Cardiff: KLM News & Hub Discussions

[geoff]

Eastern have been taking areal pounding on Pprune over the past few weeks. They must be taking over the CWL tea time flight, with the aircraft that night stops at BRS. It doesn't bode well for the future, when KLM has 4 BRS daily flights, in addition to those of Easyjet.

 

[SierraHotel]

Eastern are taking over LBAs thrice daily AMS service WEF 30 March from KLM. The jury is most definitely out!

 

[Jerry]

Eastern have been taking areal pounding on Pprune over the past few weeks. They must be taking over the CWL tea time flight, with the aircraft that night stops at BRS. It doesn't bode well for the future, when KLM has 4 BRS daily flights, in addition to those of Easyjet.

But 3 daily flights has existed alongside BRS 4 and Easyjets Amsterdam for years before they cut the 3rd daily.

 

[StanMan]

Today's BRS - AMS lunchtime service is being operated by Eastern as well. Maybe it's KLM's way of generating additional capacity?

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Today's BRS - AMS lunchtime service is being operated by Eastern as well. Maybe it's KLM's way of generating additional capacity?

KLM have issues with aircraft and flight crew availability. They've been increasing their usage of Eastern for several months. I wouldn't be surprise is KLM distance themselves from Cityhopper a bit more and outsource things.

 

[pug]

Eastern have been taking areal pounding on Pprune over the past few weeks. They must be taking over the CWL tea time flight, with the aircraft that night stops at BRS. It doesn't bode well for the future, when KLM has 4 BRS daily flights, in addition to those of Easyjet.

They have been taking a hammering, and though I’ve been playing devils advocate on there most of it is justified. However, they are recruiting HEAVILY for the ejets which includes engineers. The struggle is that the market is so buoyant elsewhere that there are much higher paid jobs to take so retention will be a massive task, and it’s not something Eastern are known for at the best of times.

Contrary to what is being posted on there, lots by people I believe may have some vested interest in the NQY route, I’m of the understanding that KLM are happy on the whole with the service they’re getting and want more bases transferred to Eastern yesterday! The question is, will Eastern be able to step up or will they just implode and lose the contract?

With so few alternatives you have to hope that Eastern manage to buck the trend and make this one work. Judy very much still out.

 

[Jerry]

Looking at KLMs website it looks like KL1058 09.50 departure on Sundays from 29/6/25 to 24/8/25 will be operated by German Airways.

 

[MJC73]

I am flying with KLM later this afternoon. Received a text advising the flight was full and they are offering to take hand luggage in the hold. I thought that was nice of them.

 

[Jerry]

Good to know that the flight is full!

 

[Jerry]

The article in NationCymru that I posted earlier had a bit about Welsh government goals and 1 one of them is connectivity. One of Cardiffs most important routes for that is KLMs Amsterdam route yet it's been cut from 21 weekly to 14 weekly with the loss of the overnight aircraft. It's the only route in the UK to lose that and is a blow to that goal. It does make me wonder why it was cut, has the Welsh government been lobbying KLM to bring it back and if we'll ever see it return. For comparison KLM flies from 20 airports in the Britain and Ireland and doesn't overnight at 4 airports. London City, Southampton, Exeter and Cardiff. London City and Southampton have specific restrictions while Exeter is a new daily route. Cardiff seems to be the odd one out for some reason. 4 of those overnights are Eastern Airways and 7 are done by mainline KLM the rest are done by Cityhopper.
If international connectivity is important to the Welsh Government then surely Amsterdam going back to 3 daily should should be as well.

 

[Samdorob]

The article in NationCymru that I posted earlier had a bit about Welsh government goals and 1 one of them is connectivity. One of Cardiffs most important routes for that is KLMs Amsterdam route yet it's been cut from 21 weekly to 14 weekly with the loss of the overnight aircraft. It's the only route in the UK to lose that and is a blow to that goal. It does make me wonder why it was cut, has the Welsh government been lobbying KLM to bring it back and if we'll ever see it return. For comparison KLM flies from 20 airports in the Britain and Ireland and doesn't overnight at 4 airports. London City, Southampton, Exeter and Cardiff. London City and Southampton have specific restrictions while Exeter is a new daily route. Cardiff seems to be the odd one out for some reason. 4 of those overnights are Eastern Airways and 7 are done by mainline KLM the rest are done by Cityhopper.
If international connectivity is important to the Welsh Government then surely Amsterdam going back to 3 daily should should be as well.

