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Is Cardiff airport really that important to the Welsh economy? A rail spur from Reading station to Heathrow would be very beneficial in terms of bring investment into Wales from overseas.
Cardiff airport is definitely NOT important to the Welsh economy as it stands - that is exactly the issue!
Wales is the only country in Europe with such shit air links to the rest of Europe. It is hardly a USP when tying to attract any private investment, is it?
It's not the 'be all and end all' to have a decent airport, but if you don't have one, it's hardly likely to encourage overseas investment if your peer cities do have good air links is it?
I conquer. We need a better airport. A better, more connected airport will not only bring in more tourists but give Wales an image boost. The 'look where we can fly to' factor plays a part. Imagine a Visit Wales campaign that can say something along the lines of 'Fly direct from N.Y to Cardiff and explore our ancient country' it would give a little image boost and make the country easier for tourists to get to.
One reason for the problems there might just be the underlying problems in the South Wales economy-the lack of a flourishing private sector nobody wants to come to South Wales in its current state to make money. Also things that can't be controlled like population that week in week out episode on the airport said Bristol serves a region of 8 million how many people does Cardiff serve potentially 2 million?Im just saying the Heathrow rail link would probably bring more for us, we should least expect from Cardiff is to be able to get daily flight to major European airports so we can connect to other places in the world like from Frankfurt,Schipol and De Gaulle. Having a direct flight to New York is too ambitious not essential and wouldn't be sustainable especially as there is no direct flight from Bristol to New York anyway!
Planes do also pick up people from the other side. If Belfast is able to sustain a New York air route, although the airport is failing and thye needed a reduction in APD to help it, why can't Cardiff? Americans, when they come, really do love Wales. It would be a missed opportunity.
I personally think that Cardiff Airport needs to concentrate on the more densely populated European cities such as Madrid, Rome, Milan, Naples, Munich, Berlin, Moscow and St. Petersburg to name a few. My German friends wanted to come visit me and laughed when I told them Cardiff has no links with Germany.
One reason why Belfast can sustain a flight to New York(Newark) is the huge number of Irish-Americans in America especially in the North East USA who would want to visit it may sound a little silly but according to wikipedia only 0.6% of Americans have Welsh heritage.
There are too Irelands remember. Most Americans go to Dublin and the Republic which is very well linked up to America. There may well have been only a small amount of Welsh immigrants in America but why would that mean Americans wouldn't travel here? I think that the figure may be off by a bit. Being Welsh isn't quite as cool as being Irish in America, but the Welsh have had a far bigger impact, politically speaking, than the Irish. Even Obama is a direct decendent of a Welsh family from Anglesey making him a tiny bit more Irish than Welsh, but played the Irish card to get votes.
Yes most would go to the Republic but many Americans are also descended from Irish protestants from the North also and yes I actually do think that Americans are less likely to come here because there are less Welsh-Americans and therefor less have heard of Wales anyone whose been to America from Wales will know you have to explain where the hell Wales is its not about whether we are thought of as "cool".Im of Irish descent my self my Mother is Irish so i've been there many times you can see buses in the big towns all the time full of 60 something year old Americans. Anyway gone slightly of topic my point is there are probably 10 times more Irish in America than Welsh and thats why Belfast can sustain a daily flight to Newark airport, most Welsh Americans probably dont even know they are Welsh anyway.
And theres only one Ireland with a small amount of confused people in the North East who think that they are British! And thats really off topic.
Agreed on the number of Irish v Welsh Americans but they do know where Wales is, well at least those in New York. Both times I have been the people with whom I spoke new where Wales is. I also agree that most of them probably don't know about their Welsh ancestry. This could come in handy.
We need to go all Scottish and Irish style on them and exploit our Arthurian past. Americans are crazy for the Middle Ages, mainly because they didn't have one, and we can exploit that. Built it and they will come. New York also has the largest Welsh Society outside Europe with the Chicago Taffia coming in a close second.
From the UK Draft Aviation Policy Framework published today:-
http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/dft-2012-35
"An Enterprise Zone has also been established around Newquay airport, and the Enterprise Zone in Cardiff has recently been expanded to incorporate the airport. To recognise the importance of the airport to the wider Welsh economy, the First Minister of Wales formed the Cardiff Airport Task Force. The Task Force is a collaboration between the airport’s owners, the Welsh Government and the wider public sector and business community. It will identify and recommend improvements and investments needed for Wales to boost air connectivity, improve the passenger experience and maximise its economic impact, commercially and for Wales. This is only one of many examples of good practice in this regard."
