After looking at some of the blunders and missed opportunities when it comes to transport, it’s time for the “good news” – strategies and policies that the Welsh and UK governments have successfully pursued over the years.
There’ll be a break of a few weeks before the next part, so you can go through the previous pieces to catch up here:
Another contentious claim many of you will understandably disagree with, but hear me out.
Wales on the Move X: Wales in the Air
Last but not least, this "Wales on the Move" transport series ends with air transport. It's a transport sector that...
Read moreDetailsI get the argument that if Cardiff Airport closed (to passengers; it’s perfectly viable as an air freight and maintenance facility), then it would be of no great loss in the grand scheme of things.
Everywhere north of Brecon probably uses Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester airports anyway, while Bristol Airport stole the march in attracting low-cost carriers during that boom during the late 90s-early 00s (though the argument that Bristol Airport is easier to get to than Cardiff from the south is massively overblown in my opinion; if anything it’s the opposite). So we might as well concede defeat and let market demand dictate which airports survive and which ones don’t.
Environmental concerns around the growth of air travel is a strong argument in favour of closing the airport (Part X). Though had the airport been allowed to be run down to the point of closure by its previous owners, Wales probably would’ve ended up being the only developed country in the world – that isn’t a microstate like Liechtenstein, Andorra or Monaco – without an international airport.
That doesn’t mean people in the south wouldn’t fly anymore – and most of the market for flights in southern Wales is made up of flights to and from popular holiday destinations anyway. The problem is that it would send the strongest message possible that Wales is closed to business and tourists – more so than a tourist tax or anything else. If you’re flying in to Bristol or one of the London airports, why go through the extra effort to get to Wales?
The most important international connections to/from Cardiff aren’t those that carry the most passengers. It’s flights to/from major hub airports where you can catch an outgoing or inbound connection anywhere else in the world – presently Amsterdam Schipol, Paris-Orly, Edinburgh and Dublin (Doha if/when the Qatar Airways service resumes, too).
