Cardiff International Airport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cardiff International Airport

IATA: CWL - ICAO: EGFF
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		TBI plc (abertis airports)
Serves		Rhoose
Elevation AMSL		220 ft (67 m)
Coordinates		51°23′48″N, 003°20′36″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
12/30	7,848	2,392	Asphalt

See also: Transport in Wales

Cardiff International Airport (Welsh: Maes Awyr Rhyngwladol Caerdydd) (IATA: CWL, ICAO: EGFF) is an airport located in the village of Rhoose, in the Vale of Glamorgan, approximately 12 Miles (19 Kilometres) south-west of the Welsh capital, Cardiff.

The only airport in South Wales offering scheduled flights, Cardiff Airport is served by scheduled, low-fare and charter carriers and also supports corporate and general aviation.

1 History
2 Airlines and destinations
3 Transport
4 Future plans
5 Executive Aviation
6 External links
7 References

[edit] History

The history of the airport extends back 60 years to the early 1940s when the Air Ministry requisitioned land in the rural Vale of Glamorgan to set up a wartime satellite aerodrome and training base for Royal Air Force (RAF) Spitfire pilots. Construction work commenced in 1941, and the airfield officially began life on 7 April 1942 when it was taken over by No 53 Operational Training Unit. The commercial potential of the runway was recognised in the early 1950s with Aer Lingus starting a service to Dublin in 1952. A new terminal building followed, along with flights to France, Belfast and Cork. An escalation in holiday charter business resulted in passenger throughput exceeding 100,000 in 1962.

In the 1970s the airport originally known as 'Rhoose Airport', was renamed 'Glamorgan, Rhoose Airport'. Around this time the supersonic airliner Concorde made a few flights into the airport on special occasions. These were limited by the length of the runway that meant it could only land lightly loaded and only take off without passengers and a minimal fuel load. In the 1980s its status was further upgraded to 'Cardiff, Wales Airport', despite Cardif being over ten miles (16 km) distant.

1986 saw a further extension of 750 ft (229 m) to the runway, costing in the region of £1 million, thus attracting more business to the airport in the form of new generation jet aircraft. Development of transatlantic links were made with charter flights to Florida, in addition to the previously established links with Canada. The runway extension, enabling the airport to handle 747 jumbo jets, was instrumental in attracting the British Airways (BA) Maintenance facility to Cardiff Airport. The maintenance hangar is one of the largest in the world (at 250 m x 175 m, 820 ft x 574 ft) and provides heavy airframe and engineering maintenance for the British Airways fleet and third party carriers.

In April 1995, due to planned Local Government re-organisation in Wales, the Airport Company was privatised, with shares being sold to property and development firm, TBI plc, now a subsidiary of abertis airports.

The airport is not only the main maintenance base for British Airways but also home to a variety of aerospace-oriented firms, and therefore a major contributor to the economic development of the region.

Cardiff Airport was used by two million passengers in 2006, according to the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority.

On 21st February 2007 it was announced that the airport will see the first Public Service Obligation (PSO) service, to be operated in Wales. "North-south airlines is revealed", BBC News, 21 February 2007. Inverness based airline, Highland Airways will fly several services, each day, between Anglessey (RAF Valley) and Cardiff. BAe Jetstream 31 aircraft have been allocated to the route, which it is hoped will provide a quicker alternative to commuters, travelling between north and south Wales and who have to rely on the A470 road or rail. The PSO service will be subsidised by the Welsh Assembly Government, initially for three years; after which time, the route will have to be completely viable to continue.

On 12 March 2007, it was revealed that British Mediterranean Airways (BMED) was flying a "ghost flight" between London Heathrow and Cardiff Airport 6 times a week. No seats are sold for the flight, and it is not announced in arrivals or departures, or on airport information screens. The flight is only made in order for BMED to retain a valuable take-off slot at London Heathrow, unused since it scrapped flights to Uzbekistan. Airlines with landing rights at London Heathrow are liable to lose them if they do not make at least 80% use of their allocation over a six-month session. ^[1]

It was announced on the 15th March 2007 that the Route Development Fund set up to promote and support growth of commercial aviation in Wales would be scrapped from May. This is due to new EU regulation that state aid must not exceed 30% of total costs. The RDF provided assistance of 50%. Similar schemes in Scotland and Northern Ireland will end on the same day. Seen by some as an example of EU bureacracy that is detrimental to the economic development of resurging countries such as Wales.

In March 2007, formal CAA figures showed Cardiff airport hadpassed the two million annual passengers mark, and with an annual growth rate of 14% was the UK's fastest growing regional airport.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Aer Arann (Cork, Dublin, Galway, Nantes [starts June 19 2007])
Air Malta (Malta [starts Summer 2007])
Air Southwest (Manchester, Newquay)
bmi
- bmibaby (Alicante, Amsterdam, Belfast-International, Edinburgh, Faro, Geneva, Glasgow, Jersey, Málaga, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Prague [ends 22 May 2007])
Eastern Airways (Newcastle)
First Choice Airways (Alicante, Bodrum, Bourgas, Dalaman, Funchal [starts Summer 2007], Kefalonia, Kos [starts Summer 2007], Lanzarote, Lanarca, Mahon, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Reus, Rhodes, Tenerife-South)
Flybe (Belfast-City [starts 17 May 2007], Paris-Charles de Gaulle [starts 29 April 2007])
Highland Airways (Anglesey [starts May 8 2007])
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam)
MyTravel Airways (Alicante, Dalaman, Fuerteventura, Gerona, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Ibiza, Larnarca, Malaga, Malta, Menorca, Monastir, Orlando-Sanford, Palma de Mallorca, Reus, Sharm el Sheikh, Tenerife-South)
Thomsonfly (Alicante, Barcelona [starts 19 May 2007], Bodrum, Bourgas, Cancun, Chambery, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Fuerteventura Funchal, Girona, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Ibiza, Jersey, Lanzarote, Menorca, Malaga, Monastir, Naples, Orlando-Sanford, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Rhodes, Sharm el Sheikh, Tenerife-South, Reus, Zakynthos)
XL Airways (Lanzarote, Orlando-Sanford, Palma de Mallorca)
Zoom Airlines (Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver)

[edit] Transport

The nearest railway station to the airport is Rhoose Cardiff International Airport railway station, served by shuttle bus to the international terminal. Arriva Trains Wales provides regular direct services to Cardiff Central Station and Bridgend.

Cardiff Bus serves the airport by providing a regular shuttle bus to the city centre taking around half an hour, with an Adult Single costing £3.70.

By road, the airport is signposted from M4 Junction 33 (Cardiff West).

[edit] Future plans

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

It is anticipated that the investment will attract up to 5m passengers by 2015 - an increase of 150% - according to the airport's published response to a UK Government White paper on the future of commercial aviation throughout the United Kingdom.

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

[edit] Executive Aviation

Dragonfly Executive Air charter Operate two Beechcraft King Air 200s. The company office is based on the south side of the airfield, sharing a building with the flying school.