Bristol Airport - General Thread

[kraktoa]

As an ex employee of ICTS its very easy for me to see how and why so many people leave, me myself only staying just under 6 months

From speaking to staff its mainly horrendous shift timings isnt it. And crap money for crazy start times. Its easier to find a job elsewhere for same money with normal shift times.

iCTS staff were allowed to park until recently at the staff car park at the old terminal. They have now been moved to the Silver Zone whereby they have to wait for silver zone buses. Adding another 15 mins to their journey times. Inexcusable.

 

[Jake]

There's a huge staff problem at the moment to do with parking as silverzone is close to full capacity and the majority of staff parking over there too. As for ICTS as you said early starts and late finishes for £7.50 an hour isn't worth the hassle for most people.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Slightly off topic but obviously relevant given the comments of Jake and kraktoa, there may be more pressure on car parking spaces from 1 July as the local authorities have decreed that pensioner bus passes will no longer be valid on the Flyer and A4 Air Decker for journeys to and from the airport - I'm not sure about the A2 North Somerset Link bus.

Given the high fares on these services (although the Air Decker is to offer a reduced fare for pensioner bus pass holders) I can see some pensioners using their cars in future when previously they would have used the bus.

Back to the main point, it's a job to see how sufficient workers can be attracted to this security work given the low pay coupled with the extremely unsocial working hours. Is there not even additional pay for shift working?

 

[Jake]

Nope it's a rate of £7.45 an hour for your first 6 months then it goes up to 7.85 after that no matter what time or day you're working

 

[kraktoa]

Plus i believe sly practices like introducing secret shoppers carrying prohibited items. Or a image added to the x ray screen showing a hidden knife to see if the operator detects it. Miss it and you get the sack.

 

[Jake]

Never heard of someone getting the sack for missing them but there's a lot of re training and stuff like that to do

 

[TheLocalYokel]

More complaints about security queues on BRS Twitter. The airport responded thus to one disgruntled tweet:

We will be opening a new Security Search area in the next couple of months, much bigger with more lanes

The tweeter was not convinced and came back with:

bigger area only means queues will move upstairs. Are more security staff being hired to clear the queues. Simples!

Clearly someone who isn't fooled and recognises the inherent problem.

 

[tpm]

So when it's super-busy like that not all existing lanes are actually open and in use?

That doesn't match my personal experience as a pax, but I don't work at the airport, so don't know how representative my experience is.

 

[kraktoa]

All lanes lead to a metal detector through which a passenger has to pass through. Alongside the detector is the conveyor belt through which the personal belongings pass through an x ray machine. This is standard for all airports.

At Bristol there are i think 8 such metal detectors. Therefore 8 or so lanes leading to the 8 detectors. I have never seen 8 detectors used at the same time. Max i have seen is 6. But if staff are leaving in droves how can they man them.

For eg. Tomorrow there are 27 departures between 6 and 7:30 am. The Airport could never manage 27 flights in 1.5 hrs.

 

[kraktoa]

BRistol getting a pasting again today on twitter. Long waits again to clear security checks. Happens in the mornng rush hour between 06:00 - 08:00. One tweet mentions police called to keep order.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

BRistol getting a pasting again today on twitter. Long waits again to clear security checks. Happens in the mornng rush hour between 06:00 - 08:00. One tweet mentions police called to keep order.

I note that the airport stated they were fully staffed in security today in response to one irate tweeter.

Looking at last year's Mayflies the morning rush then didn't seem much less busy than this year. For example, there were 29 departures this morning between 0600 and 0800 and 26 on the Wednesday of the corresponding week in 2015. The comparison for the remainder of the the respective weeks in 2015 and 2016 is broadly similar.

I've not included the Airbus and BAE corporate shuttles as they don't impact on the main terminal operating as they do from the south side of the airfield.

I can't remember a sustained major complaint about queuing last year - there were some complaints at certain times reading Twitter and the local press then, but nothing like the weight of complaints this year.

So despite the airport's assertion about being fully staffed people will wonder why the situation has descended into the chaotic shambles described in Twitter and elsewhere.

The airport's stock answer lies in the salvation of the extended terminal due to open within the next two months. Time will tell whether it really is the panacea the airport seems to think.

