Yep they have! Something has obviously changed for them to return.
Hopefully the airport will have some more surprises for us over the summer!

Always baffled me as to why no one picked up the EDI routes when BE had 2/3 per day. At least one is better than nil.

Could we see the return of GLA someday soon too ?

Just leaves CDG and JER now then.

I generally can't see Glasgow and Paris returning for a while but maybe Jersey could be a surprise!

With BHD being pulled from GLA there may be a chance to take some capacity from GLA with LM.

Regardless it's good to see an understandably important route back for the region and I have no doubt this will be built upon from here!

Domestic CWL come and go. This will be no different. Use it or lose it I say. Though these routes normally need very competitive fares, which LM, in the main, are not renowned for.

Interesting interview with the CEO of WizzAir UK.
This comment suggests more to come from them hopefully.
"We don't start a base with an intention of just being one aircraft, it's not an efficient thing to have, we want to be a minimum three, maybe five aircraft."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bus...t-20673207.amp

Interesting and great write up there, let’s hope this all happens once the pandemic starts to calm and restrictions ease. Be great to have an additional aircraft and a splatter of additional destinations.....I’m guessing the likes of LPA & FUE in the Canaries be main contenders.

Only time will tell but I'd expect Spain, Turkey, Italy and maybe Bulgaria to be added to with maybe a few surprise destinations.

I wonder if any city break destinations could/would be added like PRG or BUD ? PRG was very popular in BMI baby days.

Elsewhere it's been rumoured that eventually they want to see 3 aircraft based at Cardiff and between 15 to 20 routes. In the article Flybe routes were mentioned so possibly Paris and maybe routes to Italy? Routes further afield was mentioned in the article. Furthest route is Sharm so could Abu Dhabi be possible? It'll be interesting to see what Wizz add.

Would the likes of VCE, VRN, FCO, LIN, MUC also fit in with the Wizz network ? These were the longer of the old Flybe routes that were served.

BHD has gone to Eastern and Aer Lingus, DUB to Aer Lingus and EDI now to Loganair so that just leaves CDG, ORK, GVA & CMF unserved since the Flybe collapse....I’m not sure Wizz would go to these so assume any possible new destinations would be a bit further afield.....

Remember when someone added all those Wizz “destinations” on Wikipedia back in February?? Quite a few were listed including AUH and a mix of beach and city destinations too

PDXCWL45

would AUH be viable though? Only limited connections to the Wizz network and would the travelling public be up for doing a self connection for long haul? Shame Wizz are not working with EY to connect at AUH from secondary airports. Certainly interesting times ahead though.

It’s good to see a based LCC opening at CWL again.

AUH with Wizz ex CWL is a non-starter.

Didn’t people say the same about QR to DOH ?? Although I imagine if they do expand it will be Greece, Turkey & Spain. Maybe some city destinations too but good to read Wizz comments and commitment to CWL so let’s hope the population use them where they can.

bycrewlgw

No idea. I think we'll have to see how Sharm el Sheikh does with them. IF it did I can't see it being more than 2 weekly and potentially just as focused to inbound traffic as outbound.

Probably could add Italy and Bulgaria to that as well.

AUH is a non starter because it is not a destination, it's a transit point. Dose of realism required.

I expect that one of the reasons Wizz have launched a base there is to help turn it into a destination.

Should/as/when a base increase happens I’d love to see places like PRG, BUD, KRK and KEF for the winter weekend breaks along with the additional bucket and spades routes. Fingers crossed there will be a good relationship between CWL & Wizz going forward.

Good to see BHD restored

PDXCWL45

If they can that would be really good, the only genuine UK destination airport outside London is currently Edinburgh.

Letsflycwl

difference is though through DOH you can connect to the world. Would be the same if EY started flights. Many people do holiday in AUH but not to the same extent as Dubai therefore would be limited traffic. As others have said, W6 may try to stimulate demand for point to point but it would be limited.

With destinations like Abu Dhabi and Milan etc it's not going to be just about people flying from Cardiff to go on holiday it'll also be about attracting inbound tourism to Wales via Cardiff. That's one of the reasons why the Welsh government was willing to do a direct marketing deal with Qatar Airways.
But I'd be very surprised if we saw Abu Dhabi.