Also, this has been mentioned before in this thread, but it sounds confirmed now.
"For example, we are providing funding for a new rail line from the Great Western Main Line near Slough to Heathrow which could provide significantly improved connections from the Thames Valley, the West of England and Wales to the airport and journey time savings of up to 30 minutes"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18817874
Will this mean a journey of something like 1 hour 40 minutes?
Good news I suppose but maybe not for Cardiff airport.
Maybe it's my age, but I do get increasingly confused by all these announcements. Is it not the current favoured position that another runway is not going to be allowed at Heathrow, hence the desire (in the long term) to build a brand new London airport elsewhere in the city?
I can't see any of this really affecting Cardiff Airport because it's already effectively flat-lined.
I think the government is reviewing their original posistion of no more airport expansion in the south east, Boris wants a new airport in the Thamas estuary that would be incredibely expensive and some tories are pushing to bring back the third runway for Heathrow which the coalition agreement forbids and the lib dems are vehemently against as are a few tory mps in west London.
The best solution for us I think in the south east of Wales is that Heathrow expands and remains the main airport of the UK and not a vastly expensive new airport on the other side of London that would take longer to get to and take ages to build. Also if Heathrow doesn't remain number one then this rail link really would be a waste of time!
Cardiff Airport is a part of the St. Athan enterprise zone. The Cardiff Enterprise zone, as we all know, is going to be a financial district. Both of which, including the motor one up in the valleys, will be a part of the new Cardiff City Region.
@SP
according to Barden, adding the airport to the enterprize zone happened after it was created. This would indicate that it wasn't part of the original scope. that was my point - if Barden is correct then why wasn't it included initially?
So, we've got a separate devolved geographical zone with its own economic division (WG) which has set up a special economic zone (Enterprise zone), a subset of which requires a unique task force (Cardiff Airport task group).
It make yer worry at times.
@ Barden
I don't think there is any confusion. Cardiff Enterprise zone has absolutely nothing to do with this whatsover. I understand that.
My concern is that when the aviation enterprise zone was set up initially, it did not include the airport and just included St Athan.
I want to know who sanctioned this and why as it is blwdi madness.
BBC Article
it would appear as if Veuling are looking to add moire flights to CWL. What is interesting in this article is that one third of bookings are made in Spain...
WG/WTB/whoever need to understand this market and very much try and promote it in whatever way they can.
this is good news
This story realistically just means that Barcelona is struggling to fill seats* whilst Benidorm etc are doing ok.
The new route that might get added on will probably me Malaga. It's effectively a return to the old BMI holiday routes.
*Am I being an arithmetical dipshit - I can't get those numbers to add up properly - 6,200 passengers in July on a 180 max capacity plane which flies 3 times a week?
Cardiff Airport seem to be claiming that Helvetic are still at Cardiff. They are in fact ceasing operations at Cardiff and concentrating on their Bristol route
full plane = 360 pax over two legs. 3 times a week is 1080. 4 week month = 4320
perhaps they have passengers on the wings
Exactly - and that's with a totally full plane which clearly is not the case as mentioned in the article.
On the basis of those PAX, they'd be considering either a bigger plane or running the service more frequently.
its good to see that Carwyn the Caring and his committee of Excellence is having an effect on the pace of change at the airport
change
it is also interesting to note that pax numbers for the first part of the year are 440k compared to 558k the year before. At this rate less than 1m pax per annum will travel from Wales International airport. I am pretty sure WG will suggest this gives us greater opportunity in future years to grow the existing pax base.
It really does make you wonder what the Labour led WG were doing from 1999 to about 2012? They are useless, totally incompetent and really should all do the decent thing and resign en masse, giving the jobs they do to meithrin at my sons school - who really couldn't do a worse job.
Could any of the usual labour/WG apologists try and justify the existence of WG and more importantly, have Labour done anything good for Wales' long term economic health?
