Air Wales

...but as its name suggests, Air Wales is the Welsh national carrier, although at the moment, slightly unfairly, their services are restricted to departures from South Wales and the South West. The company was started around two years ago by a local businessmen to provide a service designed to compete with the trains and ferries, and also to try and breath some life back into once highly industrialised areas.

Forget BMI Baby, Air Wales ...
...Prices were relatively competitive and Air Wales offered deals that included 1 or 2 night stays in Ireland’s fair city.

The minute size of the flights meant that all those shorties who had dreamt of becoming air hostesses were now in with a chance, as originally Air Wales stipulation was that all cabin staff had to be a maximum of 5’2”.

You also have the advantage, if living fairly close to these airports of cheaper ... more

You may or may not know, but as its name suggests, Air Wales is the Welsh national carrier, although at the moment, slightly unfairly, their services are restricted to departures from South Wales and the South West. The company was started around two years ago by a local businessmen to provide a service designed to compete with the trains and ferries, and also to try and breath some life back into once highly industrialised areas.

Forget BMI Baby, Air Wales really is the baby of the UK’s airline industry, based unsurprisingly in Cardiff International airport, it also flies out of Swansea and Plymouth to a range of domestic destinations including:
• Cork
• London City (return prices start from £19, £7 less than the cheapest train fare)
• Dublin
• Belfast City
• Jersey
• Plymouth

The airline started off operating 16 seater un-pressurised planes on routes to Cork, Dublin and Jersey from Swansea and Cardiff (Jersey during the summer months only) flying at around 12,000 feet. I am told that journeys on a clear day were breathtaking providing sweeping views of the Eastern Irish Coast and the Gower peninsula, the latter a designated area of natural outstanding beauty; personally, wild horses wouldn’t have dragged me on one of these, being fearful of flying at the best of times. Prices were relatively competitive and Air Wales offered deals that included 1 or 2 night stays in Ireland’s fair city.

The minute size of the flights meant that all those shorties who had dreamt of becoming air hostesses were now in with a chance, as originally Air Wales stipulation was that all cabin staff had to be a maximum of 5’2”.

You also have the advantage, if living fairly close to these airports of cheaper parking. At Swansea, an airport seeing its first commercial flights in over 20 years, parking is currently free, at Cardiff you will pay anything between £3 and £9 per day dependent on the length of your stay and whether you have booked in advance through www.bcponline.co.uk. For anyone familiar with Cardiff, be aware they have substantially changed their parking arrangements.

THEIR GROWTH
As with many small companies, they either grow or go bust, well at the moment, Air Wales are growing. As of a few weeks ago, gone are the 16 seater planes, in their place brand new ATR 42-300s - 48 seater turbo prop planes, surpassing EasyJet’s claim of having the newest fleet in the industry. Naturally, with the advent of these new planes, I should imagine the maximum height restriction for cabin staff has been abandoned, although the cabin height is still relatively low. You could struggle as a passenger to be very comfortable if you came in at the taller end of the height stakes, (6ft+) but as all flights are currently less than 1-1/2 hours, convenience and price might outweigh this issue.

MY TRIP
I needed to get to Belfast to help out in a workshop. A thorough investigation of what was on offer established that a return flight from Bristol with FlyBE would have, at that time, set me back £120, BMI Baby from Cardiff was affordable, however, flew in to Belfast International, ramping up the taxi fare into the city somewhat; the taxi fare from City Airport into the centre of Belfast varies between £6 and £10, from the International, this will set you back around £26, although I am reliably informed there are hotel buses and trains operating into the City from Belfast International.

The schedules for BMI Baby suggested that I wouldn’t be able to return until the Saturday morning, and whilst I love my job, the prospect of staying in Belfast alone for no purpose other than getting home, wasn’t exactly appealing, particularly as I was off to Huddersfield the following Wednesday, what was I going to do?

I am not sure what made me go to the Air Wales site, as at that stage I had no idea they were flying into Belfast, well they didn’t, but had every intention of starting during April 2003.

BOOKING (UPDATED 04/09/03)
The telephone line has recently switched from a Swansea number to one of the ever growing range of exploited 0870 national rate numbers. I rang, and rang and rang - no answer. Not a good start, but I needed them more than they needed me, so I e-mailed them, still no answer.

