Cardiff Airport boss outlines future plans
14.05.07
CEO Jon Horne has made Cardiff Airport one of Britain's fastest growing airports. In a recent interview with businessinwales he said 'the sky's the limit.'
Cardiff Airport enjoyed an 'exceptionally good year' in 2006. With passenger numbers breaking the two million barrier and a 30 percent overall growth, it was one of the fastest growing airports in the UK. This has contributed to an optimistic outlook not just for this year but going forward into the medium and long term, dispute a couple of recent hiccup's.
Mr Horne said: 'We have some new services and new airlines coming to Cardiff in 2007. Flybe arrived in May with flights from Belfast and onwards to Paris. They will be looking at other destinations and current discussions are expected to be concluded very shortly. So it will be interesting to see what opportunities come out of that.'
In addition a scheduled service to Barcelona that Thomson Fly launched this month. Mr Horne added: 'This will be important in getting us into some of those key European destinations which have been missing from our map. We are expecting to see more additions as the year goes on. So we are in a bullish mood at present, looking at what we have achieved and what's in prospect.'
Cardiff Airport has, he admits, not been without its critics. To answer complaints about reception areas and walkways 2006 saw major construction work taking place, which has created a new pier and walk way. In addition six new stands, linking a new immigration hall with the existing international pier and arrival route, have been refurbished to create a spacious concourse.
Mr Horne said: 'This year we start work on a major extension to the baggage reclaim area and this will be in addition to a range of new facilities and amenities. This is all designed to give the increasing number of passengers coming from abroad an enhanced welcome to Wales. We determined three years ago the building blocks that needed to be in place if this airport was going to satisfy the aspirations of Cardiff and Wales.'
In addition to work at the airport, he also wants to see improvements to transport links to the airport. He said: 'Road access has been something of cause celebre for years and we see it as one of the vital elements in our overall strategy. But it's not simply road access. Rail links play an part in our expansion drive. We already have the hourly service from Cardiff and Bridgend to our international station with an average of 2,000 people a month using it.'
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