Page last updated at 07:04 GMT, Friday, 18 December 2009

Pembrey Airport awaits its first charter flight landing

Skybus pilots
Pembrey Airport will see its first charter flight with a Skybus plane

A rural airport is to mark the launch of a charter service connecting it with the west of England.

Pembrey Airport, located on the site of the former RAF base, is expecting the arrival of a 16-seater aircraft run by an airline in Newquay, Cornwall.

Airfield owner Winston Thomas, 72, a former British Airways pilot, said he expected the nearby Ffos Las racecourse to provide an increase in demand.

Meanwhile airline Flybe is celebrating is 500,000th passenger from Cardiff.

Pembrey owner Mr Thomas said he had put £3.5m into the site since he took over eight years ago after 26 years in Texas where he ran a telecoms engineering firm.

The Llanelli-born entrepreneur said revamping the airport, the further west in Wales, has been a "marathon" task.

He said: "I didn't way want to come back and do nothing. It needed infrastructure in the place."

Seven routes

He said the landing of the airfield's first charter was was "a big event for us".

Mr Thomas said he hoped a runway extension next year would take the runway from current 1,200m (3,900 ft) to 1,400m (4,600 ft).

Meanwhile, Flybe, says it has carried half a million passengers since it began operating from Cardiff Airport, where it has seven routes.

Flybe's Cardiff to Glasgow route was the airline's first from Cardiff following its acquisition of BA Connect in 2007.

Print Sponsor

Airline marks 25 years of flying
20 Aug 09 |  Cornwall

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Has China's housing bubble burst?
How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire
Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit

BBC navigation



Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific