What long term good will this do? Aren’t flights cheaper at Bristol because of tax reasons?
About £1 million per flight then
Too little, too late. Study after study by the Welsh government (and the UK government before them) said it needed better links to the M4 and public transport system. Every study was ignored resulting in the situation we have now.
We can spend endless money on the airport it’s self (and we probably will) and it won’t resolve the main issues at all. The transport links will still suck.
There is a saying about repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This is a prime example
Honestly shut it down its abit of a National embarrassment. In the wrong place anyway. The only way Wales gets a proper airport is if Bristol and Cardiff come together and build one on the M4. But the UK gov may not like that as it could damage Heathrow. So meh
Of course they do, it’s Welsh labour and their greatest vanity project. I think it’s time to let it go. Bristol is further away yet easier to get to, has more flights, and an overall night and day better experience. I’ll probably get downvoted but this airport has been a bottomless money pit for years failing to turn a profit. Any other business would have folded by now without this financial help.
This money could be faaaaaar better spent on the Welsh people.
See, I like Cardiff airport. Getting through the security gates is so quick. The biggest off-put to me about using it is trying to get there without a car. They’ve made it so difficult. It’s easier for me to get a national express coach to Bristol airport from Cardiff.
Could spend that on a new bridge to Anglesey, or railway electrification, or something useful. Jokers
As much as I agree with it being crap, poorly located etc, to close it down seems like such a bad thing for wales. A country without an airport will seriously do damage to wales’ reputation for inward investment. The Welsh government have absolutely mismanaged the airport into the ground. Surely the best they could do is put it on the market accepting a loss, but caveat the sale that the new link road will need to be built by the purchaser to the governments design. Clearly the airport was better in private hands. I used Bristol in the spring this year and hadn’t been there for a few years. They have invested so much in the past 10 years. Cardiff just seem to have put some stickers on the wall. Shocking really, Cardiff used to be the big brother.
When it’s 80 odd quid per person cheaper at least to go from Bristol no sane person uses Cardiff, that’s why it’s in shit. The transport links would be tolerable if it were at least the same
>To improve connectivity, Mr Skates said the airport would seek to develop routes to those parts of the world identified in the Welsh Government’s international strategy and being seen as important for economic growth, such as the Middle East and South Asia, countries within the European Union and North America.
They should focus on improving connectivity to the fucking place first, a shuttle bus from Cardiff or something, but they won’t. It boggles my mind that Cardiff council and the sennedd have so much trouble realising that they can’t look at one thing in isolation, and fix a problem, without considering its inter-relation with other things. Then again, this is the government that thought applying a blanket speed limit across the whole country, without considering local concerns and the way things interconnect, was a recipe for success. I wouldn’t trust them to manage a Starbucks.
Then again, I might just be saying that because I’m sat in a Starbucks.
How long will the £200m last? Then there will be another £200m…
Turn it into a drag strip like Santa pod. Which would be quite ironic you have to drive at 20mph but we do have a drag strip which would attract enthusiasts from across Europe to drive very very fast.
I’ve been once, despite taking lots of flights for work. The problem I have is it just doesn’t bloody go anywhere, that is unless you want to holiday in the touristy parts of Spain…
> If approved, the finance will support the airport’s diversification strategy of increasing revenues from non terminal passenger-related activities, to around 50%. It would back projects on a case by case basis with the aim of leveraging significant private investment in areas such aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul, general aviation, air cargo and sustainable aviation technologies, including sustainable aviation fuel.
Seems reasonable to try and make the site stand on it’s own two legs. Could also be good for job creation.
Obviously Job creation only really works if they fucking sort out how you get to/from the site. The only international airport accessed from the motorway by a single track lane!
I’d rather see 200m put into rhw rail or road networks both of which needs improving Cardiff Airport can realistically serve fuck all of Wales.
I dont agree the airport is poorly located, it is between Cardiff and Swansea with a catchment area ~2.5million
However what i do see is the problem is the lack of a dual carrigeway linking the airport to the M4
They have needed to build the road north out of the terminal for years.
I was born and grew up in Barry, so I am fully familiar with the routes into and out of Rhoose, heading towards Bridgend is all windy <B roads at one point it drops to a single track lane.