A few days later I tried again and got through first time, a quick conversation with the young lady established that I wouldn’t be travelling on a 16 seater aircraft, quoting me a price of £72.67 for the privilege of a return journey including airport taxes, now this was definitely speaking my language, there was no surcharge for credit card payment.

Air Wales, like most of its breed these days is a ticket-less airline, and you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing your flight schedules, price paid and reference number etc, this will be required for check-in. There is also an on-line link to your flight schedules.

For some unknown reason, a couple of weeks after booking, I clicked this link, only to discover that the flight times had been changed, and no-one had bothered to tell me. Needless to say I wasn’t overly impressed and wasted no time in telling them, they were very apologetic and offered me a complete refund; however, as I really couldn’t be bothered to travel to Bristol and pay the £177.50 that FlyBE were now charging, I elected to stick with my original booking.

I eventually received an e-mail update on the Saturday before travelling, followed on the Sunday morning by an apologetic phone-call claiming that they had tried to contact me a few weeks before and left a message; I swiftly challenged this claim as one thing I am over-run with is answering machines on every number, and had heard zilch from Air Wales.

ON-LINE BOOKING
I reported in the original op that Air Wales did not have an on-line booking service, well not long after my last trip, as advised by the stewardess, they have now. It is extremely simple to use, reliable and you will receive a confirmation e-mail which you are requested to take with you when you check in, although on both occasions I have not actually been asked for it, simply my surname and photo ID.

PRICE
As I said, I paid £72.67, nearly half the price of my last trip to Belfast, and less distance to get to the airport. In common with all budget airlines, the earlier you book, the cheaper the fare. I was talking to someone using them from Swansea to London City next week, she was paying £110 return, not cheap, but the same price as the train fare that would get her into Paddington for the same time.

For my London trip from Swansea I paid £98 plus a £4 credit card charge. This has now been raised to £118 plus the CC charge, which I am reliably informed is still cheaper than an open peak return to London on the train, which stands at apparently approximately £175, although I know for a fact that cheaper fares can be found on the apex structure.

CHECK-IN
As with all domestic flights, you will require some form of photo ID, I generally tend to use my passport or photo driving licence.

AT CARDIFF
Unusually for a scheduled airline, check-in opens 1-1/2 hours before departure, and at Cardiff, the service, as with most other airlines, by Servisair. An extra leg-room seat was allocated and I made my way to the bar to take advantage of the alcoholic support available. 20 minutes before departure, no call had been made for the flight, now I was starting to panic, thanks to their schedule change, I was already an hour late. 5 minutes later we were called, herded onto the bus and shipped out to the plane – I say herded in the loosest sense of the word as there were only 7 people travelling.

AT BELFAST CITY
My meeting ended earlier than expected, and although I had the opportunity to either go to the pub or have a wander around Belfast, neither particularly appealed to me considering I had suitcase and laptop in tow, whilst basking in temperatures of some 25-26 degrees, so I took a taxi to the airport and settled down with a book to wait, and wait….and wait.

An hours delay and a 5 hour wait in Belfast City airport on a Friday afternoon is not my idea of fun.

An hour before the scheduled departure still there was no check-in desk identified on the board, but a quick scan of the desk established that it was well and truly open – again, I managed to secure an extra leg room seat.

THE FLIGHT
Just seeing the plane was enough to send me scurrying for the safe haven of Cardiff airport and my car home, the bloody think had propellers – I knew that with my increasing number of domestic flights, there was a chance this was going to happen sooner or later – and it had – I know I have been reassured by my many engineering friends that these are actually safer than engined planes, yet there is something nice about seeing them nicely placed each side.

So much for my extra leg-room, upon boarding, we were told both ways to sit in the middle of the plane, when I asked whether this was crucial I was told yes, although I am not quite sure why.

ON-BOARD SERVICE
This is where Air Wales excelled, the single air-hostess was an absolute darling, really friendly and reassuring when she realised just how nervous I actually was.

There was an on board paid tea service offering beers, wines, tea, coffee, the customary ready salted Pringles and chocolate or toffee waffles. A can of Stella and a pack of Pringles on the way out set me back £3, a coffee and two toffee waffles on the way back - £2, fairly standard fayre, although a nice cold G&T would have gone down really well.

