Swansea airport's commercial flights grounded due to 'safety concerns'

Flights from a Welsh airport have been grounded after the former RAF base had its operating licence suspended due to a "series of safety concerns."

Training flights had been using Swansea Airport as no commercial aircraft had taken off from the facility on the Gower Peninsula since October 2004.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has closed all licensed flights following a "recent unannounced safety audit".

The airport was originally opened as an airbase in 1941 during World War Two.

The airport has been shut for licensed flights after the CAA "discovered a series of safety concerns...following a recent unannounced safety audit at Swansea Aerodrome".

CAA director Richard Stephenson said: "The suspensions will remain in place until our safety concerns are addressed."

The flying schools and skydiving centre that operate from Swansea Airport are not affected as the ban is on flights that require a "licensed aerodrome".

Swansea Airport has has not yet responded to a request for comment from the BBC.

The first commercial flights from Swansea Airport on Fairwood Common were in 1949 after the RAF decommissioned the base, six miles (10km) west of the city centre.

Numerous short-haul commercial operators had run flights since Cambrian Airways' inaugural flight from Jersey in June 1957.

But Air Wales, who flew to and from Dublin, Cork, Amsterdam, Jersey and London, stopped passenger flights from Swansea in 2004.