Bristol: General Airport News, Updates & Discussion

[TheLocalYokel]

I saw one of the Bristol Airport car park shuttle buses today bearing a large advertisement for the new Hampton by Hilton Hotel that opened at the airport in February this year. The advert stated that the hotel was 'coming soon'. Not very professional of someone to leave an out-of-date advertisement on one of the airport's own buses.

 

[Jono577]

Had a quick drive through today just to see how things had moved on, I did note that the car park for the new hotel did seem very empty! only about ten cars in it, The Holiday inn seemed to be as busy as ever when i was passing. Did note some other works in the car park looked like drainage works may be.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

I don't think the hotel offers long term parking, so those staying may be parked in the Airports car park. It does say on Hampton website that car parking is 'managed by Airport'

 

[andrewgreen]

I stayed in the Hampton a week after it opened , it made things very easy for an early departure . The bit of car park outside the hotel is very expensive compared to the airport long stay ( which is just as close )
On trying to book again for early June I found it was fully booked ! So it cant be doing that badly

 

[forest1979]

As mentioned about a month ago, Bristol airport is the feature of this months 'airports of the world' publication. Its quite a detailed look at the airport from it's humble beginnings through to the present day. Its worth a read for anyone who is interested in all things BRS airport. The main piece is an interview with the Robert Sinclair CEO.. I have picked up some points of interest from his interview with the magazine.

1. He make specific comment to the significant rise in traffic following the crash in 2008. He correctly points out that Bristol is the only top 10 airport in the UK to have growth every year since then. He puts this down to two things in the main.. Bristol and the southwest catchment area and the airport strategy to focus on the 'premier league' of airlines, the top tier in each sector
2. He makes clear that it is the airports preference to work hard with its existing airline partners and only add new airlines to the mix when it makes sense (I assume here capacity requirements and customer demand) He singles out the support of airlines like EZY, Ryanair, Thomson and Thomas Cook who have remained following the down turn in 08
3. He is very clear that adding new airlines should not be at the expense of a free for all where it leads to overcapacity and unsustainable business models for airline partners. He does go onto to say that are always looking at assessing new routes but the current strategy works for the airport
4. All the work over the years is now starting to come together and the airport is getting recognition... he notes the comments from Chris Grayling on a visit to the airport that he had no idea of the vast route network and size and scale of the airport... proof of the long term plan coming together
5. On the question of passenger pull and competition, he notes that he doesn't see CWL, EXT, BOH and NQY as competitors,. The competition is LHR and the leakage to the London airports. He believes a similar number to the annual passenger numbers of Bristol travel up the M4 each year to London based airports. 54% of that short hall flights and around 40% to destinations that BRS serves. There are a number of variable factors for this cited but it is clear that that's where he wants to focus attentions and equally focus the minds of local and national government to enhance the road and rail networks to help with this
6. He answers a specific question on CWL.. He recognises hey are a threat but not major competition (obviously this came before the Qatar announcement) He says he has a good working relationship with the welsh authorities. As far as he see's it, people do not recognise national boarders and will go where the flights are and where it makes financial sense to do so. He comments that BRS is easily accessible for south wales and CWL too suffer the same issues getting to the airport.
7. On the mix of airlines, in brief he agrees they have that. Obviously EZY is noted. he says its the airports intention to have a vast global network with full service airlines via European hubs.
8. The loss of United, then Continental, was a big blow to the airport (we all know the storey behind this) He says the airport remain in dialogue with them and he is confident of restoring a direct link to the US when the time is right... Brexit doesn't help that situation and without it he believes it might have been in place before the end of next year. For now they are happy with WOW. He goes on to talk about new aircraft that will help the airports case like the 737 max and A321LR. He states that the airport is 787 ready and capable and plans a foot for A350 capability (not sure what needs to happen for that) for the those reasons there is no requirement to extend the runway
9. Finally, as a wish list for the airport, he says he has one and that the main ones are high profile long haul routes but they will be the icing on the cake for them. They are continuing to focus on expansion with TUI, WOW flights and connections via Euro hubs and direct service to New York. In terms of the middle east, they have aspirations but recognise they are limited by the runway for the likes of a 777. Turkish and Qatar are noted (the latter clearly now not an option) as maybe a good fit. He see's BRS and the Southwest as the biggest un served market for the US and ME. He also mentions Swiss and Zurich, SAS and the scandy region and BA city flyer... Guess they are hoping for good things in the summer.

