8. Will the First Minister make a statement on the future of Cardiff Airport? OQ56388

Ah, well, I thank Carwyn Jones for that question on Cardiff Airport. The global aviation industry has been catastrophically affected by the global pandemic. Here we have acted decisively to help secure Cardiff Airport's future, to ensure that it has a sustainable future and to protect the value of the public investment in the airport.

I thank the First Minister for his answer. I listened to the long question from Michelle Brown. The truth is, of course, that more than 5,000 jobs are dependent on Cardiff Airport, and Anglesey Airport's existence is dependent on Cardiff Airport, but, for Michelle Brown, these jobs are in the wrong part of Wales to be important, and that is the impression that I got. Cardiff Airport was doing very well indeed until the COVID outbreak.

But help me with this, if you would, First Minister. The Welsh Conservatives, through their Government in London, have provided help to airports in England, but they condemn our Welsh Government because it has provided help to our airports in Wales. Can you help me as to why they hold those double standards? Or is it because, deep within the psyche of the Conservative Party, woven into their DNA, together with their fellow travellers like Michelle Brown, there is a strong desire to see Wales fail?

Well, Llywydd, the Scottish Government has provided help for Scottish airports, the Northern Ireland Executive has provided support to Belfast airport; the UK Government declined to provide support for Cardiff Airport. It provided support for Bristol Airport, which it had always told us was a direct competitor to Cardiff, the reason why it wasn't possible to devolve air passenger duty to Wales. The Welsh Government has stepped in to protect the national asset that is Cardiff Airport. As Carwyn Jones has said, Llywydd, the airport had been on a strongly improving trajectory as a result of the actions that he took when he was First Minister in making sure that the asset that Cardiff Airport has to be to the Welsh economy was preserved for Welsh people. The 5,000 jobs that depend upon the airport more generally, the 2,400 jobs that depend upon it directly—this Welsh Government will not turn our back on the impact that the pandemic has had upon the airport. We will support it, even when others don't. 

Finally, question 9, Leanne Wood.