Carwyn full of optimism for airport’s expansion
CARDIFF Airport is the bestplaced airport in western Britain for expansion, believes First Minister Carwyn Jones – but he said securing a long-haul route to New York is unlikely.
It comes as the Welsh Government has again pressed the case to the UK Government for air passenger duty to be devolved for the purpose of abolishing the aviation tax on long-haul flights and looking to reduce the rate on the other bands for short-haul and domestic flights.
The airport, wholly-owned by the Welsh Government, currently handles around 1.4 million passengers a year. However, even without air passenger duty being devolved, its chairman Roger Lewis is confident that passengers can reach three million by 2025 – at which stage a new larger terminal building, which could potentially cost £100m, would be needed.
Design, planning and engineering consultancy Arup, through its Cardiff office, has been appointed to draw up a long-term masterplan for the airport, including a new terminal.
Arup will complete the masterplan next April and will also look at the land around the airport and the wider enterprise zone, that also covers St Athan, for potential aviation-related developments, including in the area of freight.
A new daily scheduled service from Qatar Airways from Cardiff to Doha, which launches next spring, opens up the prospect for increasing freight traffic from the Rhoose-based airport.
Mr Jones said: “As far as the airport is concerned, there is a lot of room to expand and there are no restrictions on operations. And we can widen the runway if we need to.
“There is also lots of land around it and that is why it is part of an enterprise zone, which makes it, I think, the best-placed airport in the whole of western Britain to expand.”
The investment needed in the new terminal could be the trigger for the Welsh Government giving up equity in the airport to secure needed private sector investment.
Mr Jones said “I have always said I am not wedded to the idea of being the only shareholder in the airport.
“And we have always said that over time we want to see private sector investment getting involved. Does that mean we want to give up a controlling interest? Well no, but we certainly want to see other investors in and working as a public-private sector partnership.”
Mr Jones said North America is a target for a scheduled long-haul route, but it was a case of where.
He said: “There is talk of New York, but in reality you need to fly to a hub airport. Doha is a hub and you can fly on to India or China, but New York doesn’t have a hub.
“Atlanta and Chicago do and it is a question of seeing what the most sustainable route is. Bristol had a daily [Continental Airlines] service to New York and it didn’t work for them. I think you need to fly to an airport where there are options to fly to somewhere else too.”