BBC News
Cardiff Airport was built in the wrong place to attract passengers, the former boss of a low-cost airline has said.
David Bryon, ex-director of BMI Baby, which operated from the airport between 2002-2011, said no-one in their "right mind" would invest in the airport.
Annual passengers numbers have fallen since the pandemic, down from 1.6 million in 2019 to 812,000 in the year to November 2022.
Meanwhile, Doncaster Sheffield Airport, which ceased operations due to "financial viability" last month, had 1.4 million passengers in 2019, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority.
"What I think was most alarming is, we saw an airport actually shut down with similar levels to Cardiff," Mr Bryon said.
"If you can't get above two, three, four million [passengers] then... it's very difficult for it to break even, let alone make money, and we saw that with Doncaster."
