if you live in the Midlands or North West, North East or South West stop going on it’s not fair that Cardiff, Stormont & Holyrood spend their money on this and that, complain to your MPs that all the UK taxes are spent on London! Before anyone says the UK Government subsidies the regions, remember Crossrail, HS 1 & 2 have declared National infrastructure projects ie all UK taxpayers pay for it.

Nothing against Government ownership but it should be fair, open and transparent.

...because some of us remember how awful, unresponsive and wasteful public ownership was. If you're too young to remember filth and endless delays on railways, having to plead for a telephone line, or being at the mercy of service-prevention departments in electricity companies, and support nationalization, you are living in denial of the facts

Walesonline done a report on the aer lingus that diverted in to cwl the other night. The plane was a airbus A320 but the picture shows a Stobart ATR and the report says it had 149 pax on board. Well this is total lazy reporting as no back up done on the report.

Skybus was the model that should have been followed not that of a low cost carrier. It should and could have been so different, the first profit is the best profit. Five passengers paying £200 is better than eighteen paying £50 and when there is only one way to fly from Cardiff to Cork....:=

Haha, they weren't too far off, 169 people on board.

It’s saying on the Southend thread that BE announce phase 2 of Summer 2018 flights tomorrow, not sure if that’s just for SEN or across their network ?

Be interesting to see if there is anything additional for CWL.....

Given that FlyBe are cutting their fleet size I doubt there will be anything significant at any of their bases in the way of expansion - just the usual marketing bluster of lies, half truths and regurgitated announcements that in the real world add up to diddly-squat.

There are gaps in the schedule for all 3 aircraft on various days of the week especially Saturday. I'd be surprised if there wasn't something new whether it is a charter or new route.

The following BE routes/frequencies have been released for sale through until 09SEP18

Belfast City - 11 x Weekly (2 flights daily Mon-Fri, 1 flight on a Sun)
Berlin - 2 x Weekly (Ops on Thu/Sun)
Cork - 2 x Weekly (Ops on Thu/Sun)
Dublin - 15 x Weekly (3 flights daily Thu/Fri, 2 flights Sun-Wed and 1 flight on a Sat)
Edinburgh - 12 x Weekly (2 flights daily Sun-Fri)
Faro - 4 x Weekly (Ops Tue/Thu/Sat/Sun)
Glasgow - 4 x Weekly (Ops on Mon/Wed/Thu/Fri)
Jersey - Showing as dropping from 3 to 2 x Weekly from 16JUN (Ops Mon/Fri).
Milan - 3 x Weekly (Ops on Mon/Fri/Sun)
Munich - 2 x Weekly (Ops on Mon/Fri)
Paris - 10 x Weekly (2 flights op Mon/Fri/Sun, 1 flight ops Tue/Wed/Thu/Sat)
Rome - 2 x Weekly (Ops on Tue/Sat)
Verona - 2 x Weekly (Ops on Wed/Sat)

Flights operated by Eastern to ABZ and NCL are yet to be released for sale past 17JUN18. VLY flights still only on sale until 23MAR18

Cardiff to Minorca - Summer 18
 

Just received an e-mail from Thomas Cook cancelling flights from Cardiff to Menorca next year. They have offered flights from Bristol instead. Bad news for Cardiff.

Shame but on a positive note Thomas Cook have added AYT with an A321

TUI are starting HRG flights as of November 2018, great to see an Egyptian destination back on the destination board too.

Great to see TUI actually offering something new ex CWL as they’ve been pretty short with new destinations here.

New Flybe route to Venice (Marco Polo) for Summer 2018

Starts Tuesday, 27 March 2018 with flights every Tuesday and Saturday - until Saturday, 8 September

Tuesday
CWL 11:10 - VCE 14:30
VCE 15:30 - CWL 16:20

Saturday
CWL 06:30 - VCE 09:45
VCE 10:15 - CWL 11:40

Great to see Flybe adding yet another new destination for Summer 2018, I imagine VCE will be very popular too.

Having the base move to an all Embraer base is a good move and more appealing that the Dash 8 (not that there is anything wrong with that type).

Might we see yet more routes being added before the start of next Summer ?

There is still gaps on Wednesday Saturday and Sunday so I'd be surprised if there wasn't more. Maybe a French route or 2 or Croatia. Prague maybe a possibility as well.

KLM
 

Just seen for the next few days at least the KLM flights have been upgraded to 737.

Edit: looks to be a temp measure doing a dummy booking in dec

What days are they due in?
Flight radar says there are 737s for today and tomorrow but so far today E jets have been turning up.

Ah that’s where I saw it mate.

