Sad to hear that flybe is dropping CWL-NCL. Don't know how/whether the route was advertised at all in South Wales, but up here in North East England I've seen zero publicity for it. Eastern often advertise their flights from NCL on the Tyne and Wear Metro, as well as in local business publications; their visibility is good, even though the Cardiff route has been just one of several routes T3 operate from Newcastle. But flybe visibility is poor. People I talk to in the business community here are often aware of the easyJet route from NCL-BRS, and would probably use BRS for trips to Cardiff and Exeter simply because they are unaware that there are direct services available (or even that Exeter and Cardiff have airports!). Naturally, I'm doing what I can as an individual to enlighten colleagues, but I could use some help from flybe comms. Maybe the new Local Development Partnerships that are replacing the Regional Development Agency will focus on route consolidation and development from our local airports. Or maybe not...

Oh give it up

Ditto Cloud1

Incidents happen at airports all over the world in adverse weather, no matter what length of runway.:ugh:

Management at CWL need to do more to expand the european route network, if it is ever to compete with BRS for market share. Don't think Long Haul should be at the top of their list right now.

If passenger numbers continue to be in freefall, I can't see things getting better anytime soon.

Ryder Cup
 

Anybody Know what Aircraft BA lended to the USA Ryder Cup Team?

G-viiu B772

Aircraft has been on stand 6 since Sunday. Sun Country Airlines operated with media from Ryder Cup.

Ryder Cup itself and a few players also departed today to EDI

Baby are apparently re-starting IBZ next year twice weekly from 02 July. Eventually some good news, hopefully a 3rd based aircraft will be needed :) This will be along with EMA-IBZ and EMA-VRN.

I would be coutious about shouting this route from the roof tops as it hasn't been released officialy yet.

I am guessing that the return of the IBZ is based solely on a 3rd aircraft being based at CWL. The reason for this is that all summer routes 2010 performed quite well and would imagine that they will return again in S11 at the same frequencies. This would mean that with MUC x 3 Weekly and IBZ x 2 Weekly we are likely to see a 3rd aircraft along with another new route or with only 2 based aircraft a cull of existing routes.

Newcastle Sunday service introduced
Published: 14 October 2010
Eastern Airways is launching a new Sunday service on its route from Cardiff Airport to Newcastle, offering business and leisure travellers a new weekend option.
The new Sunday service operated by the UK regional airline will start on 31 October 2010 and will assist business travellers heading to north east England for an early Monday start and also leisure travellers taking a weekend trip. The introduction of a Sunday service also follows Flybe's decision to withdraw its services from the route.
Eastern Airways already provides two flights each weekday from Cardiff to Newcastle and has been operating the service since April 2006.
Sunday flights will depart from Cardiff at 7.05pm, arriving in Newcastle at 8.10pm, while services leave Newcastle at 5.35pm, landing in Cardiff at 6.40pm.
Newcastle is vibrant cosmopolitan city and the north east has strong business links with South Wales, particularly in the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, utilities, finance, law, insurance, manufacturing and construction industries.
Roger Hage, Eastern Airways' ground operations manager, said: "Our new Sunday service will enable leisure travellers to take a weekend break or visit friends and relatives in the north east of England and arrive refreshed from our short flight. Business travellers can also arrive on Sunday in advance of an early Monday morning meeting having avoided a lengthy car or rail journey."
As well as being the centre of the industrial heartland in north east England, Newcastle is a very appealing city break destination with stylish cafés, bars and restaurants around the Quayside. This along with land mark bridges, including the Tyne Bridge, are complemented with state-of-the-art innovations like the stunning Gateshead Millennium Bridge on the River Tyne, which links the city to Gateshead Quays and the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts.

Some good news there :) To be operated by a SB2000.

Flybe @ CWL - Summer 2011
 

Flybe have just released their summer 2011 schedule which is as follows:
(taken from june-sep)

EDI - 15 flights per week
M T W T F S S
M T W T F _ S
_ T _ T _ _ _

GLA - 12 flights per week
M T W T F S S
M T W T F _ _

BHD - 11 flights per week
M T W T F S S
M _ _ T F _ S

CDG - 7 flights per week
M T W T F S S

JER - 4 flights per week
_ T _ T _ S S

CAA Stats September 2010
 

CARDIFF WALES

Pax Sept 2010 = 161,922 down -10.9%

Rolling Year Pax = 1,429,012 down -15.9%

When is the rot going to stop, things can't surely keep dropping at this rate!!!!!

I see Bristol had a relatively small rise of 2% and Exeter seems to have stopped the rot that was going on down there too with a 2.8% increase.

Newquay and Plymouth still struggling like Cardiff, what do they need to do to turn things around!!!!

The rot will stop when we finally get some good news.

It was allready looking to be a bad year due due to loosing 1 x Boeing 737-300 based unit.

It also doesn't help when we lost 5 charter flights a week when goldtrail went bust.

It does look like another quiet winter for Cardiff which doesn't help but we should start seeing better figures for 2011.

