Posts Tagged ‘ Cardiff Airport ’

The problem is that few airlines have planes small enough to fly some of the routes on which Flybe operated.

My forecast would be that if it is devolved and abolished in Wales, the tax will shortly disappear entirely.

Passengers walking normally through security would no longer need to take off coats and jackets, or remove personal items such as phones.

Adrian sums up some other stories from the World Travel Market, is surprised how quick it is to go through formalities at Cardiff Airport and looks at developments in the Dominican Republic and Switzerland

Yesterday morning the First Minister, Carwyn Jones, said that the Welsh government would aim to scrap air passenger duty (APD) on long-haul flights if the tax was devolved to Cardiff. Nicola Sturgeon said similar things about APD when it was devolved to Scotland. She has run into problems implementing any change because it requires an EU decision. Jones will face the same problem so why say things he is unlikely to be able to deliver? The probable answer is that he only said it because
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You may not have heard of NATS but for every holidaymaker flying out of UK air space they are vital as they are the provider of air traffic control services. And today they say that it will be the busiest day ever in the skies above the UK. They expect to handle a record breaking 8,800 flights in and out of the country just today. During the summer NATS expects to handle more than 770,000 flights, an increase by 40,000 from last year. That 5.2%
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Stonehenge, Club 55, Star Wars and medical assistance abroad compete with children’s attitudes to holidays in Adrian’s column this week. And there is the almost obligatory Southern rail story.

Bus arrivals, holiday safety and unhelpful tourism answers by government ministers are some of the things that helped exasperate Adrian this week. But then he was sent a picture of a bus sign…

Newcastle was judged to be the overall winner achieving high levels of passenger satisfaction across all categories, followed closely by Edinburgh, then Liverpool, Cardiff and Glasgow respectively.

Its a fortnight until an entirely new tourist attraction opens – the British Airways i360. The beaches in Nottingham and Ramsgate are included in the many stories Adrian rounds up from the week.

After all the hand-wringing by airlines and the travel industry about how detrimental APD is, the government has probably brought about the taxes own demise – just by devolving responsibility.

In a major study of over 542,000 passengers who flew abroad from the UK last year, Just about Travel has found that many people did not use their nearest airport.

Adrian has been in Germany this week at a travel trade show where he finds that Germany has been attracting more British visitors. But then few destinations have not announced greater visitor numbers.

Adrian hears both critiscism and praise from readers about recent holidays, wonders why only 8 people travel by train to Durham Tees Valley Airport and prepares for English Tourism Week.

You would have thought by some of the stories that came out last week that Cardiff Airport was on its last legs. The announcement by bmi baby that it was leaving the airport and thus cancelling 10 routes caused all sorts of people to come out of the woodwork deploring the effect that this would have.
What tosh! Or is it?

Nearly five years ago a railway station opened linking Cardiff with the airport. A 2 mile ride on a courtesy bus then takes passengers from the station to the terminal. The link was designed, quite obviously, to provide a public transport alternative to taking your own car to the airport. As well, there is a bus link generally running about every hour.
Now the BBC is reporting that the courtesy bus system may be withdrawn because it is costing £100,000 per year to keep open. But although it is called a courtesy bus service, train passengers probably pay for it in their ticket. According to the First Great Western website, the bus part of the ticket is valued at £3.70. Arriva who operate the train quote a fare of £3.30 from Cardiff Central to the airport station which includes the complementary bus service. Both can’t be right.