Cardiff Airport's annual passenger numbers up 13%
New routes were added and a number of destinations grew in popularity. The top 5 fastest growing routes in 2015 were:
Paris with Flybe
Faro with Flybe and Thomson
Düsseldorf with Flybe
Arrecife (Lanzarote) with Thomson
Dublin with Aer Lingus and Flybe
New routes added in 2015 included Antalya (with Thomas Cook); Milan, Munich and Cork (with Flybe); Montego Bay (charter cruise flights with Thomson) and Venice (charter flights on behalf of P&O cruises).
A total of 86% of passengers were international, taking advantage of the increased choice of routes plus the long-haul connections available with KLM via their hub in Amsterdam Schiphol.
The year ended on a real high note, with passenger numbers growing by 56% in December compared to the same month in 2014, and over 64,000 passengers flying over the festive period.
Debra Barber, Cardiff Airport’s Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director, commented: “Twenty-fifteen has been a real turning point for Cardiff Airport. We’ve had lots of exciting developments including a new base for Flybe with 14 routes on offer, as well as strong performances from our other airlines including Thomson, KLM, Vueling and Thomas Cook. Special events such as the RBS 6 Nations and Rugby World Cup also gave us the opportunity to demonstrate our ability to handle huge amounts of passengers, and we were really pleased to welcome more than 45,000 travelling sports fans into Cardiff over the course of the year.
“Looking ahead to the coming year we aim to build on this success. We continue to work with new and incumbent airlines to offer more travel choices for our customers and we will continue our work to enhance the passenger journey with a brand new departures area opening in 2016.”
The top 5 most popular destinations in 2015 were:
Amsterdam and onward connections with KLM
Dublin with Aer Lingus and Flybe
Alicante with Vueling and Thomson
Palma Majorca with Thomas Cook, Thomson and Vueling
Edinburgh with Flybe
More than 25,000 aircraft movements were recorded at Cardiff Airport in 2015.