Cardiff International Airport has submitted tenders to the Welsh Assembly Government for the new and politically important North to South Wales air link which will operate between Anglesey (RAF Valley) and Cardiff International.
By road, this journey can take over four hours. A decision is expected soon.
Cardiff International surpassed two million passengers on its scheduled and charter routes for the first time in 2006, representing a 13% growth over the previous year. Twelve new routes were launched last year and four new destinations
have already been announced for 2007 - Barcelona, Kos, Nantes and Belfast City.
Last week the airport's management outlined its wish list of new destinations and highlighted it has commenced the second phase of a £10 million investment programme designed to support further double digit growth in 2007. This included the
introduction of six new aircraft parking stands and a new pier walkway and new Immigration Hall in 2006 and a significant extension of the baggage reclaim facility
in 2007.
The airport's newly appointed Head of Aviation Business Relationships Spencer Birns said Cardiff International is very keen to attract a US route, complementing Zoom's
regular low fare services to Toronto and Vancouver. Bookings to Canada are 10% up on this time last year, Zoom reports. A Middle East Hub and its worldwide connections, particularly to Australasia, is also in focus.
Closer to home, Cardiff International is keen to welcome back services to Paris (this route was dropped when Air Wales ceased operations), and to see new services to Aberdeen, to Dusseldorf, Munich, more routes to Spain, to Italy and to Poland
(Katowice would be ideal, says Birns). Thomsonfly, Cardiff's biggest operator with a total of 27 routes, is increasing capacity from Cardiff to Jersey and introducing a new route to Barcelona from 25 May.
Aer Arann, which has been building up its route network from Cardiff since last year with flights to Cork, Dublin, Galway and Lorient in Brittany, adds a second route to France to Nantes in France, Cardiff's twin city, from the end of March. This will
be especially popular around the time of the Rugby World Cup in France.
Flybe is a new base carrier at Cardiff International from May this year. It is starting out with flights to Belfast City, where it already has a strong established base. Cardiff Airport is still in discussions with the airline about other opportunities. Flybe will come to Cardiff as a considerably larger carrier, having
absorbed British Airways regional arm, BA Connect. Another new airline at Cardiff is Healthspan-owned BlueIslands.com with its weekly flights to Guernsey.
Charter flights from Cardiff continue to buck the trend and show strong growth. Generally the market in the UK is down 8%, noted Birns, but operators like First Choice are seeing excellent bookings for niche products like their cruise packages with Island Cruises. In addition First Choice adds Kos in Greece from Cardiff this
summer.
Cardiff International welcomes the return of Air Malta this summer which is coming on to the route with one flight a week to Malta, competing with British Jet. In addition, Turkey's Onur Air will increase to eight weekly flights to Turkey from Cardiff.
The UK Government decision to chose St Athan, three miles from Cardiff Airport as the location for the UK Armed Forces Training Academy, will have a very positive effect on the airport, stated Horne, creating some 12,000 new jobs, 7,000 in the first phase. Construction will begin in 2008 with the academy set to
open in 2011/2012.
Improved road access for the airport in the short term and a direct link to M4 are on the way.
Source: News Wales
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