Cardiff Airport announces new routes and largest ever summer flight programme
As schools across Wales break up for the Easter Holidays, Cardiff Airport is preparing to welcome thousands of customers.
The number of people using the National Airport of Wales this Easter is up 18% on the same Easter period in 2024.
More than 40,000 passengers are expected between 11 and 27 April 2025.
The airport says it has been a fantastic start to 2025, with Crystal Ski announcing Salzburg as a new winter route, following on from the successful launch of Chambéry in December 2024.
TUI continues to grow in Wales with Fuerteventura confirmed as its newest route, starting in December this year. The operator is also bolstering capacity with extra Gran Canaria and Tenerife flights and holidays, starting this winter, aligning with Marella Cruises’ winter schedule from Gran Canaria.
Ryanair has confirmed its largest ever summer flight programme from Cardiff – up 18% year-on-year. There will be 32 weekly flights during the summer peak, including additional Dublin and Málaga services.
Meanwhile, Vueling has increased its frequencies to Málaga this summer, with up to 5 weekly departures during the summer peak.
Customers can also fly globally to 150 destinations from their local Airport, thanks to KLM’s twice daily service to Amsterdam and beyond.
International visitors flying to Wales can enjoy world-class coastlines and mountain summits, rich traditions and unique cuisines.
Welcoming the increase in passenger footfall this Easter, Lee Smith, Cardiff Airport’s Head of Business Development, said: “This Easter holidays, we’ll see 18% more customers travelling through Wales’ National Airport, compared to the same period last year.
“The continued recovery at Cardiff is testament to the hard work of our dedicated colleagues across the business.
“Our customers are enjoying the benefits of flying local and have been jetting off to Cyprus, Spain and Tunisia, just some of the many popular destinations on offer this year. Our valued airline partners continue to grow, and we look forward to a great summer season.”
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Bring back Qatar Airways! What the hell is going on with Cardiff Airport!
I really miss Qatar Airways as they were great for long haul flights, it was said that they were coming back last August and then again this year but nothing happened Why?
Who knows what’s going on behind the scenes but Qatar is a state airline and they’re more interested in long-term state partnerships than short term commercials. Perhaps the Welsh Gov’s “hands off” arms length approach is a problem here.
It’ll be interesting to see if the recent change in management reinvigorates the push for growth. That being said, Whitehall’s intransigence over APD is such a drag.
All this airport needs now to expand even further, is to be given the same APD and landing fee charges that Bristol and Birmingham enjoy, and to be put on a level playing field with the English airports, then we would see real growth.
You can’t blame apd for everything when other low-cost airlines e.g Flybe and Wizz Air have pulled the plug in recent years.
There will never be a successful International Airport for Cardiff if it remains in it’s present location.
A new International Hub should be built East of Newport alongside the motorway and the South Wales Main Railway line. This would also take the pressure off the congested London Airports.
Bristol can then keep their Mid Range flights for those who want to go to the beaches of the Mediterranean.
That was tried as the Severnside project and rejected by the west of England elite who didn’t want their airport in Wales. The obsession with location is a nonsense because that’s not how people choose flights. How many have travelled to Luton, Stansted or Gatwick when the same destination was available from Heathrow which is several hours closer? They do this because of cost, that’s the primary factor when choosing an airport. Flybe failed. Wizz turned out to be a basket case. Easyjet have a western UK base that works for them. Ryanair would probably turn CWL into their western… Read more »
No spokesperson for the anti-air travel lobby ? Much as I disagree with the current versions of green orthodoxy I still see air travel in its current form as one of the most polluting and environmentally damaging forms of transport. People fixated with getting “down to the Med” or “away to Dubai” just to get another blast of damaging suntans and intake of booze and toxic fast foods.
We don’t get to a greener future by retreating to our caves until it somehow happens on its own. The future is greener flying. And we get there by making better choices as soon as they are available. The elephant in the room which is APD that should be encouraging greener choices. Why not vary it so cleaner planes pay less. Why not increase it when viable alternatives are available like those travelling from London to Manchester. Why not have passengers who travel hundreds of miles to save £10 over flying from a closer airport pay more.