I really think it's time for the airport CEO to make a statement about the grossly unsatisfactory situation and not just rely on promises to the future. That doesn't help people flying now. He is the number one man and the responsibility ultimately rests with him. It's partly what he's paid for.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Carrying on with the recent discussion about queues at security, a look at Friday's Mayfly, which is fairly typical of each day of the week, shows how unbalanced the situation is in terms of departing aircraft.

Taking two hour slots throughout Friday, this is the number of departures throughout the day:

Midnight-0529 nil
0530-0759 27
0800-0959 5
1000-1159 8
Midday-1359 23
1400-1559 5
1600-1759 18
1800-1959 11
2000-2159 7
2200-2359 nil
Total 104

Given that most of BRS's flights are operated by based aircraft it seems inevitable that the peaks and troughs will continue.

When Ryanair reduced its base from five to two aircraft a couple of summers ago following reported disagreements with the airport over various charges, it still maintained its schedule using aircraft from other bases. This had the effect of seven or eight aircraft coming in and departing within an hour or so of each other during the mid evening period when the airport is not so busy.

The airport is now back to five based Ryanair aircraft.

As in previous comparison posts, I've not included the Airbus and BAE corporate shuttles which use the south side.

 

[kraktoa]

A rumour was that the based airlines prefer those take off slots as they are the cheapest. Any merit in this rumour?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Possible ramifications of decision to leave EU

The airport put out a press statement today basically saying that the government should put a high priority on negotiating a continuation of the ‘open skies’ market that has brought such success to the UK and to Bristol Airport in particular. CEO Robert Sinclair is confident that, despite possible uncertainty in the short term following the result of the referendum, BRS will continue to prosper and today’s EU news will not affect the airport’s ‘exciting development plans’.

Clearly no-one knows how the Leave decision will affect airports or airlines in the medium term, as no-one knows how so many aspects of life in general will be affected.

I wouldn’t even try to even guess at this stage although, following a conversation I had at the airport today with a senior airport figure, it seems that a ME route is not imminent (apparently nothing to do with today’s EU decision), and there might also now be a question mark in the short term over a NYC scheduled service as any US airline contemplating such a route might step back to see how today’s referendum decision pans out. That would be a shame as the Welsh APD devolution decision appeared to clear the board for a BRS service if an airline was going to start one from Severnside.

 

[Ray Finkle]

The IATA has issued a preliminary report suggesting that

"the number of UK air passengers could be 3-5% lower by 2020, driven by the expected downturn in economic activity and the fall in the sterling exchange rate"

How they came to this conclusion after such a short period of time is anybody's guess. They go on to say

A big issue is with aviation regulation. The UK faces a trade-off between accessing the European Single Aviation Market and having the policy freedom to set its own regulations.

http://www.aviator.aero/press_releases/29601?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

[vickersviscount]

Further to the discussion on the airports ability to handle departing passenger capacity at peak times.I can give personal testimony to pressure at the airport with multiple arrivals late at night.I was on the Ryanair flight from Malaga last Tuesday.Initially we were told we would be direct routing to the airport and could expect to land at around about 23.10.Some time later the arrival time was put back to 23.25.We past over the coast south of Weston and flew parallel to the airport.From my window I could see three aircraft make their way down on to the runway and we made are turn back to the airport over Bath.Heading back towards the airport I noticed another aircraft flying the same track towards Bath.When we landed and taxied past the stands it was noticeable that there was a lot of ground crews waiting for their designated aircraft to land.The aircraft I was on parked up on the stand east of the terminal and when we entered the pier and made are way upstairs we quickly came to halt as terminal staff had to cordinate a flow of arriving passengers from both the east and west piers into the corridor to the stairs down to customs.Having said all that it was still only half and an hour between leaving the aircraft and walking out of the terminal so no complaints.But looking at the Mayfly there are twelve aircraft scheduled to land in less then an hour with approx two thousand passengers.Obviously any bunching of arrivals at that time of night can lead to queues at the bottle neck that is the link corridor from east and west piers to customs.When the new western extension opens it will be interesting to see if this bottleneck is alleviated.
Regards the withdraw of the bus pass on the Flyer bus my wife often uses the bus to get in to to town.She was talking to one of the drivers who told her that the subsidy paid is split between Bristol City Council and North Somerset Council. Bristol City Council will still pay but North Somerset will not,so you will still be able to use the flyer to travel from the centre to the top of Bedminster Down by the round about. But you will then have to get off or pay the full Flyer fare. You couldn't make it up!
P.S My Apologies for the length of the post.I don't tend to post much so had to get it all out.