I don’t know the previous commercial agreement, but if the airport didn’t charge a fee for parking the KLM aircraft overnight it could be something that sways them to bring it back.

 

[Jerry]

I don’t know the previous commercial agreement, but if the airport didn’t charge a fee for parking the KLM aircraft overnight it could be something that sways them to bring it back.

Well I'd be surprised if KLM doesn't get a good deal on things like that and i know with the overnight there is extra cost of accommodation for the crew which will make operating the flight more expensive but that's something they've done for years so what's changed now?

 

[Jerry]

Just been looking at the stats for Amsterdam. Since April when the overnight aircraft was cut the route has lost 17920 passengers a 17.9% decrease. An average of 1792 passengers a month.

 

[geoff]

It must surely be worth bringing the early morning Amsterdam route back at CWL, , your figures Jerry show how much it has been missed. Let's hope the Welsh Transport Minister, reads this forum.

 

[Jerry]

It must surely be worth bringing the early morning Amsterdam route back at CWL, , your figures Jerry show how much it has been missed. Let's hope the Welsh Transport Minister, reads this forum.

It's not just the early morning departure but also that aircrafts arrival the night before. That gives people a lot more options especially leaving European destinations late afternoon/evening. An example is my sister who often uses it at LeedsBradford. Last week she was able to leave Geneva at 17.00 UK time arriving in LeedsBradford around 22.00. She wouldn't have been to do that at Cardiff.

I doubt Ken Skates does read this forum but the airport is potentially looking at losing 20,000 passengers in a 12 month period because of the loss of that overnighting aircraft. Idk why KLM scrapped it but it should be a priority for the government to restore as should Paris CDG.

 

[Samdorob]

It's not just the early morning departure but also that aircrafts arrival the night before. That gives people a lot more options especially leaving European destinations late afternoon/evening. An example is my sister who often uses it at LeedsBradford. Last week she was able to leave Geneva at 17.00 UK time arriving in LeedsBradford around 22.00. She wouldn't have been to do that at Cardiff.

I doubt Ken Skates does read this forum but the airport is potentially looking at losing 20,000 passengers in a 12 month period because of the loss of that overnighting aircraft. Idk why KLM scrapped it but it should be a priority for the government to restore as should Paris CDG.

I heard it was down to aircraft issues, then it was staffing issues. The reality is if they wanted to bring it back I’m sure they could. They’ve managed to start a daily Exeter flight.
They must be losing out in general because if people are having to travel to airports further afield they will likely just fly direct from larger airports like Heathrow.

 

[Jerry]

I heard it was down to aircraft issues, then it was staffing issues. The reality is if they wanted to bring it back I’m sure they could. They’ve managed to start a daily Exeter flight.
They must be losing out in general because if people are having to travel to airports further afield they will likely just fly direct from larger airports like Heathrow.

Well parts those aircraft and staffing issues will be alleviated by Eastern taking over 4 of its UK routes and reducing Cityhoppers overnighting commitments to 5 airports in the Britain and Ireland.
Obviously only KLM know why they've cut it and maybe the airport and their network is much bigger than the Britain and Ireland but it's frustrating as the airport is losing passengers, though the airline itself might not be losing as many as the airport because I'm sure many will be choosing to use Bristol instead. It's frustrating because it's such an important route and has been established for so long and was growing nicely pre pandemic.

 

[Jerry]

As posted by @lbaspotter on the Leeds Bradford forum it appears that KLM have cut some flights during the week of 22/6/25-28/6/25.
It looks like the evening departure between Sunday and Thursday of that week has been cut meaning CWL will only have 1 flight to Amsterdam in the morning on those days and 3 out of 5 of those flights will be operated by Eastern Airways.
This is just Cardiff they're changes at other airports but many of them seem to at least be retaining some of their full schedule of daily flights.

 

[geoff]

Disappointing again for CWL, I just wish that Welsh travellers would voice their objections to having to journey to BRS, for everyday business or leisure flights, but unfortunately the airlines know they have to if they have no alternative.

 

[Jerry]

Disappointing again for CWL, I just wish that Welsh travellers would voice their objections to having to journey to BRS, for everyday business or leisure flights, but unfortunately the airlines know they have to if they have no alternative.

It is due to the NATO summit in the Hague apparently but it does appear CWL getting the short straw again. Unfortunately too many Welsh travellers either aren't bothered by not flying from Wales or actually prefer it and sadly many airlines know that.