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Disturbing news that the head of troubled publicly-owned Cardiff Airport (CA) which has plunged down the passenger rankings, left to “pursue other opportunities” puts the spotlight on past controversies highlighted by The Eye, and raises the question of how honourable was the departure.
Spencer Birns had been the airport’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for four years and had spent over 18 years at the company but has seen his airport engulfed by scandal. CA passenger numbers plunged by 87 per cent during the height of the pandemic, with travellers there falling from 1,656,085 in 2019 to just 219,984 in 2020. Southampton Airport suffered an 83.4 per cent decline, London City Airport saw a drop of 82.3 percent in passenger figures, with numbers at Leeds-Bradford Airport going down by 81.2 per cent.
There has been a slight increase in passenger numbers more recently, which has been trumpeted by the airport, and the mainstream media – the numbers increased by just three per cent last year, external on the previous year.
The Welsh Government (WG) bought the airport in 2013 for £52 million and has spent £181 million on it, but this use of public money has been severely criticised. The Welsh Conservatives (WC) demanded evidence that nationalisation would provide value, and the Welsh Liberal Democrats (WLD) warned it would become a “money pit” for public funds, which could have been proved true.
However in December 2012, the First Minister of Wales (FMW) at the time, Carwyn Jones, had said, when the airport was about to be obtained, that it should make a “return to the Welsh taxpayer”. Plaid Cymru (Plaid) welcomed the news that CA was to be taken into public ownership, and stated that it needed to be a “shop front” for Wales.
There has been a great deal of other worrying information about the airport recently. For example, a pensioner posted about his “disappointing” experience at CA and that staff should show more “awareness” after he and his wife were barred from a flight.
A Rory Cleary explained that his wife has a bad back and rather than stand in a queue they sat in the only seating available with a good view of the gate. Yet there was no announcement in the area that the service to Dublin was to depart, and they were not allowed to board. He declared: “Yes it was our fault but a little more awareness from staff would have been helpful…£300 down with hotel and new flight booking. Oh well!”.
Meanwhile aviation experts condemned news that enormous amouts of taxpayers’ money were to be spent on propping up the ailing airport, amid mounting concern about its future, and after the huge row over it being bought originally for millions of pounds when a Scottish equivalent was purchased for only £1.
The cash was to go to CA over a 10 year period, but one travel specialist told us: “This is throwing good money after bad. Travellers just don’t want to go there because it’s in the wrong place”.
Another critic, who watched as extraordinary events unfolded at CA, said: “I do really worry about the long term viability…”, different enthusiasts reported: “Unfortunately Cardiff is too close to Bristol…”, and “I wouldn’t call Cardiff a major airport…”.
A separate angry traveller has said, too, on Facebook (FB) in the past, that he was “not happy” he now had to fly from “bloody Bristol”, while it has also been announced: “There has never been sufficient demand in the winter from Cardiff”. A further tourist said: “I flew to Tenerife on 13th Dec from Cardiff. Only 45 of us on the flight”.
Huge concerns from flyers were put on other sites as well, after an internal service, which had been recently restored, was halted. Several years ago direct flights from CA to Belfast were introduced, operated by Eastern Airways, but, even though the flights were greeted with enormous fanfare, the route was later suspended.
A detractor has also said that questions should be asked of the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru (WP/SC), while another stated that it was cheaper to fly from Bristol.
A further critic, included in his comments a spoof news report, with a remark from a CA executive: “Never mind, we will just apply to our pals at the WAG (Welsh Assembly Government, the former Welsh Government (WG)) for another massive donation of tax-payer cash.”.
These remarks appear to be borne out in the press. 
UK Aviation News has stated: “The future of Cardiff Airport (CWL/EGFF) has been thrown into doubt today following comments made by the Welsh Labour-controlled Government that owns the airport”. The remarkable events at CA have even been the subject of our satirical writer Edwin Phillips.
They are set against a picture of thriving airports in Scotland, which are almost the same distance apart as CA and Bristol Airport (BA).
The time taken travelling between Edinburgh and Glasgow airports is over an hour, while it is just 18 minutes more between CA and BA, yet both are successful because their services complement each other rather than compete.
It is clear that BA is popular with fliers, unlike CA. Another aviation expert told us: “This (an expansion at BA) might be positive for Bristol, but it is TERRIBLE for Cardiff. I just don’t see how it can survive”.
A further one said: “Coming on top of everything else, this may be the death knell for Cardiff Airport. It is just in the wrong place”.
Appearing to echo these comments, and in stark contrast to the fanfare from senior officials, politicians, and the mainstream media in Wales when a link-up was announced between CA and the state-run Qatar Airways (QA), the former Welsh Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters, MS, acknowledged that providing incentives to airlines (as they did with QA) is against climate change policies.
He admitted to other WP/SC politicians: “I don’t think that subsidising and encouraging (air travel) is in keeping with the challenge of climate change that we have and that the Prime Minister is trying to claim great international leadership on; I think it is a contradiction”
Other politicians, however, were disconcerted by this proclamation, as well as the announcement from Mr Skates. The then Conservative shadow Minister for Transport Natasha Asghar, MS, said: “The minister’s comments were somewhat surprising given the number of taxpayer handouts Cardiff Airport has received since being taken into public ownership … It is a little hypocritical of Labour to say subsidising air travel is a bad thing, when they’ve pumped in hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer cash, and continue to do so, into their failed vanity project.
“If Labour ministers are planning to stop subsidising Cardiff Airport because it flies in the face of climate change, then it raises some serious questions over its future. I have no doubt that Cardiff Airport could become a thriving transport hub but after this latest intervention its future is now hanging by a thread”.
The growth at BA, and the recent news about Mr Birns, cast a critical light on the purchase of CA using millions of pounds of public money in the first place. The Scottish Government (SG) purchased Glasgow Prestwick Airport (GPA) for just £1, yet a valuation of Cardiff’s in the years which followed the contentious move said it was worth only £15 million.
Since the public acquisition, the WG has provided support in the form of loans and equity investment (even before the official announcement of another £206 million). There has also been around £3 million in subsidies for the Cardiff to Anglesey air link as well as unknown amounts of incentives to airlines, some of which pulled out as soon as the money stopped.
Despite the cash lavished on it, the airport has still failed to achieve success compared to other regional airports, and languished at the very bottom of the league table, facts which may be relevant background to the departure of Mr Birns.
It seems that the only way is up for him and his (former) airport.
It certainly can’t go much lower…
Details of our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry’s astonishing career (including being the first to reveal uncomfortable facts such as these) as he was gripped by the rare neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Tomorrow – how shocking news that an investigation at the hospital where Lucy Letby is said to have murdered babies has been expanded to consider gross negligence manslaughter, has once again highlighted renewed questions about police actions, the enormously important role of Wales, and the journalistic background of our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, who has queried behaviour by officers on many occasions.