A few rotations to other UK airports are down as B737 as well. Rear some where it is the 736 model.

The 736 is about the only 737 variant that KLM don't have! (or ever have), AFAIK.

FR24 showed SOU as receiving 737's a few days ago, but Embraers turned-up as usual - so I think it's a glich.

I've checked in for my morning flight to Cardiff from Amsterdam tomorrow and it's down as an E175. It's a shame but not surprising.

CAA stats are in for October 2017.
134,349 passengers passed through the airport during the month up 4.1% on last year. The rolling year was 1,455,115 up 9.2% on this time last year. Atm's 1518 down 2.2% on last year with the rolling year at 17,019 up 8% on this time last year.

Top 5 routes for October 2017
1. Amsterdam 12,021
2. Palma de Mallorca 11,383
3. Dublin 10,583
4. Tenerife South 10,419
5. Alicante 10,381

Top 5 with the most growth for October 2017
1. Berlin TXL +116%
2. Anglesey +60%
3. Reus +50%
4. Heraklion +30%
5. Tenerife South +21%

Iberia Express Madrid route will start again in June frequency unknown at the moment with flights supposed to be onsale from next week.

We had 6 British Airways diverts in this evening.....A319, A320 & A321’s all parked up.....

Shame no widebodies but great to see CWL being used as a divert airport

Was told last night cwl would not get any widebodies as wx conditions for the runway was not suitable for loaded widebodies. Most of the lhr diverted widebodies went to mainland Europe.

Reported elsewhere that CWL did want to accept a JFK-LHR flight that went into the hold above CWL but it decided to divert to Dublin because it was to heavy to land in the conditions.

It’s been reported elsewhere that Iberia Express are expected to return for Summer 2018 with the MAD-CWL-MAD route operates with A320 aircraft - can’t see it showing at present on their schedule but good news there as loads were quite reasonable and promising for a new route.

It's good news for Cardiff. Cardiff needs the route to work and grow to attract other carriers on other city routes.

So far 2018 is looking like a good year for the airport with 4 new/returned routes, a daily wide bodied flight and some new one off charters as well and hopefully more to come from Flybe!

Iberia Express Madrid route will start again on the 14th June every Thursday and Sunday.

It’s great to have Iberia Express back & would have been surprised if they didn’t return in all honesty.

So what’s new so far for 2018?
> QR to DOH
> BE to VCE
> MT to AYT
> TOM to HRG

Plus BE to GCI & now IB to MAD returning.....let’s hope there is more to come.

There is still a slot in Flybe's schedule on Wednesdays for an E175. I roughly calculated the block time as suitable for as far Bordeaux maybe Inverness or Hamburg or the Rhine area. Though they could use it for an extra rotation for say Dublin or Dusseldorf or Edinburgh maybe. Case of wait and see.

A regional French destination would be a good fit for BE and CWL.

I have always said something like BOD, NCE, MRS, LRH or EGC would be good.

Plus also ideal range for the Embraer aircraft too.

Would also like PRG or MJV bacon on the departure boards as were very popular with BMI baby.

It would be nice to have a new French destination so fingers crossed!

Also Cardiff to Naples is Skyscanner's Unserved Route of the Week with 20,000 annual searches.
Next Italian destination for Flybe maybe? Or would even TUI consider a weekly service? Other options from the Naples end would be Easyjet it's biggest carrier or Ryanair it's second biggest carrier.
http://www.anna.aero/2017/12/13/car....4876a-86828221

NAP ? Would have never thought that as being towards the top of the list of destinations. Would assume TUI more than BE ? Or even better FR who seem to be happy just to plod on with TFS & FAO (which is great don’t get me wrong) but would have thought they’d have tested the water with another destination.

I'm going as Dusseldorf for the Wednesday flight

A once weekly flights to Duaseldorf? What on earth would be the point?!

Maybe Flybe can take note from Skyscanner and use the slot for a weekly hop down to Naples.

There is already a weekly flight to Dusseldorf on Saturdays. So if Dusseldorf filled the gap it would go up to 2 weekly. I also believe a German tour operator takes an allocation on the flight as well.

Superbreak have added more one off packages for Summer 18 and Winter 18 for Cardiff Airport.

At the moment this is what's on sale for Cardiff.

Montenegro, Croatia and Adriatic Coast. 3 night break departs 21st September and return the24th September.

Malta: Mdina and Gozo. 4 night stay depart 4th June and return 8th June.

Madeira: Funchal & Island experience. 7 nightstay departing 2nd November and returning 9th November.

http://www.superbreak.com/flight-ho...publishers&utm_campaign=AW85386&stop_mobi=yes