Bristol Airport challenges £200m Cardiff subsidy

Bristol Airport has launched a legal challenge to plans by the Welsh government to subsidise its rival to the tune of £205m.

Ministers want to spend the cash over ten years to boost passenger numbers and improve facilities at Cardiff Airport, which they own.

Bristol has complained that the subsidy is "unprecedented" and would exceed Cardiff Airport's current annual turnover "in each year of the planned 10-year duration".

Economy Secretary Rebecca Evans said her government would "defend this legal challenge".

Cardiff Airport has had millions in loans and grants since being bought by the Welsh government in 2013 - with spending having totalled £179.6m by 2024.

Ministers hope the new money will help the airport attract two million passengers a year and develop its maintenance, cargo and aviation facilities.

Some of the subsidy has already been received by the airport - £20m for the current financial year.

On Wednesday, Evans confirmed Bristol was challenging the decision in the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

In an open letter in April, Bristol Airport said: "No other airport in the UK has ever received anything close to this level of public subsidy and as such it is unprecedented and comes on top of the nearly £200m of taxpayers' money already provided to Cardiff Airport.

"Bristol Airport welcomes competition, but this must be on a level playing field to avoid market distortions.

"This subsidy could move activity between locations at huge cost to the taxpayer but without any net economic benefit."

Conservative Senedd member Sam Rowlands said the subsidy was a "really significant amount of money, particularly given passenger numbers still remain below those pre-pandemic levels".

In the Senedd he pressed the government to "admit that the current approach is not working" and to sell the airport.

Bristol claimed the total state funding awarded to Cardiff since it was nationalised amounted to £286 for every household in Wales.

Evans presented the figures in a different way, saying that over 22 years the support was worth "just £13 per year for each household, or less than £6 for each citizen in Wales" over 22 years.

In the Senedd she said she could not comment much further "other than to say that we absolutely recognise the importance of Cardiff Airport to the economy of the south Wales region, with thousands of jobs stemming from the airport and the economic ecosystem that is supported by it.

"We believe very strongly that with the right investment, the airport has the potential to make an even greater contribution to the economy".

Last year the Welsh government referred the matter to the Competition and Markets Authority, which then set out some issues including asking ministers to "more systematically set out and evidence" potential impacts on its competition.

It said the government had made some "unevidenced assumptions" in how officials have analysed the impact on Bristol Airport.

A Bristol Airport spokesperson said the "Welsh government failed to respond to repeated requests for more information and to engage meaningfully with us and other stakeholders for many months".

They added: "We have therefore sought a review by the Competition Appeal Tribunal under the Subsidy Control Act."