Airport must do to make Airways service succeed
could be located closer to the Vale of Glamorgan Line.
And a site for a new dedicated airport station – even better if a new terminal is built around it – could be near Porthkerry Leisure Park, between Rhoose and Barry Station. Bus services There is a dedicated bus service from Cardiff to the airport, but there also need to be services from the west – starting as far west as Aberystwyth and calling at locations such as Carmarthen, Llanelli, Swansea and Port Talbot before terminating at the airport.
Run a marketing campaign throughout the west of England
The airport’s core catchment area in south Wales is vital, as is winning back more than the one million passengers from the region who are flying from Bristol Airport every year.
But for the Qatar Airways service to reach required occupancy levels, an effective marketing campaign will be required to bring passengers, both leisure and business, across the Severn. And of course providing competitively priced flights at convenient times.
But while tolls on the Severn crossings are being reduced, abolishing them completely would be a hugely psychological boost to getting more English passengers to cross the bridges – alongside an M4 relief road at some stage too. Exploit Wales’ ethnic diversity Wales is proud of its ethnically diverse communities and the huge contribution that incomers have made to its economy.
And the airport can tap into this market with first, second and thirdgeneration immigrants who want to visit their home country or that of their parents or grandparents.
For example, there are 20,000 people of Indian heritage in Wales, of whom 10,000 are in the healthcare sector. Qatar Airways has a number of flights from Doha to cities in India.
The airport needs to ensure they are opting to fly from Cardiff, using connecting flights at Doha, as often as possible. Freight Generating revenues at Cardiff Airport is not all about passengers. The airport is also looking to increase freight traffic – currently relatively low – to and from the Rhoose facilty.
And a direct link to the Middle East offers a quicker and easier route to market for Welsh exports, including food and drink, into the Middle East and beyond.
While Qatar Airways has yet to decide what type of plane it will use on the Cardiff to Doha route, it could well be a Boeing Dreamliner aircraft. As well as carrying hundreds of passengers, they will offer a huge increase in freight capacity.
And over time the airport (or private sector backers) could invest in new storage facilities for customers looking to transport goods to customers globally from Cardiff Airport.
And while this would need UK Government backing, why not make Cardiff Airport a free-trading zone post-Brexit, like some international ports? With no tariff or custom duties, it could provide the spark for a dedicated industrial park in and around the airport, where there is plenty of land for development.
Imagine components being flown in and assembled into finished goods, then flown back out for customers globally.
And of course, complete manufacturing operations – not just assembly operations – could also be encouraged to set up in and around the airport in a tariff-free environment, with all the research and development investment and new highskilled jobs that would bring.
And the airport could work collaboratively with ports in south Wales if they too were given free port status post-Brexit.
Expand and improve facilities at the terminal
This is a long-term project for the airport and would cost several hundred million pounds.
But on the current passenger growth trajectory, it might not be too long until numbers start getting close to the three million mark, at which point a new terminal would be needed.
The Welsh Government’s position is that such an investment would need to be funded by the private sector. So this could be the point at which the Welsh Government is willing to give up equity in the airport to a private sector investor.
And with Qatar Airways also having a stake in Heathrow Airport, as well as British Airways and Vuelingowned IAG, could they be a natural investor in Cardiff Airport at some future point?
Having a commercially successfully route from Cardiff would make those conversations on potential investment and and an ownership stake in the airport a lot easier to have. Air Passenger Duty Cardiff Airport, which was also courting Emirates, landed Qatar Airways in the face of competition from its nearest rival Bristol.
But if air passenger duty – not just on long-haul but all bands of APD – was devolved to the Welsh Government, for the sole purpose of reducing the tax or abolishing it completely, it would have made Cardiff’s offer even more compelling.
That’s why, despite the UK Government not wanting to devolve the tax (although it has done so for Northern Ireland and Scotland), the campaign for it to be devolved must be supported by all those who want the Welsh economy to thrive.