Cardiff Airport - Future

Future

A new airline was mooted as a new home carrier at the airport; and if it was launched, Flyforbeans said they would operate to France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe. The airline intended to have routes currently unavailable from the airport and had indicated that it intended to begin operations in mid-2008, with 3 Boeing 737 aircraft initially serving up to twelve destinations in total. As of yet, no timeline has been given for the launch of the airline, nor have any of its destinations been revealed.

Following a survey conducted by the airport operator in 2008 as part of a campaign to attract additional business routes to the airport, popular destinations such as Aberdeen, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Brussels and Scandinavian cities were identified as lacking a current link. The airport planned to conduct up to 25 meetings with airlines during May and June 2008 to support the case for more routes.

Airport management announced, on 29 March 2006 a £100 million development strategy which will see the current terminal being extended, as well as upgrades to the main body of the building.

It was anticipated that the investment would attract up to five million passengers by 2015 - an increase of 150% - according to the airport's published response to a UK Government White paper on the future of air transport throughout the United Kingdom. The airport's decline in passenger numbers by 2011 made such predictions unlikely.

Road access to the airport by way of the A48 trunk road was the subject of a public inquiry in 2006 but this is now superseded by needs of the forthcoming Defence Training Academy at MoD St Athan, the bid for which included plans for a direct St Athan and airport link to the M4 motorway.

Costing around £3m, half funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, extensive refurbishment is expected starting with the redevelopment of the front of the airport terminal and approach areas. The development works include an extension to the front of the terminal linking the arrivals and departures halls into one large common area, providing new food and retail services. As part of the work the first floor of the terminal will become 'airside' as the security control point to access the departures lounge is relocated to the first floor, above the existing arrivals hall and accessed through the new extension. The approach area in front of the terminal building will also be redesigned and landscaped.

Subsequently, it emerged that Cardiff Airport was seeking £5 million from Welsh taxpayers, without specifying what works might be carried out. Public objections to this investment may be expected prior to the May elections for the Welsh Assembly Government.

With the delivery of new Embraer aircraft to the fleet, Flybe has stated that it is looking at expanding its Cardiff presence with routes to Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Lyon and several others from 2011 onwards; although, to date, none of these routes have come to fruition, the airline have renewed their commitment to their current routes and serving the airport.

It was announced on 13 April 2011 that Bmibaby were to close their base at the airport, along with their base at Manchester Airport in the following October in order to redeploy aircraft at their other bases, including the creation of a new operation at Belfast City Airport. The base closed on 30 October 2011.

It was announced on 28 October 2011, that Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling are to open a new route to Barcelona commencing 27 March 2012 operating the route three times per week. Just over a month later it was announced that Monarch were to serve Orlando Sanford Airport, Florida for the following summer, commencing the service on 28 May 2012. It will operate on behalf of its own holiday wing, Monarch Holidays, and its partner company Cosmos. This will be the first time in 4 years that there will be a direct charter connection to the US state and the same number of years for the return of Monarch to Cardiff.

On 16 May 2012 it was announced that airport Managing Director, Patrick Duffy, had left his position amid mounting pressure from the Welsh Assembly Government on the airport owners Abertis to improve the state of the airport and improve the services it offers, or sell the facility to an investor in a proposed public-private partnership. It is unclear as to why exactly Mr. Duffy left his position after four years.