Cardiff Airport has been dealt a significant blow with Wizz Air announcing it is permanently closing its base. The Hungarian-owned airline launched a dedicated operation with 40 cabin and pilot-related crew at the Welsh Government-owned airport last April.
Having mothballed the operation last September it had intended to return next spring for a new summer season with a continuation of eight scheduled services from the Rhoose-based airport to destinations including those in Spain, Greece and Portugal.
However, Wizz will not be recommencing its base operation as intended. Cardiff Airport said it was disappointed at the decision against the backdrop of strong demand for what was planned as Wizz’s summer season. From April to December the airline carried 103,000 passengers on its Cardiff routes .
While it mothballed its base in September, Wizz currently does operate two non-base routes from Cardiff to Milan and Bucharest. They will cease on January 25th. When announcing the investment in Cardiff - the first major investment by a low-cost carrier at the airport since Bmibaby back in 2002 - Wizz Air said there was potential to expand the operation with central and eastern Europe identified as possible locations
In a statement Cardiff Airport said: “We are deeply disappointed to hear that Wizz Air has decided to cease their operations at Cardiff Airport. It is regrettable that Wizz Air has cited the economic climate as its reasons for withdrawing its operations out of Cardiff.
"There has been positive booking trends and very strong passenger demand to travel from Cardiff in 2022 and current booking trends for 2023 remains similar. We have been working closely with the airline since 2020 and their latest indications to us last week, were that bookings for this summer are ahead of this time last year, so we see their decision as surprising.
"Our thoughts are with our customers who are impacted by this news and now face disruption to their travel plans for this year, along with our friends and colleagues that are employed by Wizz Air based at Cardiff.
"Four of our existing airlines are still planning operations from Cardiff to all the destinations that Wizz were selling tickets to. We encourage those customers who had booked on Wizz this year, to consider an alternative choice to fly to their chosen destinations from Cardiff with TUI, Vueling Ryanair and KLM.
"We will continue our conversations with other airlines and partners to encourage that they offer more choice to fly from Cardiff at cost effective prices for our customers. Passengers with any queries regarding Wizz Air flights from Cardiff should contact the airline."
Wizz Air UK managing director Marion Geoffroy told Travel Weekly: “The challenging macro-economic environment and high operational costs including fuel mean that unfortunately we are unable to continue operating from Cardiff Airport. We sincerely apologise to our customers in Wales and the south west of England for the disruption and inconvenience that this will cause.
“Our priority now is to ensure that all affected customers are contacted directly with clear advice on their options, and to look after our Cardiff based colleagues and crew. Wizz Air continues to offer low fares from eight other UK airports, including Bristol, Birmingham, London Gatwick, and London Luton."
The airline added: “The remainder of the company’s network continues to evolve and grow, with passenger numbers in the year to 31 December 2022 up 110% to 45.7 million and capacity up 82.4% to 52.7 million seats.”
Wizz Air had not received any financial support from the Welsh Government.
Prior to the Wizz decision Cardiff Airport was on track to hit its target of seeing passenger numbers recovered to 50% of pre-Covid levels at the end of its current financial year - to the end of March 2023. That would give an annualised passenger number of around 750,000. Latest figures from the Civil Aviation Authority show that in October the Rhoose-based airport handled more than 73,000 passenger, with a rolling year figure of just over 810,000.
However the airport lags behind many other UK airports on the pandemic recovery percentage measure.
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