FM urged to ‘cut losses’ on Cardiff Airport

Local TV

With tourism tax a massive talking point, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives Darren Millar has called on the First Minister to also consider the massive amount of money being pumped into Cardiff Airport, which was brought under Welsh government ownership over a decade ago.

Transcript

00:01A tourism tax for Wales has been making its way through the rounds of the Senate for some time

00:06and now looks set to come into effect by 2027 at the earliest.

00:09It will mean that local authorities will be given the powers to implement the levy,

00:13which ranges from 75p to £1.30, depending on lodgings like camping or hotel.

00:18But under 18s will officially be exempt from the extra charges.

00:22On the subject of holidays and tourism, Wales' national airport in Cardiff

00:26has been under Welsh Government ownership for over a decade,

00:29and Welsh Conservative leader Darren Miller believes it's been nothing but a massive waste of taxpayer money.

00:35Hundreds of millions of pounds have been pumped into the site,

00:38but passenger numbers are just a fraction of what we see at its closest rival in Bristol.

00:42Miller wants answers and wants the Welsh Government to cut at their losses.

00:46First Minister, the summer is here and airports around the UK are getting busier and busier.

00:51Over the weekend, over 300 flights set off from Bristol Airport.

00:56Yet here in Wales, just 57 flights departed from Cardiff,

01:02an airport which the Welsh Labour Government, of course, chose to nationalise back in 2013.

01:07So, do you accept that your Welsh Government is no better at running an airport than you are this country,

01:13that it's time to stop wasting taxpayers' money on this pet project,

01:18and that Cardiff Airport should be sold to somebody who knows how to run airports rather than leaving it in your hands?

01:25The subsidy, as you say, is not insignificant, but if you look at what we get as a nation,

01:31as a result of being able to host things like European Football Cups,

01:36that does in themselves bring in around £200 million.

01:40Without an airport, we wouldn't be able to host those kinds of things,

01:44and I think it is worth mentioning that because it is important.

01:48It's not just air travel that Darren Miller says the Welsh Government has been failing on.

01:52He says the rail transport has been neglected in recent years as well,

01:55and an announcement of less than half a billion pounds from the UK Labour Government for Wales

02:00is far less than Wales should be due, according to the Tory leader.

02:03But Alina Edmorgan says that money isn't to do with her,

02:06and Welsh Government investment has been far more substantial.

02:09You recently celebrated an announcement by the UK Labour Government

02:13of £445 million for rail infrastructure here in Wales over the next ten years,

02:18even though that sum is less than half that which was invested by the previous UK Conservative Government

02:26over the previous ten years.

02:28That Government, of course, invested £1.1 billion over a ten-year period

02:32with a promise of at least a billion more for the delivery of electrification in North Wales.

02:38We have invested £800 million in our rail services, and it has transformed the service.

02:45You look at the number of new trains that are on our services,

02:51everybody can see them all over the country.

02:53They are coming on, and it has led to an increase of a fifth in passenger numbers just in the past year.

02:59We have invested in the past year.

03:00We have invested in the past year.

03:01We have invested in the past year.

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