Cardiff Airport is seen as a major contributor to the Welsh economy and lifestyle and its management takes this role very seriously. Support for Swansea Bay Futures stems from the airport’s need to sustain Wales’ competitiveness and attractiveness, with the city representing a substantial factor in both incoming and outgoing travel.
Situated 10 miles from the M4 and 40 miles from Swansea, Cardiff Airport handles around 2.1 million passengers a year and directly supports over 1000 jobs in south Wales. The airport came top out of 75 airports, including Heathrow, Bristol and Birmingham, in an on-time performance survey conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority between April and June 2008.
Since its privatisation in 1995, Cardiff Airport has become characterised by continued passenger growth, an enhanced air route network, plus a multi million pound expansion programme to the terminal building. Its network of air routes to UK, European and Worldwide destinations provides a wide choice of services to an increasing number of both business and leisure travellers from south Wales and the west of England.
In addition to an extensive range of leisure services throughout Europe and North America, daily scheduled services operate direct from Cardiff to 17 destinations, ten of which are international.
Direct scheduled services also ensure fast onward connections to or from many worldwide destinations from major European hub airports of Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Dublin. Passengers are able to transfer quickly from Cardiff, via these hubs, to a network of international flights, and through-ticketing and baggage arrangements on many flights enhance travel convenience further.
Investment in passenger facilities is continual: since 1995, over £37 million has been or is currently being invested in development programmes designed with the comfort and safety of passengers in mind. The airport was acquired in 2005 by ACDL, a consortium including Abertis, a Spanish infrastructure company, and AENA, a Spanish airports company.
