Bristol airport loses legal challenge against Cardiff rival over £205m subsidy

Cardiff airport has won a legal challenge brought by its rival in Bristol over the fairness of a £205m Welsh government subsidy package.

A judgment by the competition appeal tribunal on Tuesday unanimously dismissed Bristol airport’s case against the Welsh government, which the south-west England hub had argued distorted the market and breached the Subsidy Control Act.

The Welsh government, which has already released £20m of support to state-owned Cardiff under the decade-long plan, welcomed the tribunal’s decision. A spokesperson said: “We very much hope to see both Cardiff airport and Bristol airport continue to thrive and grow.”

A Bristol airport spokesperson said: “We’re disappointed that the tribunal feels that despite the burden being put on the taxpayer, the flexibility given by the Subsidy Control Act introduced after Brexit means that the subsidy can proceed. We’ll now take some time to study the decision in detail before deciding on our next steps.”

The feud between the airports has simmered since 2013, when the Welsh government stepped in to buy Cardiff airport for £52m – well above the market value – when passenger numbers slumped after the withdrawal of budget airline Bmibaby.

It was an unusual move in the UK, where almost all airports are privately owned. Cardiff airport is yet to turn a profit despite £200m in bailouts since nationalisation, and passenger numbers have not recovered from the Covid pandemic: 963,000 customers passed through the terminal in 2025, compared with a peak of 2 million in 2007.

In April last year, the Welsh government announced a new subsidy worth £205m, to be invested over a 10-year period. About half of the support is earmarked for developing new routes, and the rest will go towards maintenance facilities, hangars and cargo capacity.

Bristol airport filed an appeal with the competition appeal tribunal three months later, arguing that the size of the subsidy was unprecedented in the UK aviation industry and a breach of competition rules.

Last month, Bristol submitted plans to accommodate an extra 3 million passengers a year, including expanding the runway to enable long haul flights. Permission was granted in 2022 allowing the airport to expand from 10 million to 12 million passengers a year, which residents’ groups campaigned against.

A UK government white paper in 2003 proposed closing both airports and constructing an artificial island facility in the Severn estuary to serve their catchment areas. In a recent ranking of the UK’s bigger airports, Bristol and Cardiff lost many points because they lack train connections: Bristol came in at 27th and Cardiff last at 30th.