Welsh Conservatives outline five-point plan for Cardiff Airport
The Welsh Conservatives have outlined a five-point plan for the troubled, state-owned Cardiff Airport.
Speaking at the Welsh Conservative Party Conference in Llangollen today (March 7), Russell George AM – the Shadow Minister for Transport – said:
”It is concerning that Flybe has entered administration and this will have an adverse impact of this on the future of Cardiff Airport.
“A future Welsh Conservatives Government will publish a comprehensive strategy for Cardiff Airport with the aim of returning it to the commercial sector at the earliest opportunity and at a profit to the Welsh taxpayer.”
He said:
“The airport has needed a bold strategy for some time, and where once it was necessary, it is now absolutely critical, and it’s scandalous that the Welsh government has no plan for the airport.”
Mr George said that a strategy should include:
Supporting route development, prioritising a direct flight link to the USA and to Manchester
Developing a new marketing strategy for the airport
Improving transport links to the airport to make the airport more accessible by investing in better road, rail and public transport links
Investing in the airport's capital infrastructure to enable the airport to diversify and generate new sources of revenue.
Mr George added:
“It should also include working with the UK Government to devolve and scrap Air Passenger Duty.
“The evidence of seven years’ Welsh Labour Government ownership of Cardiff Airport – our national airport - is compelling.
“It is failing, it has failed to diversify, and most troubling, it has not been supported by the Welsh Labour administration”
“It is not, after all, the business of a government – especially one that has failed Wales in so many ways – to own airports.”
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