He finishes off by saying he believes the airport has done well and is in a good position to weather any future downturn for things like Brexit.

It was a good piece I thoughts and a lot of things in the interview to firm up on what we all speculate on... My take in brief is this..

TUI Expansion has been seen for S18.. They will push for a few more LH routes with them. Swiss the next new airline in, no NYC or ME link anytime soon, EZY will continue to dominate everything and the airport are happy with that.

When you look at the whole picture, BRS has done well with what it has. It has far more logistical challenges than most airports to overcome but somehow finds a way.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As mentioned about a month ago, Bristol airport is the feature of this months 'airports of the world' publication. Its quite a detailed look at the airport from it's humble beginnings through to the present day. Its worth a read for anyone who is interested in all things BRS airport. The main piece is an interview with the Robert Sinclair CEO.. I have picked up some points of interest from his interview with the magazine.

Great post, forest. I'll take more time to digest it and perhaps respond to some of the matters raised.

 

[vickersviscount]

Saw this post via the Bristol Airport Twitter site. Insider Media Ltd reporting that turnover in the period ending 31st December 2016 has risen to 89.9 million.With profits of 35.9 million.Should ease the disappointment of the Qatar news

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As mentioned about a month ago, Bristol airport is the feature of this months 'airports of the world' publication. Its quite a detailed look at the airport from it's humble beginnings through to the present day. Its worth a read for anyone who is interested in all things BRS airport. The main piece is an interview with the Robert Sinclair CEO.. I have picked up some points of interest from his interview with the magazine.

1. He make specific comment to the significant rise in traffic following the crash in 2008. He correctly points out that Bristol is the only top 10 airport in the UK to have growth every year since then. He puts this down to two things in the main.. Bristol and the southwest catchment area and the airport strategy to focus on the 'premier league' of airlines, the top tier in each sector
2. He makes clear that it is the airports preference to work hard with its existing airline partners and only add new airlines to the mix when it makes sense (I assume here capacity requirements and customer demand) He singles out the support of airlines like EZY, Ryanair, Thomson and Thomas Cook who have remained following the down turn in 08
3. He is very clear that adding new airlines should not be at the expense of a free for all where it leads to overcapacity and unsustainable business models for airline partners. He does go onto to say that are always looking at assessing new routes but the current strategy works for the airport
4. All the work over the years is now starting to come together and the airport is getting recognition... he notes the comments from Chris Grayling on a visit to the airport that he had no idea of the vast route network and size and scale of the airport... proof of the long term plan coming together
5. On the question of passenger pull and competition, he notes that he doesn't see CWL, EXT, BOH and NQY as competitors,. The competition is LHR and the leakage to the London airports. He believes a similar number to the annual passenger numbers of Bristol travel up the M4 each year to London based airports. 54% of that short hall flights and around 40% to destinations that BRS serves. There are a number of variable factors for this cited but it is clear that that's where he wants to focus attentions and equally focus the minds of local and national government to enhance the road and rail networks to help with this
6. He answers a specific question on CWL.. He recognises hey are a threat but not major competition (obviously this came before the Qatar announcement) He says he has a good working relationship with the welsh authorities. As far as he see's it, people do not recognise national boarders and will go where the flights are and where it makes financial sense to do so. He comments that BRS is easily accessible for south wales and CWL too suffer the same issues getting to the airport.
7. On the mix of airlines, in brief he agrees they have that. Obviously EZY is noted. he says its the airports intention to have a vast global network with full service airlines via European hubs.
8. The loss of United, then Continental, was a big blow to the airport (we all know the storey behind this) He says the airport remain in dialogue with them and he is confident of restoring a direct link to the US when the time is right... Brexit doesn't help that situation and without it he believes it might have been in place before the end of next year. For now they are happy with WOW. He goes on to talk about new aircraft that will help the airports case like the 737 max and A321LR. He states that the airport is 787 ready and capable and plans a foot for A350 capability (not sure what needs to happen for that) for the those reasons there is no requirement to extend the runway
9. Finally, as a wish list for the airport, he says he has one and that the main ones are high profile long haul routes but they will be the icing on the cake for them. They are continuing to focus on expansion with TUI, WOW flights and connections via Euro hubs and direct service to New York. In terms of the middle east, they have aspirations but recognise they are limited by the runway for the likes of a 777. Turkish and Qatar are noted (the latter clearly now not an option) as maybe a good fit. He see's BRS and the Southwest as the biggest un served market for the US and ME. He also mentions Swiss and Zurich, SAS and the scandy region and BA city flyer... Guess they are hoping for good things in the summer.