Are we sure Qatar are coming back ?

Can only assume so. I'm sure the Welsh government would like them return. Guess only time will tell.

Reading this thread, some people really do descend into fantasy talking about certain routes. Even worse are those repeating something put on Wikipedia months ago.

I think Wizz already have a clear view of what might work at Cardiff.
That's bucket and spade and possibly a few of the more popular city break destinations. I'd expect to see more Spain, Portugal and Turkey with perhaps a bit of Bulgaria, Morocco and Italy if they expand. For the first new destinations, look at the beach destinations they serve from DSA and not CWL. In terms of cities, it's a little more difficult to tell. Now Britain has left the EU, there aren't going to be as large a number of workers going back and forth so many cities in Eastern Europe currently served from DSA are out. I think it's more than possible to see a bit of action to Budapest, Prague or Krakow though as these are popular tourist destinations as well as having a VFR flow as well as Rome which is big for Wizz. I don't think Abu Dhabi is going to happen.
We need the first aircraft to be successful first though.

Is Qatar coming back? Possibly. It's already clear the flows to Asia and Australia that were popular from Cardiff are going to be near dead until at least the end of 2021. This will go on for possibly a fair bit of 2022 and maybe even beyond that. It's very much wait and see. What's on Cardiff's side is that passenger numbers from Cardiff were relatively decent when comparing to say Birmingham and Qatar do have A321 XLRs on the way.

This past 12+ months has been nothing like we've experienced before in living memory. It's going to take some time to adjust and a lot of things are still up in the air until things become clearer.

It looks like that for Summer 2022 TUI will be increasing Bourgas, Bulgaria from 1 weekly to 2 weekly operating on Monday and Thursdays (the Thursday flight starts 26th May) May to the end of September. This fills the slot of the dropped weekly Faro flight.

Wizz Air UK
 

Launch has been delayed again (unsurprisingly)

CWL base is now due to launch Tuesday 6th July

Inaugural flight will be CFU taking off at 06:05

I would be inclined to take the term "will be" with more than a small pinch of salt!

Wizz to JER
 

Looks like Wizz are starting CWL-JER as of July…..now showing on their bookings app.

Wizz Air UK are to start Jersey on 9 July (summer seasonal)

Operates twice weekly, Monday and Friday

(Aircraft is a W pattern based at DSA)

​​​​​​Well Jersey is back but more of a surprise that's it's going to be operated by Wizz.

Good news for Cardiff and Jersey.

Seems from the Wizz app, the CWL base and flight launch has inevitably been delayed again - this time until 30th July

However it does suggest JER will start on 16th July

Could the Cardiff to Anglesey air link be under threat?
"A review will also be conducted of the Welsh government's subsidy for the Holyhead to Cardiff air route."
https://t.co/jJzLIoDbxT

Reporting at its best 🙈
 

so Cardiff lost 1.4 m passengers. So the question is did Bristol, Manchester, Heathrow etc really not loose more than 1.4m passengers in 2020. Bet they lost more. I think Donald Trump is a reporter in Wales now

as a percentage

well percentages can be used in many ways. Heathrow were down 60 million passengers putting that into context that is 37 1/2 years of cardiff airports passengers.

Apart from the obvious pressure from BRS, cannot understand why EZY have not looked at EDI-CWL-EDI as it was the most popular CWL route with Flybe with 3 flights a day. Loganair are due to start in August but only 5 times a week.

I’d have thought this would offer more of a passenger yield than some of the domestic routes announced recently such as LPL-BOH.

Also as I’m on a roll, the inbound flight from Baku this afternoon is Wizz (W9), you’d have thought the data would have been updated by now to show W9 as Wizz Air U.K. considering they are due to be a based airline so would assume the W9 flights are loaded. The arrivals screen is showing Eastwind Capital Partners Inc as the airline

Easyjet just aren't interested and never will be, as for the Wizz Baku flights Wizz may well have be operating on behalf of Eastwind hence why they are on the departure board.