Landmark judgment in £205m Cardiff Airport subsidy appeal

Bristol Airport Limited v Welsh Ministers [2026] CAT 30

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (‘the CAT’) has today dismissed Bristol Airport’s appeal against the Welsh Ministers’ decision to award up to £205 million in long‑term investment funding to Cardiff International Airport.

In contrast to previous appeals in the CAT, the Welsh Ministers accepted that the subsidy fell within scope of the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (‘the Act’). This is therefore the first time that the CAT has considered whether, applying judicial review principles, a subsidy complies with various requirements of the Act.

The judgment addresses a number of significant matters, including

• The rescue and restructuring provisions at sections 19–20 of the Act, and in particular whether these requirements provide an exclusive means for awarding subsidies to ailing or insolvent enterprises;
• The approach to be taken in judicial review proceedings challenging compliance with the subsidy control principles, including the margin of judgment given to the public authority awarding the subsidy; and
• The operation of the air carrier subsidies rules at section 28 of the Act.

The judgment is available here.

George Peretz KC, Azeem Suterwalla KC, Harry Gillow and Will Perry acted for the Welsh Ministers.

The case has been covered in the press, for example by the BBC.