Holiday giant TUI has confirmed a significant expansion at Cardiff Airport for its 2024 summer season with 40,000 more seats. It said it will put on sale more than 200,000 seats next year - compared with around 160,000 for its current summer season at the Welsh Government-owned airport.
TUI will offer 23 destinations in eight countries as well as bringing back its popular destination of Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt from next April. This is in addition to adding more holidays to Cyprus, Tunisia and Turkey.
Head of business development at the airport, Lee Smith, said: “It is fantastic that one of the UK’s largest tour operators is growing again in Wales. The tour operator continues to invest in Wales, following a great start to sales for this year, allowing it to have the confidence to grow and give customers living in Wales more choice of destinations.”
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TUI managing director Andrew Flintham said: “Our customers want more flexibility and to be able to choose a departure airport that is close to home – and that is exactly what the new TUI 2024 summer programme has been designed to do,” “The 2024 programme will see extra flights departing from across the UK. Cardiff Airport will see a significant increase in flight seats offering more holidays to those living in Wales.”
For the current summer season Ryanair has ramped up its presence at Cardiff Airport. The Dublin-based airline is providing 26 inbound and outbound flights a week - a growth of 63% on last summer - including a new route to Belfast with four flights a week.
As well as its new scheduled route from Cardiff to Belfast International Airport, the airline has continued to offer flights to Dublin (14 a week) and Faro (four) and for just the summer Malaga (four). Ryanair has 140,000 seats on sale on its routes from Cardiff this summer. It is expected, in line with its Europe-wide operations, to have a load factor of around 85% to 90%.
The airport was dealt a major blow earlier this year with Wizz Air confirming the pulling of its dedicated base. It carried 103,000 passengers on its inaugural summer season last year and had planned a return for this summer after mothballing the operation during the winter.
Latest figures from the Civil Aviation Authority show that the Rhoose-based airport carried just over 883,000 passengers in the rolling year to the end of January - a 565% rise of the previous 12 month period which was though impacted by Covid restrictions.
Rival Bristol Airport, which has secured the go-ahead for a major expansion after the rejection of a legal challenge by objectors, handled 7.7 million in the 12 months to December, 2022 . The airport, which attracts around 811,000 passengers a year from Wales, said its expansion will allow it to attract up to 12 millions passenger annually.
Qatar Airways is also expected to recommence its scheduled Cardiff to Doha route next year, after it was mothballed at the start of the pandemic.
In what was the first scheduled direct route between Wales and the Middle East, Qatar Airways, launched a daily service in May, 2018, with a daily service between Cardiff and Hamad International in Doha.
In its first year the route carried just over 82,000 passengers with a significant number using Hamad’s hub status for onward journey connecting flights, with particular strong demand for Australasia and the Far East. In the 12 months prior to the pandemic (March 2020) the annualised passenger number had reached 92,000.
Encouragingly for its UK originating passengers, some 18% were from England — a much higher contribution than for all flights from the airport (around 4%). Moreover, 25% of passengers who travelled specifically between Qatar and Wales were travelling for business purposes.
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