Cardiff Airport Blog

Cardiff craves new routes

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:28:43 BST

Cardiff Airport is keen to ‘examine the possibility’ of a Flybe expansion at the Welsh hub, following news that the carrier wants to buy up to 140 new planes.

Flybe has already secured 35 new jets, at a cost of £850m. The aircraft, which are made by Embraer, are expected to arrive after September 2011.

Jim French, Flybe’s CEO, claims that the airline’s new toys will secure its position as a market leader in Europe. The planes are from Embraer’s E-family, and include the E-175, an 88-seat, low-emission model.

Flybe’s total investment, if it purchases the intended 140 aircraft, is in the region of £3.3bn. The move has been pounced on by airport bosses, who hope that the carrier’s extravagance signals a series of new routes at Flybe bases throughout the UK.

Officials at Liverpool, Birmingham, and most recently, Cardiff airports have been speculating as to what Flybe intends to do with its new aeroplanes.

Mike Rutter, the airline’s CEO, has said that routes to the Channel Islands and Scandinavia could be created, but the executive did not mention which airports would benefit from expansion. Flybe is especially keen to resume a jet service to Guernsey, however, following the route’s cancellation in 2008.

Cardiff Airport boss, Steve Hodgetts, was hopeful – “we welcome any discussions with Flybe about expanding the airline's operation at Cardiff. There is great demand for services to important business and leisure destinations.”

Steve cited Germany and France as key growth locations, and referred to the airline as an “ideal partner.”

Cardiff-Anglesey service in doubt

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:29:23 BST

Highland Airways, an important mainland-to-island carrier, has become the latest company to fall to the recent winter. The airline went into administration on the 24th March, upsetting islanders in Scotland, and throwing the daily Cardiff-Anglesey route into jeopardy. The firm has now ceased trading.

World famous auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, was a hot tip for the administration process as recently as Wednesday night, and the task was eventually handed to the firm’s resident experts, J.B. Cartwright and G.D. Frost, the same people who handled the collapse of Flyglobespan.

Highland Airways, which is based in Inverness, Scotland, offered routes to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, Sumburgh Airport on the Shetland Islands, and the little-known town of Benbecula on the island of the same name. The carrier’s route to the island of Anglesey on the Welsh coast was perhaps one of the airline’s biggest money-spinners, however, and a boon to the local economy.

The bleak and blustery nature of its few destinations meant that Highland Airways spent much of the winter besieged by dangerous weather conditions, such as snow and fog. Crippling debts eventually put the airline’s plans on ice, and the firm’s boardroom voted in favour of administration.

PricewaterhouseCoopers wants to offload some services to other airlines, in a bid to keep some routes active – ‘Highland Airways provided a valuable service. We will be working to ensure an orderly handover of services to new operators.’ The firm regretted that the airline’s 100 employees would probably be handed over to the Job Centre, instead.

Highland Airways did not have an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence, otherwise known as ATOL protection, so passengers who hold unused tickets are unlikely to receive a refund. If you used a credit card to book your ticket, however, you may be able to claim back the cost from your bank.

Cardiff Airport in £5 million redesign plans

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:31:57 GMT

Cardiff Airport has announced plans to create an extension to the terminal. The plans have been in the pipeline for some time, but the planning application has finally been submitted to the Vale of Glamorgan Council. Work could begin as early as the end of this year if it is successful.

The plans were first publicly announced last year, with the airport authorities hoping to have the changes in place by this summer. However, the recession got in the way and the plans had to be put on ice for a few months.

But now the wheels are in motion once again, and the council is expected to make its final decision within a matter of months.

The extension to the terminal will be quite extensive, and will cost in the region of £5 million. This would involve the linking of the arrivals and departures halls into a single common area, the addition of numerous food and retail facilities, a more contemporary design to the building and the shifting of the security control area to the first floor.

The plans also include a redesign of the approach area at the front of the terminal, and all of the plans come as part of a bigger £15 million scheme that involves the creation of new infrastructure and a radar system.

The managing director of the airport, Patrick Duffy, said that the aim is to “present a modern statement for the region and increase our commercial activities”. However, he was also keen to point out that the work on the terminal would “not actually increase the demand for airlines” in the area, meaning it would not lead to greater tourism opportunities.

