Airport welcomes and waves off US Ryder Cup Team
Published: 08 October 2010
Cardiff Airport was the focus of the golfing world’s attention this month when the US Ryder Cup team arrived and departed through its doors in time for the world’s largest golfing event, held for the first time in Wales at The Celtic Manor Resort, Newport.
United States Captain Corey Pavin and his team, along with officials of the PGA of America, arrived at Cardiff on Monday, 27 September, and were welcomed by European Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomerie, the First Minister of Wales, the Rt. Hon. Carwyn Jones AM, Ryder Cup Director Richard Hills, PGA Chairman Phil Weaver, and Ryder Cup Wales Chairman John Jermine.
Over 60 representatives from the media were in attendance for the arrival of the inbound flight to view the US team stepping out on Welsh soil for the first time, and a press conference between the two captains was held in the airport's main terminal building,
The tournament was scheduled to take place from Friday, 01 October to Sunday, 03 October, with the US team due to fly out on Monday, 04 October. However the arrangements for the outbound flight needed to be changed at the last minute when the competition was extended to four days due to the weather conditions.
The departure was rescheduled for 24 hours later than originally planned, and following a thrilling finale on Monday afternoon the US team departed from Wales' national airport on Tuesday, 05 October.
The airport experienced an increase in traffic as a result of the tournament, with over 65 additional aircraft movements specifically due to the Ryder Cup - the largest of which being the US team's charter which also had travelling fans and VIPs from the USA. Passenger numbers on scheduled services including domestic flights and connecting hubs such as Paris CDG and Amsterdam also rose during the period.
Patrick Duffy, Cardiff Airport's managing director commented: "The arrival and departure of the US Ryder Cup team at the airport was an exciting and challenging experience. A combination of hard work by the airport and partner organisations, along with experience of handling travel for large scale events led to a successful and seamless operation on both inbound and outbound departures."