The Welsh Government has scrapped its North to South Wales funded air service, saying it will instead use the annual £2.9m public subsidy to improve integrated public transport.
The public service obligation route, between RAF Valley on Anglesey and Cardiff Airport, had been suspended since March, 2020, due to pandemic. The Welsh Government has now confirmed it will not recommence the route. It had been operated by Eastern Airways. Prior to the pandemic the route carried nearly 14,000 passengers a year.
The Welsh Government said pre-Covid some 77% of people using route did so for working purposes, but that a shift to hybrid and homeworking has changed demand patterns.
Deputy Minister for Climate Change, with responsibility for transport, Lee Waters, said: “The pandemic has driven huge change to the way people work, with a reduction in business travel over the past few years.
“We don’t think passenger levels will return to a level that makes this service viable economically or environmentally. Instead we will invest the money saved from running the service into improving public transport in north Wales. This will benefit more people and help us reach our net zero target by 2050”.
The decision follows an independent study commissioned by the Welsh Government into the carbon impact of the service on the environment. It said this shows the service had a more negative impact on the environment than any other form of travel between Anglesey and Cardiff, unless it was flying close to full capacity every day.
The analysis also showed that despite common perceptions, the air service was not always the fastest link to Cardiff from North Wales, especially east of Bangor, where it said rail travel is faster, door-to-door.
Mr Waters said: “We need to achieve greater reductions in our emissions in the next decade than we’ve achieved over the course of the last three decades if we are to avert catastrophic climate change. It’s going to an uphill challenge and difficult choices will need to be confronted."
A spokesman for Eastern Airways, said: "Eastern Airways as the operator of the service acknowledge the decision of the Welsh Government and understand fully the pressures National, Regional and Local Government are under to manage spending and the need to make such tough decisions that impact remoter communities disproportionately. We do however disagree with the analysis that the service had a more negative impact on the environment than the resulting fifty-six one-way five-hour car journeys or indeed local low-volume utilisation of rail services”
“The loss of the service which pre-covid had grown to its highest patronage does also mean Liverpool and Manchester now become the primary air service gateways for North West Wales rather than connectivity over Cardiff Airport which the service facilitated. We will seek ways of working proactively with Cardiff Airport, however, to develop alternate air services and help the much needed economic recovery we each support and bring."
The Welsh Government, who wholly-owned Cardiff Airport, has established a North Wales Transport Commission that has already begun looking at options to build more efficient train and bus connections across and into North Wales.
However, while new Welsh Government bus regulation is improving services across North Wales and it operates the Wales & Borders rail franchise, the rail infrastructure network is not a devolved asset, with investment decisions a matter for the UK Government
The Welsh Government said the £2.9m annual funding from the air route will be ringfenced for the North Wales Metro programme - increasing the provision of integrated public transport, as well as seeking to increase services between the north and south of the country.
Welsh Conservative Shadow Transport Minister, Natasha Asghar MS said "Whilst I understand some people will be frustrated with this news, I believe it is the right decision especially given around £3m of taxpayer cash is used to prop the service up every year.
"I despise any task that fritters away taxpayers’ hard-earned money and keeping this service going would have done just that.“
It is, however, disappointing that Labour ministers have only now axed the airlink. Instead of wasting some £10m on the airlink, which hasn’t operated since the pandemic began, over the last three years, they should’ve taken decisive action and scrapped it as soon as it became a loss-making exercise.
“The pandemic has drastically changed the way people work and with many now working from home the demand for the airlink simply isn’t there.
“It is vital Labour ministers now start heavily investing in transport infrastructure and connectivity in North Wales and make sure those affected by this decision aren’t losing out. "
