canada flights from cardiff airport start today
02.05.05
Low-cost scheduled flights between Wales and Canada start today. The flights, between Cardiff Airport and Toronto by Canadian budget airline Zoom, have one-way fares from as low as £89.
Zoom Airlines said it is launching the new weekly service from cardiff airport to Toronto because of high demand from passengers for the route. Zoom took 500 bookings for the flights the week they were announced.
Debbie Marshall, Zoom's UK director, said: 'We are delighted to be launching the start of the cardiff airport service, which has proven to be extremely popular with the Welsh travelling public.'
Zoom is the only airline offering direct flights to Canada from Cardiff airport this summer. They are said to be planning a service from the airport to Vancouver from 2006 too.
The flights are a boost for cardiff airport, which last month reported a slump in passenger numbers for the first quarter of 2005 (see this earlier cardiff airport news story). The airport had been the fastest-growing airport as recently as 2003, when 1m passengers used it, but figures for the first three months of 2005 showed a 19% drop in passengers compared to the same period last year.
Passengers on charter flights fell by 39.4% to 79,300 and low-cost numbers fell 9.9% to 162,000. Owners TBI said a shortage of aircraft for no-frills airline bmibaby was one reason for the drop of 19% for the first quarter of 2005. But some experts blamed competition with Bristol International Airport, which has seen another rise in passenger numbers in the same period.
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