Cardiff: Ryanair Flights, New Routes & Schedule Updates

[superking]

As reported on another thread,fr doing tfs in w14/15 at i flight per week.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As reported on another thread,fr doing tfs in w14/15 at i flight per week.

http://corporate.ryanair.com/news/news/ ... ?market=en

The Canaries have been a winter gap for scheduled airlines at CWL for a while. The surprise is that no-one has stepped in before.

I wouldn't be surprised either to see Ryanair add at CWL next summer. Faro is not served by Vueling and seems an obvious one.

 

[superking]

Well i hope it works out ok for cwl. Its about time they had a good bit of news,as it seems most news stories have been negative lately. I would think fr will be carefull if they do any more routes as it could dilute the brs routes.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Well i hope it works out ok for cwl. Its about time they had a good bit of news,as it seems most news stories have been negative lately. I would think fr will be carefull if they do any more routes as it could dilute the brs routes.

I think this route will be fine give the lack of a winter scheduled offering to the Canaries at CWL.

Ryanair might be looking to nudge BRS back in line following the airport's stand last year re overnight parking and peak hour landing charges and sees this as a shot across the bows.

BRS-TFS remains at 3 x weekly next winter so it's not a case of moving one of the rotations to CWL although there might be some dilution. Ryanair might think it can do a bit of harm to easyJet's BRS-TFS.

If Ryanair does decide to expand at CWL with the main sun routes the obvious target - it could do this without a CWL base being set up - Vueling might be a casualty. I suppose it depends whether CWL wants Ryanair with its greater airport footfall potential or Vueling with its reputed better passenger experience. I can't see room for both competing on the same routes.

If it wants Ryanair badly enough it will have to pay for the privilege as the terms will be tough. Ryanair holds all the aces and can to an extent also play CWL off against BRS and vice versa, although away from the sun routes in summer and Canaries in winter CWL's market is quite a thin one.

Even in 2007 when CWL handled over 2 mppa the majority of passengers were carried on sun routes and there were only a handful of additional destinations overall compared with what is currently operated.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Ryanair CWL-TFS

I hoped we'd have had one or two comments from our CWL members about this - how they view the development and how it might fit into the airport's future. It seems to be seen as a positive move in the local news media.

 

[Aviador]

It's an odd move yet one that mirrors the way they operate up here in Yorkshire. They're probably seeking a better deal with Bristol only using the threat of operating from Cardiff as part of the bargaining. They seemingly did exactly that at Doncaster only to pull the plug when they expanded the Leeds operation.

 

[Tinkerman]

Indeed, it is great news that they have jumped at an opportunity at CWL. Well done to all involved with this, and hopefully this route will be a success. Many would never have predicted this, perhaps none ! So its now severely a case of use it or lose it, but the presence of FR on the route brings its own terms of marketing, with its exposure on the FR website, along with some marketing by the airport.

I am excited to see how this service will perform at CWL, but many have initially said that they predict the route to be a success. If it is then we could see a few more offerings from FR, if TFS performs well or even if forward bookings are in-line with their model/forecasts. Exciting times nonetheless !

Also, the amount of positive PR in the media, industry and public that will be received from this announcement may make other airlines sit up and take note, along with people beginning to use CWL again that would have otherwise used BRS. Also, despite FR having TFS at 3x weekly there, if the prices are right then there is scope for us to win some Bristol/South West passengers onto this service.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Ryanair winter 2014-2015

It's certainly a welcome fillip for the airport.

I'm surprised that it's on a Thursday given that Ryanair's BRS-TFS is also on a Thursday.

Looking at the schedule I note that the flight leaves TFS at 0655 and arrives CWL at 1050, returning at 1115 to arrive back at TFS at 1520.

BRS-TFS operates Tue, Thurs and Sat leaving BRS at 0630 on each day to arrive at TFS at 1045, returning at 1120 to be back at BRS at 1525.

For CWL to attract West Country customers would mean that Ryanair was more than robbing Peter to pay Paul in that it would not only dilute its BRS route but would mean charging lower fares at CWL to attract West Country punters in the first place. It's a strange one. Operating on another day not operated from BRS seems the obvious thing in which case some West Country passengers might have been tempted if the day suited them better.

easyJet operates BRS-TFS on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. I wonder why Ryanair didn't choose a Friday from CWL to compete with easyJet when they themselves have no BRS service.

It will certainly be interesting to see how Ryanair sees itself at CWL going forward.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Further to my previous post, I was reading another forum recently when a poster made the valid point that Ryanair might be operating the CWL flight to TFS on the same day it operates one of its BRS-TFS flights in order to compare passenger figures and yields.

If CWL turns out to be better then it's not rocket science to suggest that more routes will follow quickly.

