Revamped Flybe is not operating from Cardiff Airport
Cardiff Airport will not feature on Flybe’s flight schedule when the airline returns to the skies next month.
Before it fell into administration at the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Flybe was Cardiff Airport’s largest airline, providing 27% of its passenger numbers in 2018, when it operated flights to Dublin, Edinburgh, Belfast, Paris, Jersey, Cork, Munich, Rome, Verona, Faro, Milan and Venice, as well as seasonal winter services to Geneva, Chambery, Berlin and Dusseldorf.
The collapse of the airline led to the loss of 2,400 jobs and left around 15,000 passengers stranded across the UK and Europe.
Flybe’s business assets were purchased in April 2021 by Thyme Opco, which is linked to US hedge fund Cyrus Capital.
Thyme Opco was renamed Flybe Limited, and the new airline will be based at Birmingham International.
The new-look Flybe will resume flights next month with 530 flights per week across 23 new routes, more than analysts had predicted.
Flybe will begin operating from Belfast City Airport on 13th April, with a full network building in the following weeks, and seven routes from Birmingham will commence in stages from 28th April.
Cardiff was the hardest-hit airport in the UK during the first year of the pandemic, with an 87% decline in passenger numbers, from 1,656,085 in 2019 to 219,984 in 2020. By August 2021, passenger numbers were down 90% on pre-pandemic levels.
In 2013, the troubled airport was sold to the Welsh Government for £52 million. In March last year, the then-Economy and Transport Minister Ken Skates announced the airport would receive a five-year recovery grant of £42.6 million and separately £42.6 million of the airport’s debts would be written off.
In total, more than £130 million of taxpayers’ money has been invested in the airport since the 2013 Welsh Government purchase, leading to calls from the Welsh Conservatives for them to cut their losses and sell it.
On 23rd March, Cardiff Airport had just four arrivals and three departures. By comparison, neighbouring Bristol Airport had 46 arrivals and 46 departures on the same day.
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