He finishes off by saying he believes the airport has done well and is in a good position to weather any future downturn for things like Brexit.

It was a good piece I thoughts and a lot of things in the interview to firm up on what we all speculate on... My take in brief is this..

TUI Expansion has been seen for S18.. They will push for a few more LH routes with them. Swiss the next new airline in, no NYC or ME link anytime soon, EZY will continue to dominate everything and the airport are happy with that.

When you look at the whole picture, BRS has done well with what it has. It has far more logistical challenges than most airports to overcome but somehow finds a way.

It certainly looks as though long haul scheduled flights are not going to materialise as you point out, forest. BRS will have to redouble its efforts to achieve additional and more flexible hub operations. The Qatar/CWL news has put a different slant on things. I wonder when the interview with Robert Sinclair took place. It would have been a little while before the article was published. I suspect that BRS knew they were not getting Qatar at least a few weeks before the CWL news was announced, so if his interview occurred before that it seems his comments were made with the airport still hoping (expecting?) that Qatar would pitch up at Lulsgate.

I'm not surprised that the airport is putting its emphasis on growing its existing airlines rather than looking for more of a similar nature that would dilute the incumbent market. It's a tricky situation though. On the one hand easyJet is continuing to grow and the airport doesn't want to risk upsetting that; equally it cannot afford for one airline to be too dominant and easyJet has already reached that point. Relying too heavily on a single customer is never a clever thing to do in any business, for obvious reasons.

The other thing about easyJet, and Ryanair to a lesser degree, is that it's great for fare prices and for airport passenger throughput numbers, but they don't operate code shares or any connectivity. This means that smaller airlines that might do this find that they cannot compete against these major lo cos because they dominate the point to point sectors which that smaller airline would still need a share of. bmi regional does compete with easyJet to Paris Cdg but doesn't offer any code shares or connectivity at CDG so far as I'm aware.

I have it on good authority that when Helvetic was operating Bristol-Zurich three times a week the airport was trying to persuade them to increase to six times a week as this would apparently have allowed them to connect into Swiss's long-haul network from Zurich. easyJet operates Geneva and Basel but Zurich is ignored. So there might be an opportunity there.

 

[kraktoa]

Anyone have a ball park figure for average daily international arrivals mid summer?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Anyone have a ball park figure for average daily international arrivals mid summer?

It obviously varies a bit according to the day of the week but around 70-75 per 24-hour day in July would be about right.

I haven't included any Republic of Ireland, Channel Islands nor UK of course in this estimate. Overall arrivals/and departures can rise to around 105, occasionally a few more in mid summer on some days. That's scheduled and charter airlines only, not anything else such as the Airbus and BAE shuttles or bizjets.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As mentioned about a month ago, Bristol airport is the feature of this months 'airports of the world' publication. Its quite a detailed look at the airport from it's humble beginnings through to the present day. Its worth a read for anyone who is interested in all things BRS airport. The main piece is an interview with the Robert Sinclair CEO.. I have picked up some points of interest from his interview with the magazine.