The plane was brand new with boarding from the rear, another two emergency exits situated at the front of the plane. There was very effective air conditioning, working overhead lights and legroom that puts the like of EasyJet, Britannia and JMC to shame, although not quite as generous as the Regional Canada airjets operated by FlyBE. As expected, there was no entertainment on board, and the in-flight magazine is provided by Cambria, Wales’s national magazine.

There was one toilet on board at the rear of the plane, and I don’t think, unless you have the acrobatic skills of an Olympic gymnast and a figure to match Twiggies, that you will have any chance of joining the mile-high club with Air Wales.

RELIABILITY
Departing from Cardiff, we were delayed by around 10 minutes, and then as we were hitting the runway, we received a call, asking us to go back as 2 bags were missing, we finally arrived in Belfast City about 5 minutes late, our bags were off by the time we entered the terminal.

On the return journey, I was an hour and a half late getting back into Cardiff, again the baggage was unloaded swiftly and within 20 minutes of leaving the plane I was back in my car and ready to set off on the homeward journey.

SUMMARY
I suspect, reading between the lines, that Air Wales are getting short shrift on landing and take-off slots from Brussels because they are the baby of the airline industry; this, combined with their high demand on their aircraft and a mere 20 minute turnaround mean they are having difficulties keeping to their schedules. Personally, I think this is a crying shame, as they are providing a service long overdue at some of the more far-flung corners of the UK and at the same time bringing much needed jobs to areas such as Swansea, at a time when the industry is desperately trying to emerge from the long running after effects of 911.

I have been told that another two 48 seater jets are currently on order and this should hopefully alleviate some of the pressure on their already tight schedules – there are also plans being talked about to launch services to Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, some flying from Swansea, a brilliant opportunity for people like us who live about a mile away from the airport.

In addition to their take off an landing problems, AirWales has been the subject of major petitions by local residents in Swansea to prevent increased flights from Swansea, particularly with the introduction of the new jets, as someone who is on the landing flight path, with parents living within ¼ mile vicinity from the airport, they are, once you get used to them a minor noise in the sky, and not a patch on the noise generated regularly despatched air ambulance, a service that residents wouldn’t dream of moaning about because of the service it provides, so, if you do happen to live near Swansea airport, think about the benefits and lifeblood that is being injected into the local economy and get off your high horses.

Would I use them again? Without a shadow of a doubt, yes their delays were inconvenient, but I have suffered worse with Britannia and GO (as was), and hopefully as passenger numbers increase they will get less hassle from the powers that be in Brussels.

I just hope they quickly get their on-line booking system in place – long live Air Wales

For more info visit: www.airwales.co.uk or telephone
0870 777 3131 from the UK / 1 800 654 193 from Ireland.

UPDATED: 04/09/03
A short notice meeting in London following my driving trek up to Glasgow last week, resulting in spending 21 of a 36 hour period in the car, meant the prospect of the milk train and getting up when I normally go to bed, or sitting on choc-a-bloc motorways for hours on end were not prospects I relished, so it was back to the Air Wales site to see if they could offer me a return journey to London from my local airport that suited my needs, and they could.

There was however a blip on the system, in that their website clearly stated the fare was £49 each way, and their new on-line booking system was quoting me £59 each way, a swift couple of calls to their customer services and reservations departments found them honouring the fare advertised on the web, a mere couple of hours later they changed their website to the new price of £59 each way, still £80 cheaper than an open return on the train :) The flight left Swansea at 8.15am this morning, a swift stopover in Cardiff and then on to London City airport enabling me to arrive at the meeting bang on time, the return flight saw me back in the house before 8pm, knocking 5 hours off my average journey time when I take the train or drive, can't fault it really. Service was efficient, check in deadline for those with hand luggage is 15 minutes, refreshments are sold on board (I stumped up £4.50 for a coffee and deep filled chicken and bacon sandwich - generally I would have given it a miss, but knew I wasn't likely to get a proper meal until I got home that evening), and there is plenty of leg-room, so if you live near Cardiff or Swansea and need to go to London, think about letting the plane take the strain for a change.

Sue 

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