I will be amazed if the CWL flight does not return high passenger numbers. It's only once a week and has no competitor in the low-cost airline sector. Furthermore, CWL's historic strength has always been summer sun routes and winter sun to the Canaries.

We know that high loads don't necessarily mean successful routes for an airline financially but a high turnout will certainly give Ryanair a lot of food for thought.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Dublin

Ryanair is now offering flights for the Six Nations Rugby match, Wales v Ireland, at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday 14 March next year.

There will be two rotations between DUB and CWL on both Friday 13 March and on Sunday 15 March.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

TFS

Ryanair returns to CWL on Thursday with its inaugural weekly TFS rotation after an absence of eight years from the airport when it used to operate to DUB.

Some people in Wales are hoping that Ryanair might use the local publicity that Thursday's first flight will bring to announce an expansion of services from the airport.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I note that from their seat selector the CWL-TFS tomorrow is shown as sold out.

So too is the Ryanair BRS-TFS for tomorrow and their BRS-TFS for Saturday. With easyJet's BRS-TFS showing only a handful of empty seats for this Friday and Saturday it seems that any fears that the CWL-TFS would dilute BRS's Ryanair offering have so far been largely unfounded.

Lots of other considerations to take account of but this just might encourage Ryanair to consider more CWL sun routes if they believe their BRS offering will not suffer.

The intresting bit is that if most of the CWL passengers are 'new' would they ever have considered flying from another airport? If the answer is no then it might suggest that there is a substantial number of 'hidden' passengers in the CWL catchment awating the chance to travel from their local airport.

I didn't check the charter airlines from CWL and from BRS to TFS.

 

[Seasider]

Could it be people moving their holidays from Tunisia?

 

[superking]

Could it be people moving their holidays from Tunisia?

its a close one to call,as tui group has put on flights to other destinations,they have matched the tunisia flights one for oneso i dont think the tui pax would look at tfs unless tui put tfs to cover tunisia flts.
dont know about t cook as they seem to be more or less running to the flt programe they have on offer.
be nice to know if it has made a difference to fr flights,not only from cwl but other airports as well.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I agree with superking in that passengers booked to Tunisia with TUI and TCX (there are no scheduled flights to Enfidha from BRS or CWL) would almost certainly switch to another TUI/TCX flight destination if they didn't go to Tunisia.

There may well be a number of people who hadn't booked at all who were considering Tunisia who changed to TFS from CWL or BRS with Ryanair/easyJet.

I think generally that the CWL Ryanair operation has had no adverse impact (or very little) on the BRS operation. That seems to be born out in CAA passenger figures in recent months.

 

[juliet-fox-9]

It is good though to see TFS holding its own when it's being operated by an airline with a history of ruthlessly cutting unprofitable routes.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

One imagines that Ryanair's CWL-TFS is profitable for them and sufficiently profitable to keep it operating. It may be that the Wales Assembly as airport owners have put in some money as they undoubtedly have with the Flybe operation at CWL, where Flybe returned to the airport in much greater presence than before not much more than a year after they pulled out of CWL saying their routes there were not profitable.

If the Wales Assembly is oiling the financial wheels - they set aside around £13 million earlier this year as a loan to their airport company over the next few years to prime the pump for new carriers and new routes - I think that there isn't much doubt that Ryanair will stick around for at least the forseeable future. Obviously the hope is that routes will settle down and become self sufficient after the support money is no longer available.

The real question perhaps is how far Ryanair will increase their presence at CWL.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

TFS

I notice that the weekly flight this winter has been switched to Mondays. Last winter and this summer it's a Thursday flight.

Not sure if the change of day will have any effect. Loads have been very good for the most part.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2016

Next summer's Ryanair programme is being released. Currently CWL is shown as one weekly Tenerife flight, back to Thursdays.

BRS seems to be down a bit on summer 2015 with a couple of routes (Bergerac and Ibiza) not available at all for booking. It may be that not all the details have yet been released but, if they have, Ibiza would be a remarkable omission even though easyJet and charter flights operate the route.

There might be the possibility of Ryanair trying out CWL on a few routes next summer. IBZ would be extremely popular (summer sun is CWL's strong point) and neither Vueling nor Flybe fly there from CWL. Just a thought.....................

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Extract from my immediate previous post

There might be the possibility of Ryanair trying out CWL on a few routes next summer.

Being reported on another forum that Ryanair will begin Cardiff-Alicante from next March, 2 x weekly on Sundays and Wednesdays. Timings suggest an ALC-based aircraft.

If true, and I have no reason to doubt it given the poster's track record on that website, it's excellent news and a confirmation that the summer sun season at CWL is again beginning to burgeon. I would not be surprised to learn of one or two more routes from Ryanair in the coming months.