Heading north towards the closest point of the M4 you need to drive to the top of Barry, then head up the five mile lane, cross the A48 and then single track lanes until you hit Juncton 34. Those roads are lethal (I was crashed into once there 🙁 )
Heading East you drive accross the top of Barry (stop and go traffic often), then up ok roads to Culverhouse cross and then dual carrigeway to the motorway
All of those trips to the motorway are 30 minute to an hour trips, extreemly winding and convoluted. a dual carrigeway north to J34 would cut that trip to an 8 mile 15 minute diversion from the motorway (and would benefit Barry/Rhoose transport as well as provide huge green/brown/grey belt oportunity for housing
In addition to the required dual carrigeway they should have also spurred off the Rhoose train link and put a station on the airport site, at the moment you need to get a train to Rhoose and then a local bus (which may not be running early morning/evening) The train station is 1km away from the airport, but the wrong side of the runway for the terminal (You enter by the flying club) You need to loop around the south side of the runway un non-pavement roads 3km. So walking from the station to the terminal with bags is unrealistic
I believe there is ok national express from local towns
TL;DR It is an ok location with terrible connections to the rest of the country. The investment requirement has been known about for decades and the government finds excuse after excuse. There are fields surrounding it on two sides so expansion is also possible (but expensive)
If the issue with the road is “Green impact”, I will be driving my electric car charged via the solar panels on my house roof. Over the next 15 years everyone else will be moving that way too. It will take them 20 years to get the road built
It’s a shame that the transport to and from the airport isn’t better – it’s shockingly uncoordinated and very expensive if you haven’t got a car. Flights are massively expensive compared to Bristol, and it’s only an extra hour away if you’re lucky enough to have a car.
If the trains came within walking distance of the airport that would be so much better. Last time I flew in I took the bus to the train, the shelter at the airport barely has any cover and it was raining sideways! Then train was cancelled 😭. Such a waste
So they found money for this but not for an A&E for Powys or even to be able to keep the air ambulance base going?
I try and use Cardiff airport if I can, but I have never, because it never goes anywhere most people want to go and it’s easier going to Manchester or Bristol. If Wales wasn’t it’s own nation, I doubt it would have existed and if it did, it would have folded by now.
It needs a rail link or something, the airport itself is sn airport. No issues there, but it’s just a pain to get to.
18 comments
What long term good will this do? Aren’t flights cheaper at Bristol because of tax reasons?
About £1 million per flight then
Too little, too late. Study after study by the Welsh government (and the UK government before them) said it needed better links to the M4 and public transport system. Every study was ignored resulting in the situation we have now.
We can spend endless money on the airport it’s self (and we probably will) and it won’t resolve the main issues at all. The transport links will still suck.
There is a saying about repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. This is a prime example
Honestly shut it down its abit of a National embarrassment. In the wrong place anyway. The only way Wales gets a proper airport is if Bristol and Cardiff come together and build one on the M4. But the UK gov may not like that as it could damage Heathrow. So meh
Of course they do, it’s Welsh labour and their greatest vanity project. I think it’s time to let it go. Bristol is further away yet easier to get to, has more flights, and an overall night and day better experience. I’ll probably get downvoted but this airport has been a bottomless money pit for years failing to turn a profit. Any other business would have folded by now without this financial help.
This money could be faaaaaar better spent on the Welsh people.
See, I like Cardiff airport. Getting through the security gates is so quick. The biggest off-put to me about using it is trying to get there without a car. They’ve made it so difficult. It’s easier for me to get a national express coach to Bristol airport from Cardiff.
Could spend that on a new bridge to Anglesey, or railway electrification, or something useful. Jokers
As much as I agree with it being crap, poorly located etc, to close it down seems like such a bad thing for wales. A country without an airport will seriously do damage to wales’ reputation for inward investment. The Welsh government have absolutely mismanaged the airport into the ground. Surely the best they could do is put it on the market accepting a loss, but caveat the sale that the new link road will need to be built by the purchaser to the governments design. Clearly the airport was better in private hands. I used Bristol in the spring this year and hadn’t been there for a few years. They have invested so much in the past 10 years. Cardiff just seem to have put some stickers on the wall. Shocking really, Cardiff used to be the big brother.
When it’s 80 odd quid per person cheaper at least to go from Bristol no sane person uses Cardiff, that’s why it’s in shit. The transport links would be tolerable if it were at least the same
>To improve connectivity, Mr Skates said the airport would seek to develop routes to those parts of the world identified in the Welsh Government’s international strategy and being seen as important for economic growth, such as the Middle East and South Asia, countries within the European Union and North America.
