After months of highly entertaining group and knockout stage matches in the UEFA Champions League, both Real Madrid and Juventus have reached with final, which will be held on June 3rd 2017.
Both teams will be flying into Cardiff Airport (CWL/EGFF), however, due to Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) guidelines, rivaling fans on chartered flights must arrive at separate airports. Vueling, which has recently announced flights from Rome, Milan and Turin, will fly the Italian fans into the Welsh airport. Real Madrid fans on chartered flights will be landing into Bristol Airport (BRS/EGGD). It is expected that around 170,000 fans are to arrive into Cardiff on June 3rd for the Champions League Final which will be held at the Welsh national stadium.
The same flying guidelines do not apply to fans arriving on scheduled flights. Ryanair has seized the opportunity to run flights between Madrid and Cardiff for the weekend. The airport itself is expected to see about 100 additional movements on both the Friday and Saturday.
Meanwhile Cardiff is celebrating the fact that they are hosting the final. The entirety of the city centre will be closed off to traffic, while a festival of football will be held at Cardiff Bay. It is obvious that the city is somewhat football focused for the next few weeks, as a blue dragon holding the Champions League trophy has appeared on the Cardiff Castle.
Cardiff Airport currently flies around 1.3 million passengers annually to roughly 50 different direct destinations. The airports top international and domestic routes include Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, Amsterdam and Palma de Mallorca. Let’s hope the football fever brings a well deserved short-term boost to the Welsh economy!
Want to keep up to date with all of the Cardiff Airport information? Follow @Airport_Guides on Twitter and on Facebook for all the news you need to see.