Cardiff "Wales" International Airport is situated about 11 miles to the west of the city of Cardiff, making it ideal for onward connections to most of South Wales.

Although Cardiff has for some time acted as a busy regional airport serving a range of (mainly domestic) scheduled and charter destinations, growth has recently started accelerating at a much faster rate, due to the introduction of flights from budget airline BMI Baby.

Cardiff International Airport handles around 1.9 million passengers a year and was the UK’s second fastest growing airport in 2003

In 2003, 52% of passengers flew on charter services, 48% on scheduled services
In 2003, passengers traveled to 64 regular destinations from Cardiff International Airport.

Approximately 64% of passengers on the Cardiff – Amsterdam service with KLM are using Schiphol to link to worldwide destinations. Close to 146,000 passengers used the KLM service in 2003 and it is the most popular scheduled service.

Cardiff International is the only airport in the South West to offer Trans-Atlantic routes, with flights to Orlando, Florida and Toronto, Canada operating throughout the summer season.

Due to its elevation of 220 feet, Cardiff International Airport has the second best weather record in the UK (after Glasgow Prestwick Airport), so travelers can depend on the reliability of the services to and from the airport.

Airport History

The history of Cardiff International Airport extends back 60 years to the early 1940’s when the Air Ministry requisitioned land in the rural Vale of Glamorgan to set up a wartime satellite aerodrome and training base for 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 1950’s 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.

1986 saw a further extension of 750 ft 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 Maintenance facility to Cardiff International Airport. The maintenance hangar is one of the largest in the world and provides heavy airframe and engineering maintenance for the British Airways fleet and third party carriers.

The early 1990’s saw a significant boost to the Airport’s scheduled services when Manx Airlines established their European Air Route Hub at Cardiff, offering daily services to key business destinations within Europe and the UK. Consequently scheduled passenger levels exceeded 100,000 for the first time in a single year.

In April 1995, due to planned Local Government re-organisation in Wales, the Airport Company was privatised, with shares being sold to Welsh property and development firm, TBI Plc. Since the privatisation, Cardiff International Airport’s success has continued, ranking as one of the UK’s most successful regional airports.

Address:
Cardiff International Airport
Vale of Glamorgan
CF62 3BD

E-mail: infodesk at cwl aero
+ 44 (0) 1446 711111

WWW: http://www.cial.co.uk/

Runway 12/30

7848 x 151 feet
2392 x 46 meters

The content above was published at Airports-Worldwide.com in 2005.
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