Infraestructuras SA virtually stopped all but
essential investment in new infrastructure.
Travellers could see the decline as they
passed through.GOVERNMENT OWNED
The Welsh Government’s purchase of the
airport was announced on March 27, 2013.
There were claims of “nationalisation”, but First
Minister Carwyn Jones said the airport would
operate at arm’s-length, on a commercial
basis, and not be directly managed by the
government. “I expect to see a return to the
public purse over time,” he said.
Businessman Lord Rowe-Beddoe was
appointed Chairman. He was succeeded
by Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) Group Chief
Executive Roger Lewis, when he stepped
down from those responsibilities following the
2015 Rugby World Cup.Mr Lewis announced the 16% growth at
a news conference on January 9 this year,
adding: “We are targeting further growth
through 2017 with more routes at better prices
and better times.” He also con rmed 25% of
the passengers now using the facility were
visitors to Wales and that the airport was
estimated to be worth more than £100m to
the local economy as well being responsible
for 2,500 jobs directly and indirectly.
CityJet had provided the core scheduled
services from Cardiff, using mainly ATR 42and Fokker 50 aircraft, until it withdrew in
mid-2015.
Flybe was already operating some
services from the airport though in
a joint statement, Cardiff Airport and
the then Flybe CEO, Saad Hammad,
announced on March 5, 2015 a ten-year
deal including new schedules from “late
summer” onwards, providing an additional
500,000 extra seats on the airport’s roster.
These were Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh,
Faro, Glasgow, Jersey, Milan (Malpensa),
Munich, Paris CDG, plus seasonal routes
to Chambéry, Düsseldorf, Geneva and
Verona. The airport would also become
a Flybe base for two Embraer 195 jets
and up to 50 new jobs were created. Two
years on, with passenger traffic growing
substantially, this was a major turning point
for the success of the airport.http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 57Above left: Cardiff Radar (Zone) is responsible
for a large swathe of airspace up to 16,500ft
over the southwest of the UK.
Above right: A view of the former terminal
and apron on the south side in 1962. Just
discernible is a French Air Force MS.760 Paris.
Geoff Jones Collection56-60_cardiffDC.mfDC.mf.indd 57 01/02/2017 18:25