1. He make specific comment to the significant rise in traffic following the crash in 2008. He correctly points out that Bristol is the only top 10 airport in the UK to have growth every year since then. He puts this down to two things in the main.. Bristol and the southwest catchment area and the airport strategy to focus on the 'premier league' of airlines, the top tier in each sector
2. He makes clear that it is the airports preference to work hard with its existing airline partners and only add new airlines to the mix when it makes sense (I assume here capacity requirements and customer demand) He singles out the support of airlines like EZY, Ryanair, Thomson and Thomas Cook who have remained following the down turn in 08
3. He is very clear that adding new airlines should not be at the expense of a free for all where it leads to overcapacity and unsustainable business models for airline partners. He does go onto to say that are always looking at assessing new routes but the current strategy works for the airport
4. All the work over the years is now starting to come together and the airport is getting recognition... he notes the comments from Chris Grayling on a visit to the airport that he had no idea of the vast route network and size and scale of the airport... proof of the long term plan coming together
5. On the question of passenger pull and competition, he notes that he doesn't see CWL, EXT, BOH and NQY as competitors,. The competition is LHR and the leakage to the London airports. He believes a similar number to the annual passenger numbers of Bristol travel up the M4 each year to London based airports. 54% of that short hall flights and around 40% to destinations that BRS serves. There are a number of variable factors for this cited but it is clear that that's where he wants to focus attentions and equally focus the minds of local and national government to enhance the road and rail networks to help with this
6. He answers a specific question on CWL.. He recognises hey are a threat but not major competition (obviously this came before the Qatar announcement) He says he has a good working relationship with the welsh authorities. As far as he see's it, people do not recognise national boarders and will go where the flights are and where it makes financial sense to do so. He comments that BRS is easily accessible for south wales and CWL too suffer the same issues getting to the airport.
7. On the mix of airlines, in brief he agrees they have that. Obviously EZY is noted. he says its the airports intention to have a vast global network with full service airlines via European hubs.
8. The loss of United, then Continental, was a big blow to the airport (we all know the storey behind this) He says the airport remain in dialogue with them and he is confident of restoring a direct link to the US when the time is right... Brexit doesn't help that situation and without it he believes it might have been in place before the end of next year. For now they are happy with WOW. He goes on to talk about new aircraft that will help the airports case like the 737 max and A321LR. He states that the airport is 787 ready and capable and plans a foot for A350 capability (not sure what needs to happen for that) for the those reasons there is no requirement to extend the runway
9. Finally, as a wish list for the airport, he says he has one and that the main ones are high profile long haul routes but they will be the icing on the cake for them. They are continuing to focus on expansion with TUI, WOW flights and connections via Euro hubs and direct service to New York. In terms of the middle east, they have aspirations but recognise they are limited by the runway for the likes of a 777. Turkish and Qatar are noted (the latter clearly now not an option) as maybe a good fit. He see's BRS and the Southwest as the biggest un served market for the US and ME. He also mentions Swiss and Zurich, SAS and the scandy region and BA city flyer... Guess they are hoping for good things in the summer.

He finishes off by saying he believes the airport has done well and is in a good position to weather any future downturn for things like Brexit.

It was a good piece I thoughts and a lot of things in the interview to firm up on what we all speculate on... My take in brief is this..

TUI Expansion has been seen for S18.. They will push for a few more LH routes with them. Swiss the next new airline in, no NYC or ME link anytime soon, EZY will continue to dominate everything and the airport are happy with that.

When you look at the whole picture, BRS has done well with what it has. It has far more logistical challenges than most airports to overcome but somehow finds a way.

I've read the magazine article today and yours is an excellent summary, forest. As an aside there are some magnificent glossy colour photographs going back to the Cambrian days and an aerial shot of the airport is stunning.

I'm now not quite sure what to make of the BRS CEO's comment about growing mainly by working with existing airline partners and not bringing in airlines for the sake of it if it leads to over-capacity. Whether he considers a small Jet2 or Monarch network would lead to that over-capacity is not clear. Incidentally, there is a current rumour on that fruity aviation message board about two Boeing 737s setting up at BRS next year.

He emphasises that the 7 million from the south west who currently use the London airports, mainly LHR, represent a continuing target but recognises that some will continue to do so even when there are flights to BRS to the same destinations. He cites several reasons from airline loyalty programmes to not serving a destination from BRS on particular days. He is speaking of short haul routes because LHR can never be replicated from BRS to the smallest degree when it comes to long haul.

I note that he was asked about the current 10 mppa cap set by the planning consents. From his comment about speaking to the local authorities, the community, business organisations and stakeholder later this year regarding how the airport can be taken forward I assume that they have in mind an attempt to raise the 10 mppa limit. I would have expected nothing less. The airport cannot stagnate at 10 mppa although its growth is finite. It will have to stop growing at some stage because of the size limitations of the site, although I suppose that if cost, environmental considerations and land ownership were discounted (such an unlikely scenario as to be really only a theoretical hypothesis) an airport at Lulsgate could spread itself a considerable distance. There might even be a 3,000+ metre runway if Felton Common was grabbed at one end and a Funchal-type extension at the other. Whilst the imagination runs riot rail connectivity could be achieved via a heavily engineered line.

Returning to reality, somewhere between 12 and 15 mppa would probably be the absolute maximum the site could handle.

This week in another BRS thread I posted a copy of the master plan section on utilising the south side once 9 mppa was exceeded, which would involve a second terminal and southern full length parallel taxiway. That was the position in 2006 when the master plan was published. Subsequent developments have increased the north side's capacity. I found the CEO's comment on this fascinating as it appears to represent a change in strategy. He told the magazine that there 'might' be some further works on the south side 'but the long term commercial development will remain to the north'. That suggests that the north side will now handle all the commercial traffic right up to the time the airport becomes 'maxed out'.

