A travel expert has described Cardiff Airport's location as "not sustainable at all" and suggested a move to a new area. The Independent's travel correspondent Simon Calder argued that building an airport between Cardiff and Newport would "absolutely transform" Welsh aviation.
The journalist was speaking on a BBC show in which Wales' former economy minister Ken Skates revealed the Welsh Government may have considered selling Cardiff Airport if not for the Covid pandemic. The government bought the airport for £52m in 2013 to "secure its future" after a drop in passenger numbers but it is now valued at just £15m.
Mr Calder told Politics Wales it had been a "heck of a struggle" to find a viable business plan for Cardiff Airport, adding: "As a nation Wales needs an international airport and Cardiff is the obvious place to put it. But I'm very sorry that the current location is not sustainable at all and something with good rail and road links, maybe between Cardiff and Newport, would be the solution. That would absolutely transform aviation in the nation."
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The BBC reports the airport's passenger numbers peaked at 2.1m in 2007 before falling to one million by 2012. There was a rebound to 1.7m in the years after the government takeover but Covid proved a heavy blow and last year the airport had fewer than 860,000 passengers. Several airlines including WizzAir have stopped operating at Cardiff.
Labour MS Mr Skates, the minister responsible for the airport between 2016 and 2021, said: "I'm in no doubt had Covid not happened we would have passed two million passengers per year by now and be very competitive with other airports." Asked if the government would have been able to consider selling the airport he said: "Yes, I do believe that's the case."
But Mr Skates said he would still have been "arguing for the retention of the airport in public ownership". He added: "If you have such an asset making money for the public then it stands to reason that you would not want to sell it off."
Since its purchase the government has invested £158m in the airport and written off £42.6m of debt. The Welsh Conservatives' spokeswoman on transport, Natasha Asghar, told the BBC the government had been "frittering taxpayers' money" and should "100% sell the airport, privatise it, get a good buyer in". She added: "I just don't think that this Welsh Government has the business acumen to make it a success."
A Welsh Government spokesman said: "Since the pandemic demand for air travel across the world has fallen. Despite this, and the downturn in the UK economy, we are committed to maintaining an airport in Wales. We have put in place a recovery package designed to make Cardiff Airport self-sustainable and profitable for the future."
You can read more about the struggles facing Cardiff Airport here. And you can get the latest travel news from Wales here.
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