The Heineken Cup Final will be held once again at the Millenium Stadium (Hopefully 2 x non-welsh teams) in the final will increase traffic.

Also the RBS 6 Nations will hopefully see more aircraft coming to Cardiff rather than using Bristol.

Passenger numbers decline
 

Cardiff has seen 28 consecutive monthly percentage falls in passenger numbers (CAA stats).

The last time there was a monthly increase was May 2008 with a 4.6% rise on May 2007.

May 2008 coincided with the end of the airport's best ever 12-month period when 2,100,727 passengers were handled.

Since then numbers have decreased by almost 32% to 1,429,012 for the 12-month period ending September 2010, against a decline in flight numbers of 23.5%.

It's been pointed out that of the other two significant airports in south-west Britain Exeter, which has had a broadly similar downward path as Cardiff, seems at last to have reached or at least approached the bottom whilst Bristol whose passenger numbers began to be adversely affected by the recession five months later than Cardiff has seen percentage rises every month this year (except the ash cloud affected April) and is now 9% below its all time best 12-month period.

As with bear stock markets the floor is always difficult to call but it's not unreasonable to suppose that, as mathers suggests, there will be some increase in passenger numbers at Cardiff next year, however modest, not least because the base upon which to build has sunk so low.

Clearly the airport is in need of a boost with passenger numbers now at levels last seen in 2002 but there are hopes that another airline or even two might set up bases, with others increasing their presence as the world economy improves.

There is much work to be done as CWL will have to grow its passenger numbers by nearly 50% merely to get back to where it was in the early part of 2008.

all using brs my flight last week loads from wales

Another good post by MV who is spot on. CWL needs something drastic to happen to turn its fortunes around. So many people from the Welsh side of the bridge now use BRS without even considering CWL. Vastly more choice of routes, often better timing on the routes flown from both airports and of course two genuine Low cost airlines in EasyJet and Ryanair.
As in most things in life once you get into the habit of doing something it is difficult to change and so many Welsh folk now chose BRS as a matter of habit. The challenge for the management at CWL is to persuade airlines to start new routes and to get people thinking CWL as their first choice airport. I fear it will be a tough challenge.

Tough, but not impossible.

Only one thing matters - show the airlines how much money they will make from Cardiff. Show them it is more than they can make from alternatives. Show them researched passenger and yield forecasts that are credible. That is all.

Once someone does that, the airlines will be beating at the door.

All else - like the road, the rail link - are just secondary and even tertiary issues.

The problem CWL has is that everyone wants to answer the easy questions....

TA

Aer Lingus are dropping Cork from October 30.

CWL - Lack of Ambition - Welsh Assembly Government
 

The passenger figures from CWL are truly catastrophic. Action is desperately needed at a strategic level.

Given that we have a devolved government in Wales with primary responsibility for transportation, the Welsh Assembly Government needs to take a lead in pushing for action. However they seem to be stuck on the very parochial north-south link. Whether this is a good idea or not is a moot point, as it is so marginal to building an airport worthy of a capital city of an autonomous country.

To begin with, the WAG has dropped the ball on transport links to the airport, which are a serious problem. Infrastructural links are crucial to success -- a direct rail link and a motorway connection are the first steps.

Next, WAG officials need to work with CWL staff and major airlines both full cost and LCC to build a portfolio of major cities.

If necessary, WAG should facilitate rebuilding a domestically-based airline -- the collapse in passenger figures coinded with the demise of Air Wales.

WAG, in line with its general lack of ambition and imagination, does not seem to understand that the airport is a key entry point to the country; business people coming here should first of all be able to fly directly to CWL and secondly should see this is a slick operation.

Unfortunately the sloth and general jobsworthness that has become dominant in Wales is echoed all over CWL operations - from the security who manage to take as long processing 10 people as STN takes doing 1000, to the staff who regularly leave passengers behind locked doors, to the UKBA staff who clog up the coffee lines in front of passengers.

It's all terribly embarrassing.

In this hypercompetitive environment we need to do far far better.

Interesting post. I agree with a lot of your analysis, particularly your thoughts on the WAG's odd and frankly antidiluvian attitude to air transport, but not with your solutions.

It's going to be almost impossible for the WAG to facilitate a new airline. Even if they had spare cash, (and after this week's news, we can safely assume they don't), there are very real laws in the way. The airlines at Bristol and Birmingham will object, I can tell you. If I were them, I most certainly would.

The transport links are not really the issue. I work with growing airports with far worse links. If the flights are there the people will get there. Again, there is not a chance that a road to the airport is going to get built anytime soon - there is no money, and in any case, the planning process and appeals are going to take a long time - years and years. Cf, terminal five....

As I said, it all boils down to proving to the airlines that Cardiff makes better money for them than the alternatives. No more, no less.

TA

CWL-IBZ has been announced by WW from 28th May. Initially at 1 weekly until mid-June when it becomes 2 weekly. Wednesday and Saturday. Lets hope this means the 3rd aircraft based but I got a feeling we haven't seen the end of the cuts...I got a feeling MUC won't survive the summer season.