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The People of Wales the real losers in WAG’s Big Air bungle. When I presented the Around Wales Air Service booklet to the Assembly in 2000, the proposition was to commence Phase One of the operation from Cardiff to Hawarden Airport in Flintshire. The population density there is clearly much greater than Anglesey Indeed in 1978/79 Air Wales carried 6500 passengers on that route, the service only terminating when the company was sold to Air UK. Research at that time indicated no more than 1000 one way passengers would fly on the Cardiff to Anglesey route.
Today, with the greater awareness of flying and the backing of the Assembly, it is not too fanciful to believe that the passenger demand per annum on the two routes would be doubled i.e. 2000 to Anglesey and 12,000 to Hawarden. The question must therefore be asked why the initial route to the north was to Anglesey and not Hawarden. The latter airport is a mere 4.5 miles from Chester and no great distance from Wrexham, Bangor and even Liverpool.
Airbus UK owns Hawarden Airport (or Broughton as it is often called), and is the centre of wing production for Airbus in Europe. In 1978 the company was especially helpful to Air Wales providing offices and accommodation for their passengers and staff. Yet in 2001 they refused Air Wales permission to operate a single charter flight into their airport carrying members of the Assembly Government. The reason given was that such a flight would be a precursor of a scheduled service operation. In that at least they were probably correct.
For nearly ten years Airbus UK afforded Hawarden Air Services (an autonomous company) the rights to handle all aircraft and passenger movements at Hawarden Airport. I recently ascertained that most flights at Hawarden are not Airbus flights at all but private and charter flights not necessarily connected with Airbus activities. Yet Airbus would deny the Welsh public access to the airport. I would remind Cambria’s readers that Hawarden Airport lies in Wales, and that the people of Wales, through their Government, recently provided a financial payment of £50 millions pounds to Airbus UK as a contribution to the cost of building the wings for the super jumbo aircraft, the A380. This was Welsh taxpayers money. Clearly the Assembly has been too weak and vacillating to ask for - perhaps even demand - a quid pro quo! I fear that Andrew Davies, the Transport Minister took the easy way out and chose the doomsday scenario of operating the single route to Anglesey instead.
I contacted Hawarden Air Services recently and was assured that they would be delighted to handle scheduled service flights from Cardiff, subject of course to the approval of the airport owners: Airbus UK. The handling agency has in place their own staff and a dedicated lounge for arriving or departing passengers - no excuse there.
Toulouse Blagnac Airport in the south of France is the base for Airbus, and is the most important Aerospace city in Europe and, arguably, the world. Here is the home of the aircraft test teams, delivery centre and the final assembly lines for most Airbus aircraft. Despite this extraordinary activity, Airbus has no problem sharing the Airport with many European Airlines and last year, 2006, approximately 6 million passengers used the airport. Indeed Airbus actively encourages visitors to Toulouse to view their aircraft production lines. Such excellent PR hasn’t yet, it appears, progressed to Hawarden Airport and Airbus UK. No doubt they would raise aspects of Health Safety and Security as an excuse – but none hold water. After all they are producing aircraft wings not atomic weapons! Another possible excuse is that the airport is too busy. Well, Hawarden has barely 25,000 aircraft movements per year - which may appear a great deal. In reality it is comparatively under utilised. London Heathrow handles around 350,000 movements per year and although this isn't a fair comparison, I am sure readers will get the drift.
A Welsh Assembly-promoted Air Service operating just 4 landings and take offs per day (Monday to Friday) would be a mere blip of extra activity. Interestingly, the Airbus A380 wings are too big to go out of Hawarden by air, and are transported by barge and then shipped to France.
Highland Airways (a Scottish Airline) has been chosen to operate the Cardiff to Valley, Anglesey Air Service at a one way passenger fare of £50. Based on this fare, 2000 one-way passengers would generate just £100,000 of revenue per year. If on the other hand the service were initially operated to Hawarden - assuming 12.000 passengers at a slightly reduced fare - the revenue generated would amount to approximately £500,000. This would reduce the subsidy required by a figure amounting to £1.5 million pounds over the three years of the service (assuming revenue and costs remained fairly constant). Two return flights per day (5 days a week) create approximately 18,000 passenger seats per year; 2000 passengers would therefore represent a mere 11% passenger load factor. At such a low load factor the revenue generated would just about pay the salaries of the two pilots and a single stewardess. If , however, the operation was to operate through Hawarden and then to Anglesey, the subsidy could be reduced by around 40% - a much better proposition for the taxpayers of Wales. Such an operation would also do much to ensure the longevity of the service. As it stands, the only real winner will be Highland Airways, who will pocket a substantial profit whether the aircraft is empty or full. The real losers will be the people of Wales.
One final thought: what a tragedy this opportunity was not afforded to Air Wales during its life time. The truth is that we in Wales have never been very good at helping our own. It appears, historically, that outsiders have always been treated more favourably!
An aviation expert, Captain John H. Evans founded Wales’s first national airline, Air Wales, in 1997. He left the company some years before it ceased operations in 2006. |