What’s difficult to comprehend in “….air travel in its current form as one of the most polluting and environmentally damaging forms of transport.” That is fact and doesn’t require retreating into caves to recognise it as fact. Greener flight won’t happen just because people flock to airports to buzz off down to the Med or anywhere else using today’s polluting technology. It will happen because those sectors that pioneer technology will find the new ways and realise the value in them. When that is done the technology will be adopted to shift the herd around the globe. But don’t expect… Read more »
Taxes that penalised the most polluting cars helped make cars much cleaner. The same isn’t happening for planes so there is less commercial pressure to improve than there could be. That translates into slower progress.
Meanwhile we should be increasing taxation on short haul flights and using it to subsidise public transport. It’s absurd that we can take two flights to get to London via Dublin for less than it costs to take the train.
And your original point wasn’t wrong, it just appeared to be implying we should stop flying rather than improving it.
You’re absolutely right about flying via Dublin to get to London being cheaper than the train; that is absurd. I see that there are plans now being made to run through rail services from St Pancras to as far afield as Milan – that’s good news. Following on from that, there could be similar services to major holiday destinations like Alicante and Malaga (both cities are connected to the TGV/AVE networks). That would be great for the Green agenda. However, unless there is a major restructuring of HSR service ticket prices, this method is likely to be prohibitively expensive; and… Read more »
I take it none of you fly for a holiday ?
I don’t believe Cardiff Airport will ever be able to maximise its full potential until the Welsh government gets some money from somewhere to connect Cardiff Central Station to it to provide a direct train service!
Have you even bothered to check your facts! Cardiff airport DOES have a direct rail link to/from Cardiff and other localities! There’s an hourly service (due to increase to every 30 minutes as part of the South Wales Metro project) to Rhoose (currently 2-hourly on Sundays) and a shuttle bus (the 905) that is synchronised to collect passengers from the rail station and take them to/from the airport – runs about 16 hours each day. Contrast that with Bristol airport – out in the sticks, with ABSOLUTELY NO rail-link primarily, it transpires, because of local geological issues in trying to… Read more »
We once used the rail link. As the train approached Rhoose station he rosding barriers came down. we could see the link bus at the barrier. The train stopped and as we got off the train the barriers went up and the link bus drove away leaving 12 passengers stranded. We had to choose between waiting an hour at a bus stop for the next bus or getting a £18 taxi to the airport. On our return journey the quickest way into Cardiff was bus to Rhoose airport. A train to Bridgend. Across to the other side of the station… Read more »
Sounds like you got caught up in rail disruption because there’s a six minute timetable gap between the train arriving and the bus departing.
On return, why didn’t you just get the Rhoose train via Barry (from the opposite platform at Rhoose) directly into Cardiff? The Vale of Glamorgan line runs from Bridgend to uuhh….Cardiff (and – mostly – beyond) in both directions, like most train services!? No need to go back to Bridgend for that journey. Agree about the bus service. The Express bus that used to run between the airport and Cardiff was suspended when Covid hit, and has not been resurrected; so the only public bus service currently from the airport to the centre goes by a route that takes in… Read more »
Cardiff Airport could attract more airline companies if it was on a level playing field but their hands are tied with A P D and other things controlled by London governments Tory or Labour they say it would damage Bristol and Birmingham it damages Cardiff airport so thats alright by them devolved governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland control their airports so why not Wales fed up to my back teeth of London governments we are treated like dirt sooner we leave this union the better there is nothing in it for Wales
Even that’s not a valid reason now because damaging Bristol or Birmingham isn’t possible since Johnson’s Internal Market Act made it illegal for the devolved administrations to disadvantage England.
Bring back pricing to reality, other airport’s are more realistic, minibus driving to Bristol works out cheaper in the long run
It’s simple economy of scale. The busiest airports can offer the cheapest prices. APD cements existing dominance and makes it almost impossible for smaller and less busy airports to compete. This is why the UK has a small number of oversubscribed airports and a lot of half empty regionals. To correct this, which would make the UK more resilient to Heathrow style failures, needs either APD to be suspended on quieter airports or direct government subsidies so airline costs are similar at all airports and airlines can supply what customers really want.
Not to/from Swansea and West Wales it doesn’t!
Cardiff is the capital city of Wales and the number of flights and destinations does not match that we need more long haul flights to be operated from Cardiff Airport bring the likes of Qatar airlines