Finally the CEO believes that if there is a slowdown because of Brexit the airport will be in a good position to deal with it because of the strength of the carrier base and the catchment. BRS was less affected by the 'noughties' major recession than most UK airports.

 

[superking]

60 years tomorrow the first passenger flight from lulsgate. Celebrations tomorrow at the airport with a vintage plane flying in.

 

[vickersviscount]

reference the 60 year anniversary of Lulsgate airport.
Todays Evening Post has a eight page spread in the Bristol Times section with some photos of the AirportI haven't seen before.B.B.C Radio Bristol are broadcasting their Breakfast program from the Airport tomorrow and I believe B.B.C Points West are doing a piece on the anniversary.
You might say it's preaching to the converted but as Y.L has often stated the Airport doesn't tend to get much local media coverage apart from when there is criticism.

 

[Ornsack]

Few bits and bobs to mark the 60th anniversary in the local media. Here's a little retrospective video from the BBC - https://t.co/YgnxfEhzMy

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Radio Bristol has certainly given the 60th anniversary of the opening of the airport at Lulsgate a lot of coverage today. Apart from various interviews in the morning news magazine programme the 3-hour mid-morning programme is currently coming live from the airport.

The arrival of the DC3 was covered live followed by an interview with an easyJet senior representative who was at the airport. One of their aircraft is to be named Spirit of Bristol and she said that they hope to announce some new routes within the next few weeks.

A debate also centred around the airport's plans to eventually reach 15 mppa with Simon Calder (who else?) believing that without substantial surface access improvements this will be all but impossible to achieve.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/business/bristol-airport-marks-60th-anniversary-43365

This linked article contains an imbedded picture of the DC3 that visited BRS today parked near the easyJet A319 newly named Spirit of Bristol.

 

[kraktoa]

Who enforces speeding fines on the road in front of the terminal. Police or the airport? Also can the airport as a landowner impose a parking fine using its car park CCTV?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Who enforces speeding fines on the road in front of the terminal. Police or the airport? Also can the airport as a landowner impose a parking fine using its car park CCTV?

Speed limits are set by the Highways Agency on motorways and on trunk roads, with local authorities setting them on all other public roads.

They can't just stick up speed limit signs. There are legal procedures that must be followed and guidance from the DfT has to be taken into account.

As the airport is a private road I don't think that the local authority would be able to set enforceable speed limits there. There might be an airport byelaw that allows speed limits to be set by the airport itself but breach of them would be a breach of a byelaw, not the breach of a Road Traffic Act speed limit that could lead to points on a driving licence or disqualification.

The airport roadways have those red/pink double yellow lines that seem to be monitored by automatic number plate recognition cameras. Like the airport car park any breach would likely be enforced by the airport or a company working on its behalf as a civil charge.

It's much like those local authority areas where councils have taken over the enforcement of double yellow line breaches etc on roads in their areas They do so under the civil law and can keep the money raised from offenders. Strictly they aren't fines but civil debts. In council areas where the police still enforce double yellow lines etc it's done under the criminal law and breaches are punished by fines. The local police don't keep the fine money though; it goes into the government exchequer like any other court fines or fixed penalty notices issued under the criminal law.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Saw this post via the Bristol Airport Twitter site. Insider Media Ltd reporting that turnover in the period ending 31st December 2016 has risen to 89.9 million.With profits of 35.9 million.Should ease the disappointment of the Qatar news

I find it amusing that there have been one or two snide comments on more than one aviation message board (not on F4A) about the profits going to to a Canadian pension fund. That's true but the overseas owners of BRS, including OTPP, have invested over £200 million directly into the West Country economy, plus countless other millions indirectly to all the companies and individuals whose work is related to the presence of a successful regional airport, and who are able to exist successfully themselves and provide employment and boost the local economy.

It's what overseas investment is all about. Organisations don't invest in the UK out of a sense of altruism; they do so because they think it will benefit them as well.

Yet at least two of the posters who made these comments have waxed lyrical at the prospect of the the new Qatar CWL service bringing Qatari investment into Wales. Do they think that the Qataris are charities looking to dispense largesse? Of course they aren't. They will be looking to make money from any investment they make in the country which hopefully will also benefit Wales. It would be a win:win situation for both parties as it is with the BRS owners and the local economy there.

 

[Seasider]

It amazes me how many people do not realise that Airlines are in business to make money. Some of the wish lists that appear on forums do not bear any resemblance to feasible operations.