Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:44 pm on 7 January 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Paul Davies Paul Davies Conservative 1:44, 7 January 2020

Well, quite clearly, we are not turning that corner. Let me give you some of its failings: performance in terms of passenger time lost in cancellations was worse between July and November last year than the previous year; it has struggled to secure long-term rolling stock; it's failed to meet the Welsh language standards on several occasions; and we've seen chaos over the renewal process for bus passes. So, it's clearly failing, First Minister.

Now, talking about transport failures, let's look at another of your transport failures: Cardiff Airport appears to be going from bad to worse. The airport has posted a loss of nearly £19 million for the last financial year. This is nearly three times higher than the previous year, and yet your Government continues to extend the loan facilities. And now the value of the airport has dropped significantly to £15 million, barely a third of what it was valued at back in 2014, the year your Government took control of the airport. Now, in contrast, Bristol Airport added more than 400,000 passengers last year, just under a third of Cardiff's total passengers for 2019, and actually posted a profit of £35 million. First Minister, with the outgoing chairman saying that the airport is expecting to lose 150,000 passengers next year, how much more taxpayers' money are you willing to throw at the airport before you say enough is enough?