They should focus on improving connectivity to the fucking place first, a shuttle bus from Cardiff or something, but they won’t. It boggles my mind that Cardiff council and the sennedd have so much trouble realising that they can’t look at one thing in isolation, and fix a problem, without considering its inter-relation with other things. Then again, this is the government that thought applying a blanket speed limit across the whole country, without considering local concerns and the way things interconnect, was a recipe for success. I wouldn’t trust them to manage a Starbucks.
Then again, I might just be saying that because I’m sat in a Starbucks.
How long will the £200m last? Then there will be another £200m…
Turn it into a drag strip like Santa pod. Which would be quite ironic you have to drive at 20mph but we do have a drag strip which would attract enthusiasts from across Europe to drive very very fast.
I’ve been once, despite taking lots of flights for work. The problem I have is it just doesn’t bloody go anywhere, that is unless you want to holiday in the touristy parts of Spain…
> If approved, the finance will support the airport’s diversification strategy of increasing revenues from non terminal passenger-related activities, to around 50%. It would back projects on a case by case basis with the aim of leveraging significant private investment in areas such aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul, general aviation, air cargo and sustainable aviation technologies, including sustainable aviation fuel.
Seems reasonable to try and make the site stand on it’s own two legs. Could also be good for job creation.
Obviously Job creation only really works if they fucking sort out how you get to/from the site. The only international airport accessed from the motorway by a single track lane!
I’d rather see 200m put into rhw rail or road networks both of which needs improving Cardiff Airport can realistically serve fuck all of Wales.
I dont agree the airport is poorly located, it is between Cardiff and Swansea with a catchment area ~2.5million
However what i do see is the problem is the lack of a dual carrigeway linking the airport to the M4
They have needed to build the road north out of the terminal for years.
I was born and grew up in Barry, so I am fully familiar with the routes into and out of Rhoose, heading towards Bridgend is all windy <B roads at one point it drops to a single track lane.
Heading north towards the closest point of the M4 you need to drive to the top of Barry, then head up the five mile lane, cross the A48 and then single track lanes until you hit Juncton 34. Those roads are lethal (I was crashed into once there 🙁 )
Heading East you drive accross the top of Barry (stop and go traffic often), then up ok roads to Culverhouse cross and then dual carrigeway to the motorway
All of those trips to the motorway are 30 minute to an hour trips, extreemly winding and convoluted. a dual carrigeway north to J34 would cut that trip to an 8 mile 15 minute diversion from the motorway (and would benefit Barry/Rhoose transport as well as provide huge green/brown/grey belt oportunity for housing
In addition to the required dual carrigeway they should have also spurred off the Rhoose train link and put a station on the airport site, at the moment you need to get a train to Rhoose and then a local bus (which may not be running early morning/evening) The train station is 1km away from the airport, but the wrong side of the runway for the terminal (You enter by the flying club) You need to loop around the south side of the runway un non-pavement roads 3km. So walking from the station to the terminal with bags is unrealistic
I believe there is ok national express from local towns
TL;DR It is an ok location with terrible connections to the rest of the country. The investment requirement has been known about for decades and the government finds excuse after excuse. There are fields surrounding it on two sides so expansion is also possible (but expensive)
If the issue with the road is “Green impact”, I will be driving my electric car charged via the solar panels on my house roof. Over the next 15 years everyone else will be moving that way too. It will take them 20 years to get the road built
It’s a shame that the transport to and from the airport isn’t better – it’s shockingly uncoordinated and very expensive if you haven’t got a car. Flights are massively expensive compared to Bristol, and it’s only an extra hour away if you’re lucky enough to have a car.
If the trains came within walking distance of the airport that would be so much better. Last time I flew in I took the bus to the train, the shelter at the airport barely has any cover and it was raining sideways! Then train was cancelled 😭. Such a waste
So they found money for this but not for an A&E for Powys or even to be able to keep the air ambulance base going?
I try and use Cardiff airport if I can, but I have never, because it never goes anywhere most people want to go and it’s easier going to Manchester or Bristol. If Wales wasn’t it’s own nation, I doubt it would have existed and if it did, it would have folded by now.
It needs a rail link or something, the airport itself is sn airport. No issues there, but it’s just a pain to get to.