 

[superking]

no problem with a long post. its always nice to hear different comments,and what you have said makes good reading on a few subjects.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Further to the discussion on the airports ability to handle departing passenger capacity at peak times.I can give personal testimony to pressure at the airport with multiple arrivals late at night.I was on the Ryanair flight from Malaga last Tuesday.Initially we were told we would be direct routing to the airport and could expect to land at around about 23.10.Some time later the arrival time was put back to 23.25.We past over the coast south of Weston and flew parallel to the airport.From my window I could see three aircraft make their way down on to the runway and we made are turn back to the airport over Bath.Heading back towards the airport I noticed another aircraft flying the same track towards Bath.When we landed and taxied past the stands it was noticeable that there was a lot of ground crews waiting for their designated aircraft to land.The aircraft I was on parked up on the stand east of the terminal and when we entered the pier and made are way upstairs we quickly came to halt as terminal staff had to cordinate a flow of arriving passengers from both the east and west piers into the corridor to the stairs down to customs.Having said all that it was still only half and an hour between leaving the aircraft and walking out of the terminal so no complaints.But looking at the Mayfly there are twelve aircraft scheduled to land in less then an hour with approx two thousand passengers.Obviously any bunching of arrivals at that time of night can lead to queues at the bottle neck that is the link corridor from east and west piers to customs.When the new western extension opens it will be interesting to see if this bottleneck is alleviated.
Regards the withdraw of the bus pass on the Flyer bus my wife often uses the bus to get in to to town.She was talking to one of the drivers who told her that the subsidy paid is split between Bristol City Council and North Somerset Council. Bristol City Council will still pay but North Somerset will not,so you will still be able to use the flyer to travel from the centre to the top of Bedminster Down by the round about. But you will then have to get off or pay the full Flyer fare. You couldn't make it up!
P.S My Apologies for the length of the post.I don't tend to post much so had to get it all out.

I'm pleased to hear that despite the multi arrivals in a relatively short space of time your passage through the airport was efficiently handled.

There doesn't seem much that can be done about this bunching given that easyJet and Ryanair between them have 18 aircraft based at BRS which means the final rotations of the day are always going to be arriving back as a late evening/early hours peak. At least bmi regional gets its aircraft home to bed a bit earlier most days although the five based charter aircraft also arrive back during the last peak of the day quite often.

I've been having a look at the DfT guidance to local authorities re the English Concessionary Bus Passes ('pensioners' bus passes') and it seems that local authorities cannot opt out of funding the travel on regular local bus services. I sometimes use the Flyer to get out into the country to do country walks (perversely, when we fly from the airport we either use a taxi or our car). I've always been surprised that these bus passes were allowed on the Flyer as it is essentially a private airport service operated by the airport albeit by First Bristol buses and drivers under contract to the airport.

The A4 Air Decker (which I also use for walking purposes on occasions) operated commercially by the Bath Bus Company between the airport and Bath via South Bristol is also having to stop accepting pensioners' bus passes from and to the airport because of North Somerset's decision. They can still be used on other sections of the journey. I've queried this with North Somerset Council as this council tells me that the A2 bus from Weston to the airport operated by First Somerset and Avon (with subsidy from North Somerset Council) will still permit the use of the bus passes.

The fact that the passes continue to be allowed on the A2 but not the A4 which are both public local bus services is inconsistent. I suspect that if anyone had the time, means and will to mount a judicial review the council might be found to have acted incorrectly but I doubt that anyone will go to those lengths.

 

[kraktoa]

In answer to the earlier question about the meeting up point of eastern and western walkways that creates a pinch point..... The western extension work is all landside. There is going to be no change to that pinch point which is airside.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Of possible relevance to BRS is the fact that this evening three of the four local authorities that make up the West of England, Greater Bristol or former County of Avon (call it what you will) have agreed to the current government's proposal for a West of England Metro area with a Metro mayor. The authorities are Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset. The fourth authority, North Somerset in whose area BRS stands, had already rejected the proposal fearing that too much of the money on offer would be sucked into Bristol.

Amongst the powers that would be devolved are those relating to transport which would potentially mean better public transport links to the airport, although if North Somerset stands apart that might put a block on that.

It's not absolutely clear whether the scheme could proceed with one of the authorities opting out and a new government might not proceed with the idea anyway.