Bali comes to Cardiff

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:04:39 GMT

The Indonesian island of Bali, famed for its white beaches and wonky palm trees, is the latest route on offer from Wales’s largest airport, Cardiff. South Wales has not had links with Bali since 1997.

Air France KLM will begin offering a thrice-weekly flight to the island from the 7th December 2009.

Visitors will land at the wonderfully named, Denpesar Ngurah Rai Airport, following a brief stop at Schiphol, Amsterdam.

Previously Welsh tourists had to travel to Heathrow, around 150 miles east of Cardiff, for a flight to Indonesia.

Officials noted shorter queue lengths in South Wales, and urged travellers to avoid Heathrow at all costs.

Spencer Birns, head of development at Cardiff, was keen to boost the appeal of indirect flights - “Travelling to London may appear the better option, but it is often more convenient to fly on connecting flights from Cardiff.”

Mr. Birns went on to conclude that tourists could save up to four hours of travel time by flying from Wales.

Of course, the short break in Holland adds an hour or two to the overall journey, but a few drinks in Schiphol Airport are infinitely more glamorous than a bottle of warm cola on the M4 motorway.

Formed from a merger in May 2004, Air France KLM is now the largest airline in the world, boasting flights to over 900 global destinations. The firm was pleased to have bolstered its links with Indonesia.

Despite being related, Air France and KLM maintain two separate websites. For booking and enquiries, please use the official Cardiff Airport website.

Cardiff trials biometric gates

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:58:33 GMT

Cardiff has become the fourth UK airport to adopt the innovative e-Border system, behind London Stansted, Manchester and Bristol.

The system remains voluntary, but the UK Border Agency (UKBA) hopes to furnish a further four airports with the technology over the coming months: namely, Birmingham, Gatwick North, East Midlands and London Luton.

Unique gates, incorporating facial recognition software and automated border controls, form the bulk of the e-Border technology, allowing travellers to bypass security officials completely. The system makes use of the biometric chip embedded in 17m UK passports.

Russell Clements, acting director at Cardiff Airport, was optimistic about the future of biometric screening, “The uptake of use since the launch has been positive with business travellers in particular opting for the more convenient e-passport gate option."

E-Border correlates your facial data with the photograph held on the UKBA database, the same alien creature that lives on your passport’s final page.

New airport security measures have consumed more than £1.2bn over the past year, highlighting a growing need for DIY passport controls.

The installation of a human X-ray machine (better known as the ‘naked scanner’) at Manchester Airport was heralded as an important step forward by proponents, but did little to quell concerns about privacy and traveller modesty.

Fingerprint visas and a liquid scanner, capable of detecting hazardous substances such as nitro-glycerine, a liquid explosive, have also made their debuts at UK airports over the past few months.

Unfortunately, a rise in automated security is making the human race redundant, in more ways than one.

Online check-in services, favoured by the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair, have done for jobs what Margaret Thatcher did for coalmines, and hundreds of airport careers are being lost, never to return again.

African adventure for Welsh airport

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:45:18 BST

Thomas Cook has announced two new routes from Cardiff airport – Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, and Monastir, Tunisia. The flights will operate over the winter season, terminating in April next year.

Despite a general downturn in the aviation industry, few UK holidaymakers are content to stay indoors and watch the rain slide down the windows.

Local authorities have noted increasingly strong demand for winter sunshine holidays from south Wales, bucking a trend that has seen passenger numbers drop throughout the UK.

A spokesperson for Thomas Cook, Pete Constanti, was enthusiastic about the new routes: “We are making it as convenient as possible for people to go on holiday. Holidaymakers now have even more destinations to choose from.”

Cardiff is the only international airport in Wales, claiming a huge catchment area. The facility handles some two million customers a year, many of whom travel from towns and cities in western England.

With Christmas not too far on the horizon, the next few months represent for many, the last chance to find a winter break before the end of the year.

Officials are determined to lure tourists away from the larger airports, after last year’s soggy summer drowned the local economy. Thomas Cook has urged Welsh travellers to “escape before the deals do.”

According to Book FHR, a travel information resource, the new flights will commence on the first and sixth of November, travelling to Egypt and Tunisia respectively.

Seven nights in Sharm el Sheikh on a bed and breakfast basis will cost in the region of £340, excluding baggage and taxes.