Free landing, navigation, parking..........

That is an unwritten subsidy based upon the published tariff of charges. The airport may have it's own fund to financially support new routes or airlines. Wizz will be paying Cardiff airport nothing (or very little) for a pre-determined period. This in the hope that Wizz can develop a money making operation for their shareholders. Plus, sustaining jobs after the JRS.

I'd say pretty standard stuff for most airports especially small ones. The airport will earn its money off ancillary revenue from the footfall they bring through the airport.

Eastern Airways have taken Anglesey & Belfast City offsale for Jan & Feb.

Anglesey resumes 1st March 2021
Belfast City begins 12th March 2021

Looks like KLM won't be resuming flights until 28th March

I dont think they will start on that date. Its nice to see they put a date.When they do start i recon it will start off at 1 per day.

Well we'll have to wait and see. That is the start of summer and I believe it's down as 2 daily.

QR @ CWL
 

Rumours circulating on the socials and other sites that QR are to pull the plug on CWL (and BHX)...

Rumour only! As per the name of this forum. Don’t shoot the messenger :rolleyes:

Apparently they made some staff at Cardiff redundant and they were told the route won't be resuming but the flights are still onsale at the moment.

I’ve just been looking on Qatar’s website for their destinations in Europe but I couldn’t see Cardiff as a destination on their list. If someone can find it I apologise but I couldn’t see it

CWL is showing on the map on Qatar Airways website......just looked out of curiosity

fanrailuk

My Field Agents tell me the earliest QR will return is 2022 if at all . If this is correct very sad news indeed.

Expected tbh. Going to take a while for everything to recover and unlike Dubai Doha isn't a point to point route but more for onward connections especially for Australia and New Zealand.

While sad news, I think it is clear that very little long-haul travel is going to happen in 2021. The chances of Australia, NZ, Thailand, Malaysia (some of the main markets from CWL) opening their borders this year to Brits to travel relatively freely before the end of the year is small to none. Hardly surprising when you think in those circumstances.

Will be interesting to see whether Qatar cancel or just suspend the route.

Now that several neighbouring countries have lifted their sanctions against Qatar, it may be that Qatar Airways have more profitable places to use their fleet.

CWL was always going to be a marginal route for QR, but there could've been more economic desires between Wales and Qatar along with the route.
RedDragon makes a good point. The majority of people using the route were connecting to Australia & New Zealand, and there's no sign of that demand returning just yet.

I've done a comparison of passenger numbers vs BHX and EDI. Although EDI started at 5 weekly, with CWL at 7 weekly, CWL actually carried more passengers in it's first year. With the right frequency and continued growth I would've expected CWL to break the 100-110k passenger figure in 2020. Obviously Covid has decimated any potential to grow in the short term, or even make the route viable over the coming months.
If true, and it certainly appears that way, it makes sense for CWL to at least be suspended. A return, if at all, in 2022 makes sense.
Also lets not forget that QR operated to quite a few smaller demand and marginal Airports across the world. What we don't know is where CWL falls in comparison to other worldwide Airports. If anything the UK market is one that will likely recover quicker, with people craving to go on holiday and also travel the world to see family and friends that they've missed out on seeing in 2020 and even 2021, especially in Australia/NZ.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8fc10629da.jpg

They launched Pattaya, Thessaloniki, Mykonos and Gothenburg around the same time as Cardiff and none are onsale as direct routes anymore.

But without the competition of EK going gangbusters barely 40 miles along the M8...

QR post Covid19
 

A direct quote from Akbar Al Baker at a CAPA Live event today;

”Qatar Airways will serve all the routes we had launched after the blockade and what we had launched before the COVID restrictions happened...”

Make of that what you will.

He is the definition of motor mouth....he proudly 'announced' that QR would be serving BHX in 2006....another decade later they finally did!

Fingers crossed he is talking factually this time, although I note he hasn't actually said WHEN any of these suspended routes might restart....personally I'd be surprised if either BHX or CWL start again in 2021.

I doubt you’ll see either again on the Medium term. Something like an A321LR would be better if they wanted these types of routes to work. Even EDI seat use was often pretty low on A35/78. If A380s and some 777s are being withdrawn then the domino effect means 787s needed on other routes.
But we’re often told that cargo on widebodies is what keeps these afloat (although that can easily be transferred elsewhere by road)