Cardiff Airport (CWL/EGFF) has ended 2017/18 financial year with 10% growth according to figures released by the airport.
The rolling 12 month total (a comparison to the previous 12 month period) 2017/18 saw 1.48 million passengers had used Wales’ national airport, bolstered by the UEFA Champions League final in June last year.
Other factors included new routes to Madrid with Iberia Express, Faro with Ryanair, Venice & Rome with Flybe and Guernsey with Blue Islands.
Next month will see Qatar Airways begin operations from the airport with a daily (initially 5-times-per-week) service to Doha. The new service, which begins on May 1st, will allow passengers a one-stop connection to destinations such as Sydney, Auckland and Tokyo from Cardiff.
The airport has a target of 2 million passengers by 2020 and is forecasting “double-digit growth” in 2018/19.
The top 3 destinations from Cardiff Airport in the previous 12 months were Amsterdam, Palma and Alicante.
Debra Barber, CEO of Cardiff Airport, said: “The past 12 months have seen increased choice for our passengers, exciting announcements for the seasons ahead and even more improvements to the customer experience. In addition to the huge Qatar Airways announcement, we’ve also welcomed a third aircraft to the Flybe base and look forward to its third summer of flying customers to 21 destinations across the UK & Europe.
“KLM has introduced a larger aircraft to its daily services to Amsterdam Schiphol and introduced a wealth of new connections to far flung destinations including New York, Orlando, Los Angeles and Toronto. The next twelve months will be transformational, with new routes already announced including Doha with Qatar Airways plus Naples, Dubrovnik, Enfidha and Hurghada with TUI in summer 2019.”
