Another airline has announced it is ending its flights from Cardiff Airport, the second in two days. Air Southwest will end daily flights to Newquay and Manchester in June. The news comes after First Choice said yesterday that it would end flights from Cardiff next year.
The Air Southwest flights, which were launched in April last year, will cease on June 24. But the regional airline's chief executive, Malcolm Naylor, said it had 'not seen the traffic anticipated when [it] launched the routes from Cardiff'.
Peter Phillips, head of marketing and communications at Cardiff airport, said a replacement airline was being sought for the routes. He said he believed there was a market for the Cardiff to Manchester service because of the number of regular passengers on the flights. He added the airport was hopeful of finding a replacement airline to fill the Air Southwest slot within the next few weeks.
As we said yesterday, just as the last 10 years saw a massive increase in airlines offering flights from regional airports, we may be beginning to see a trend of airlines closing their smaller bases. In addition to this decisions by Air Southwest and First Choice announced this week, Flybe recently closed its base at Bristol Airport.