It’s 70 years this week since Cardiff Airport became the only one to serve the capital city of Wales, eventually becoming Wales’ national airport. In that time Cardiff Airport has connected the capital city and country of Wales with our closest neighbours, sent countless sports fans on their way, and connected Wales to sunnier climates.
For me personally, Cardiff Airport helped me gain my love of aviation and travel. And it helped me to see my country in a different light, while opening my eyes to what the rest of the world has to offer.
A history of Cardiff Airport
What is now Cardiff Airport started out as RAF Rhoose in 1942. It was used as a training site for the legendary Spitfire fighter. It was closed after the war ended, but reopened in 1952 as a civilian airport, with an Aer Lingus service to Dublin being the first route. On 1 April 1954, all commercial air traffic was transferred to the Rhoose airfield. Cardiff Municipal Airport in the Pengam Moors part of Cardiff ceased operations, leaving the Rhoose site as the only commercial passenger airport.
By the 1960s, the airport was used by 100,000 passengers a year. In the 1980s, the name was changed to Cardiff-Wales Airport. The runway was extended to allow jets like the 747 use the airport, allowing flights to North America. This led to British Airways setting up its maintenance facility there; it’s still a major employer at the airport.
In 1995, the airport was privatised, and was processing one million passengers a year. It hit its high mark of 2,094,000 million in 2007. The name was changed to Cardiff Airport in 2009. It was bought by the Welsh government under Carwyn Jones in 2013 for £52mn, after a period of lack of investment by its owners, and falling passenger numbers due to a recession.
In 2014, Ryanair returned to the airport after leaving in 2006, and in 2015 Flybe opened a two-aircraft base, which grew to three aircraft. TUI also grew its operation there, eventually basing three aircraft at the airport. Thomas Cook expanded to using larger aircraft, and in May 2018 Qatar Airways commenced its service from Cardiff to Doha. By 2019, Cardiff Airport was served by nine airlines flying direct to 50 destinations, with 1,656,085 passengers using the terminal.
Cardiff Airport today
Cardiff Airport has lost nearly 50% of its passengers and routes since 2019, and two of its biggest airlines. Flybe and Thomas Cook both collapsed, leading to a loss of frequency on many routes like Dublin and Edinburgh. A major contributor to this downturn was the global pandemic that started in early 2020, causing the effective shutdown of the aviation industry, as only essential travel was allowed.
This wasn’t enough to sustain services at Cardiff. Although the airport did remain open, scheduled services and the terminal itself were closed for quite some time. The airfield was still in use for the parking of British Airways and Wizz Air aircraft. The airport was also used to receive PPE cargo flights for NHS Wales.
Cardiff resumed passenger flights in 2021, and welcomed a new airline in Wizz Air in 2022, but unfortunately Wizz Air left Cardiff in early 2023. For Summer 2024, Cardiff Airport will be served by seven airlines to 26 direct destinations. It saw 838,574 passengers use the airport in 2023.
Cloudy skies over Cardiff Airport
Looking at passenger numbers for 2023, key routes like Edinburgh no longer having multiple daily flights, airlines like Wizz Air and Eastern Airways ceasing operations, and the hoped-for return of Qatar Airways not materialising, anyone could be forgiven for thinking the future’s bleak for Cardiff Airport.
The cost of Welsh Government ownership is considered too high by some. The airport has operated at a loss and required £179.6mn in funding since 2013. Acquisition and equity investments totalling £67.9mn, loans worth £69.8mn, and grants of £41.9mn (£41.6mn of this being the pandemic grant) have been required. That’s an average of £16.3mn a year over 11 years of government ownership.
This continued investment is a source of political objection from the opposition party in the Senedd, the Welsh Conservatives. Their Shadow Minister for Transport and Technology, Natasha Asghar, recently called it a failed endeavour. She stated in a recent article in Nation.Cymru that the Welsh Conservatives wouldn’t have invested such money into the airport.
Is the future bleak for Cardiff Airport? Not as long as the Welsh Government continues to see the necessity for an international airport in Wales. It could be sold, but who would buy it as it is now? And I believe it’s likely that any new owners would continue to look to the Welsh Government for financial support.
There’s no doubt the airport will continue to have challenges. The economic situation doesn’t look rosy. It has a larger neighbour drawing from its catchment area. There’s the challenge of fewer airlines than before. EasyJet and Jet2 aren’t interested in flying from Cardiff. And its owners don’t have the powers to reduce or change taxes like Air Passenger Duty to attract airlines, due to Westminster’s refusal to devolve them.
Clearer skies
But it’s not all cloudy skies. Cardiff Airport has TUI, with one aircraft based there year-round and three from May to October. TUI uses non-based aircraft on some routes, operating up to 46 weekly departures to 22 destinations in summer 2024. These are Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife, Dalaman, Antalya, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Bourgas, Alicante, Malaga, Larnaca, Paphos, Kos, Rhodes, Corfu, Menorca, Zante, Enfidha, Dubrovnik, Heraklion, Gran Canaria, Kefalonia, Reus, and Barbados.
Ryanair will operate up to 13 weekly departures to five destinations this summer: Dublin, Malaga, Faro, Alicante, and Tenerife. Vueling will fly to Alicante and Malaga, KLM to Amsterdam, Loganair to Edinburgh, Aer Lingus to Belfast, and Balkan Holidays to Bourgas.
The terminal is continually upgraded, the security area the latest to have improved passenger experience. On the non-passenger side, BAMC remains active, maintaining new British Airways 777 and 787 aircraft, providing 650 jobs. Global Trek provides services for business aircraft, general aviation, and military movements.
Cardiff airport hosts testing for Airbus, and other maintenance operations. It runs St Athan airfield nearby, a successful maintenance and aircraft recycling operation and business park. Another business park may be developed next to the airport. This provides a base for regrowth and recovery from pandemic effects and losing major airlines.
Having an international airport gives Wales access to the world directly or indirectly via international hubs like Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. It allows our sporting teams to fly to international competitions, and lets tourism, business, and international students access Wales without flying via England or Ireland.
Cardiff Airport has a job on its hands to regain lost routes and flights; many may never return. But with those it has, it retains the possibility of growth, and may continue to serve Wales for another 70 years.
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