Jantra, it has been known for quite a while that they were pulling out. Your constant attacks on the Welsh Government are starting to get extremely tedious and predictable. Change the record
It is like when you renovate an old crumbling house. You enter in and out of the same door whilst replacing, decorating the rest of it. You start with the kids bedrooms, the visitor rooms moving onto maybe the bathrooms, then the living rooms then finally your own room and then you think, "Christ that hallway needs something" and you realise it is a bit crap but it has fallen further in disrepair whilst the rest of the house is being put right but you eventually make a start but the neighbours reckon its all a bit A about T.
Maybe not!
Could people stop referring to the "Assembly" as the Welsh Government, this gives them a sense of importance they just don't have!
Governments make decisions on Tax/Jobs/Foreign Policy.
Where as the "Assembly" talks about things.
I had to put in a FOI to find out why there was not any progress on replacing the Brynglass tunnel lighting and removing the temporary speed limit. This being over ayear since the fire.
Mr Seargent (he of the rough bouncer look!) and his department just ignored my e-mails.
The answer from the FOI request was; the tunnels don't come up to EU spec' so they can't award a contract unless the other work is done first.
The main areas the Assembly have powers in are:
Health; Build a hospital at every second junction on the M4 and then have to work out how to pay for them later
Transport; don't really need to argue this one
Education; insist all Welsh grades are raised to compensate for the below average students, if this fails invent a new Welsh syllabus and give everyone A's
I wondered why they removed the 'International' from the airport's name. Now I know. This airport will end up as a base for the local flying club and sightseeing trips round the area. Book here!
I used to use it but there's no point anymore. I go to Bristol whenever possible otherwise Heathrow/Gatwick - book a hotel and extend my holiday!
RIP Cardiff Airport....
Jantra, Cardiff airport is a private company. The failure there is down to bad management by Mr. Duffy. The news that the Zurich link would be stopped is old news now. It has been known for a while that the serbice was to stop. Carwyn's group was set up to late to do anything about it. The flight has even been stopping over at Bristol for most of its life.
Zack, the Welsh Government is Labour and the Assembly is the administration. Just like the tory led Government in Westminster and Parliament
SP
I am aware of the legal ownership of CWL - TBI/Abertis. Duffy has gone. However, that does not stop us wondering what WG were doing from 1999 - 2012 when, in that time, CWL's pax have more than halved whereas BRS's have more than doubled? You can blame bad management - I certainly do. But you have to ask if everyone in Wales could see what was happening, why did it take Carwyn the Caring and his minions so long to work out something was not quite right?
have a look at Ringway airport - state owned (well certainly owned by the 12 local mancunian councils). This goes to show that CWL could - and should - have been taken forward by VoGC/CCC and others with some sort of assistance from WG. But no, instead we get populist policies and economic stagnation - which - for some reason you want us all to ignore and pretend the flowers are in bloom all over the garden.
I will let you in on well kept secret - under Labour no child in Wales has ever gone hungry and the sun has shone every day.
WG and Welsh Labour are useless. The sooner the electorate realise it the better.
Jantra,
I don't have the answers to why it took them so long to realise that something was a miss. I'm not sure what the relationship between Arbetis, Cardiff Airport and Cardiff Bay is or was. As far as the Duffy was concerned there were no problems at Cardiff. He was fiddling whilst his airport burnt. The problem I see with the airport is that there is no cohesion between VisitWales, Cardiff&Co, the VoG, CCC, WG and Cardiff Airport.
Let me tell you a hard truth too Jantra. Under the Torries our debt aa increased, we have slid back into recession and are at a point where it is going to be extremely difficult to claw our way back out of this.
But it isn't under their remit. Cardiff Airport is a private sector company. They should eother be nationalised or dissolved and a new airport be constructed where it was previously planned.
As far as recession is concerned. Germany, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and many more are not in recession. Why should we have slipped back?
But you cannot blame Labour for it. If Wales were Conservative they would have left it to the free market anyway. So, I'm not really getting your point.
Without the P.I.G.S the euro couldn't exist. This would force Germany to return to the mark increasing their costs and destroying their manufacturing sector. They may have struggled, but they are out of recession now and things are looking better for them. Britain being one od the stronger European economies should not be where it is. Germany and Holland are some of our biggest trading partners.
Cardiff Wales Airport was doing just fine when it was a council-owned facility, but then it got flogged off to private sector spivs by Jantra's mates in the Tory Colonial Office. The rest is history.
The good old days, eh Jantra?
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