Cardiff Airport is being given another £42m after being hit hardest by Covid, the economy and transport minister has said.

Ken Skates MS announced the plans on this afternoon, adding any delay "would mean the loss of the airport".

The Welsh Government bought the airport for £52m in 2013, and will now grant it another maximum of £42.6m and also separately write off £42.6m of the airport's debt.

Mr Skates said: "The Welsh Government have agreed a financial package to provide support to Cardiff International Airport Limited (CIAL) in the medium term against a five-year plan for the rescue and restructure of the airport.

"Separately, as sole shareholders of Cardiff Airport, we have made the decision on a purely commercial basis to write off £42.6 million of the airports debt.

"This decision maximises the likelihood of recovery of Welsh Government loan investment and delivers the lowest lifetime cost option.

"It provides the best way forward for the Welsh Ministers as sole shareholders of the airport from a commercial perspective.

"The performance of Cardiff Airport as against its restructure plan will be monitored and performance managed regularly in order to evaluate and protect our ongoing investment."

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to impact the aviation industry for several years to come.

Global air traffic fell to its lowest level for 17 years in 2020: passenger numbers plunged from 4.5bn in 2019 to 1.8bn last year with airlines losing a combined £270bn due to Covid.

A Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) report shows Cardiff Airport as having the biggest decline over the past year of 87% over any other UK airport.

"The priority for all airports across the globe, including Cardiff, is recovery, sustainability, and eventual growth," the Transport Minister added.

"Since last March we made the conscious decision to keep our airport open to support freight and logistics during the pandemic which also saw delivery of much needed PPE for the NHS in Wales.

"The Board and management team at CIAL have been working hard to reduce costs as much as possible and generate new sources of revenue.

"Cardiff Airport have put most of their staff on the UK Government's furlough scheme in order to provide maximum cost savings to the business."