Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Cardiff Airport (EGFF), located at Rhoose in the Vale of Glamorgan south-west of the Welsh capital, is the principal international gateway for Wales and the country's only airport offering scheduled passenger and cargo services. Built on the site of the wartime RAF Rhoose, it now combines commercial jet operations with British Airways' major maintenance base, making it a substantial and interesting destination for a visiting VFR or IFR pilot.
Cardiff Airport lies at Rhoose in the Vale of Glamorgan, to the south-west of Cardiff, and is owned by the Welsh Government, which operates it commercially at arm's length. It is the only airport in Wales offering scheduled commercial passenger and cargo services, and it is home to a British Airways maintenance facility housing one of the largest hangars in the world, as well as various aerospace firms and training colleges. For a simulator pilot, its long, ILS-equipped runway, mix of airline and general aviation traffic, and rich history as a former RAF training station make it a rewarding field to fly into.
Cardiff Airport is situated in the Vale of Glamorgan, roughly 15 miles south-west of Cardiff city centre, with straightforward access from the M4 corridor. As a large international airport handling scheduled airline traffic, it sits within controlled airspace served by Cardiff Approach and Cardiff Radar, with the wider area covered by Cardiff Radar Area Control.
Cardiff has a single physical runway, 12/30, a hard-surfaced strip some 7,227 feet long on the 30 heading and 7,001 feet on the 12 heading. It is lit and equipped with ILS on both directions, making it suitable for instrument approaches in poor weather as well as visual arrivals.
Pilots should expect to work Cardiff Approach on 119.155 MHz or 125.855 MHz, with Cardiff Radar providing area control on 133.6 MHz. The airport ATIS broadcasts on 132.48 MHz, Cardiff Fire can be reached on 121.6 MHz, and Cardiff Tower operates on 133.105 MHz. The field is equipped with ILS on both runway directions, supporting instrument approaches to 12 and 30.
The airfield began life in the early 1940s when the Air Ministry requisitioned land in the rural Vale of Glamorgan for a wartime satellite aerodrome and training base named RAF Rhoose, intended for RAF Spitfire pilots. Construction started in 1941 and the airfield officially opened on 7 April 1942 under the control of No. 53 Operational Training Unit. After the Second World War the airfield fell into disuse and was abandoned, with the runways reportedly littered with stacked bombs and the buildings badly dilapidated by the early 1950s. Following a proposal from the Welsh Civil Aviation Consultative Committee, the Ministry of Aviation converted the derelict airfield into a civilian airport, which opened as Rhoose Airport in October 1952, initially seeing Aer Lingus services to Dublin. Civilian flights transferred fully from the old Cardiff Municipal Airport at Pengam Moors on 1 April 1954. In 1965 the airport passed to Glamorgan County Council and was renamed Glamorgan (Rhoose) Airport, with a five-year development plan bringing a new control tower, terminal and runway extension. During the 1970s Concorde made occasional flights into the airport on special occasions, constrained by runway length, and in 1986 a further 750-foot runway extension allowed the field to handle Boeing 747s, which in turn helped attract the British Airways maintenance facility. The airport was privatised in 1995 when its shares were sold to TBI plc, and it served over the decades as the main base for several local airlines including Cambrian Airways, Airways International Cymru, Inter European Airways and Air Wales. In 1996 it became one of the first airports used by Ryanair for low-cost services with second-hand Boeing 737-200s, and the Welsh Government acquired the airport in 2013 to support tourism and economic development in the region.
Cardiff Airport continues to operate as Wales' main international gateway, handling scheduled passenger and cargo services alongside general aviation and non-scheduled traffic; a full-service FBO, Global Trek Aviation, expanded into the airport in 2019 to support these operations. The field is home to British Airways' long-haul maintenance base and a range of aerospace-related firms and training colleges. Reported operating hours for the airport office are 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, with no listed hours at weekends, and prior permission should be sought before a visit.
