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bmibaby celebrates two years at Cardiff
27 October 2004
bmibaby, the award winning airline with tiny fares, is today (Wednesday 27 October 2004) celebrating two years in operation at Cardiff International Airport.
The airline's inaugural flight departed for Malaga two years ago
on the day that Cardiff was battered by heavy storms. In contrary
to its first day in operation, bmibaby's history at the airport has
been smooth and successful. In June bmibaby celebrated carrying its
millionth passenger on its services from Cardiff and has
successfully established eleven European routes over the past 24
months.
Cardiff International Airport, the UK's second fastest-growing
airport in 2003, handled more than 1.9 million passengers in the
year. Exceptional growth in passengers from bmibaby contributed to
the airport's excellent performance.
To celebrate its second birthday in Wales, bmibaby will be pledging
£1 from every booking made on bmibaby flights from Cardiff on
Wednesday (27 October 2004) to The Noah's Ark Appeal. bmibaby will
also be holding a birthday celebration at the airport to
commemorate reaching its milestone, with prizes of flight credits
for passengers checking in for flights.
On Friday, the Cardiff Blues will be holding a celebratory birthday
match to commemorate the airline's milestone and the sponsorship
deal. Any children taking birthday cards for Tiny, the airline's
mascot, to the stadium will gain free entry to the match.
Cardiff based bakers Memory Lane will be supplying a complimentary
birthday cake, which the airline will display at the airport today
and share with children at the Cardiff Blues match on Friday.
To celebrate, bmibaby staff will be at Cardiff Airport on Wednesday
handing out give-aways to passengers checking-in. Passengers who
are travelling on bmibaby services on Wednesday and celebrating a
birthday that day, should make themselves known to a member of
check-in staff where they'll receive a special birthday present
from bmibaby in the form of £75 worth of travel credits to spend on
future flights.
Tony Davis, managing director of bmibaby, commented: "We're very
proud of what we've achieved over the past two years at Cardiff
International Airport. We have established eleven very successful
routes which local travellers have responded well to. The increase
in capacity to Belfast for our winter timetable, which starts this
weekend, will be beneficial to business travellers.
"We continue to work closely with the airport to evaluate further
opportunities for flights and we've further extended our marketing
agreement with Air Wales enabling us to sell flights to Jersey, a
popular year round route."
Cardiff International Airport's Sales and Marketing Manager Vincent
Rey explains:
"We are delighted with bmibaby's success and progress at Cardiff
international Airport over the last two years. bmibaby has greatly
contributed towards the airport's rapid growth in passenger numbers
and we look forward to continue working with them and developing
further routes in the future."
Flights from Cardiff to Alicante, Belfast (International), Cork,
Edinburgh, Geneva, Glasgow (Prestwick), Jersey, Malaga, Palma,
Paris (Charles de Gaulle) and Prague can now be booked at
bmibaby.com or by calling reservations on 0870 264 2229.
Spring 2005 will see Cardiff International Airport connected with a
rail link. Work is underway on the reopening on the Vale of
Glamorgan line, which is being funded by the Welsh Assembly
Government. The project will cost in the region of £17 million.
Initial rail services will link the airport directly with both
Bridgend and Cardiff Central Stations as part of the "All Wales
Franchise" operated by Arriva Trains.
The project includes building new stations at Rhoose and Llantwit
Major, together with a new platform at Bridgend. The track will be
upgraded to allow trains to travel at higher speeds than the
existing track allows and additional signalling will be provided to
increase capacity of the route.
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