The value of the airport was, at the same time, valued at £15m which is less than a third of what Welsh Government paid for it. Then, in March 2021, it was announced the airport was being given another £42m of taxpayers cash - and another £40m it owes to the Welsh Government was written off. The Welsh Government paid £52m for the airport back in 2013, and it has since been operated at arm's length on a commercial basis. The airport's chief executive Spencer Binns told a Senedd Commmittee that that in 2020-21 passenger numbers fell from 1.6 million to 48,000 - a bigger drop than in other parts of the UK.
Cardiff Airport's passenger levels have fallen as low as they were 70 years ago in the 1950, bosses revealed as the gave evidence to Members of the Senedd.
