Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 11 December 2018.
First of all, it's been personally a great pleasure for me to see the growth in the airport. I'd like to pay tribute to Roger Lewis, to Debra Barber and all those who work at the airport who've done so much to ensure its future. I knew there was a future there if it was run properly, and that's what we intended to do, which is why, of course, we didn't try and run it ourselves via politicians or civil servants; it was run and is being run by an arm's-length company. And we see, of course, the great growth in passenger numbers that there's been in that time.
APD is a huge disappointment. It's in the Secretary of State for Wales's constituency, and it's a huge shame that he has not been able to deliver APD to the airport. Scotland has it; there are talks in Northern Ireland. The real reason—. There are two reasons why we haven't had it. Firstly, the Treasury regret very much having given it to Scotland, so they don't want to give it to us. Secondly, Liam Fox represents, if I remember rightly, the area that Bristol Airport is in, and I don't think he's been particularly supportive of APD. Bristol has said that Cardiff is a threat to the airport. I don't see it that way. We need Bristol because if we have big events in the stadium, we need Bristol Airport; we're not out to get Bristol Airport. But I do think that Cardiff has huge potential in terms of long haul, particularly. There are greater advantages that Bristol has got, and even if we had long-haul APD devolved, that would promote huge growth in passenger numbers in the airport and also, of course, take some pressure—let's not over-exaggerate—but some pressure off Heathrow. And Cardiff is the airport in the western part of this island that is best placed to deal with that long- haul traffic. It's a great shame that the UK Government can't see that, and can't see that it would help to take the pressure off the London airports.