Bristol (BRS) - General Thread

[TheLocalYokel]

Calibrator aircraft?

I was out walking today and when eating my lunch in Wrington rec at lunchtime I noticed some easyJet aircraft taking what seemed to me some odd routings into BRS where 09 was the active runway as I'd earlier been aware of inbounds to 09 earlier in the morning when at Goblin Combe.

By the time I reached the airport vicinity (Felton Common) an hour or so later 09 was still the active runway but I noticed a small aircraft doing low level passes on 27. Was this a calibrator aircraft?

Whilst watching I noticed two inbound aircraft (Thomson and Ryanair - a few minutes apart) from a south westerly direction more or less overflying the airport before heading in the general direction of Bristol. I watched them and they then turned to the west. I assumed they were doing a left hand circuit and a few minutes later both aircraft landed on 09.

If the small aircraft was a calibrator presumably the inbound commercial aircraft were routed thus to steer well clear of it. Can anyone confirm it was the calibrator?

 

[superking]

I cant confirm it was calibration aircraft.one thing I did notice that aer lingus did a right hand circuit to 09 then broke off and did left hand circuit and continued on the ils. I thought the runway changed and traffic that was close did a few strange routings.

 

[Jerry]

Calibrator aircraft?

What is a calibration aircraft? Is it something to do with the ILS?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

What is a calibration aircraft? Is it something to do with the ILS?

Yes. I'm certainly no expert but this link gives a basic guide. The third paragraph is the relevant bit.

http://www.newfoxy.com/2016/05/25/watch-instrument-landing-system/

 

[Jerry]

h

Yes. I'm certainly no expert but this link gives a basic guide. The third paragraph is the relevant bit.

http://www.newfoxy.com/2016/05/25/watch-instrument-landing-system/

Thanks really informative!

 

[kraktoa]

I counted 78 international flights due today, the last sunday in August. From 00:01 to 23:59.

How does this compare to previous years at Bristol and this year for Cardiff (today).

Is there any forecasts on how the last sunday in November will compare to today for international arrivals. Is it likely to halve?

 

[Jerry]

15 international departures from CWL today and 3 domestic. 17 and 5 tomorrow.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I counted 78 international flights due today, the last sunday in August. From 00:01 to 23:59.

How does this compare to previous years at Bristol and this year for Cardiff (today).

Is there any forecasts on how the last sunday in November will compare to today for international arrivals. Is it likely to halve?

Looking at the BRS departure boards I make it 80 international departures today although the evening Nice appears to have been cancelled, plus 16 domestic - 96 in total. Arrivals were respectively, 88 and 16 - 104 in total.

I can't find last years's November Mayfly but early December last year Sundays saw 51 international departures and 16 domestic - 67 in total.

In 2015 August was the busiest month (as it always is) with 776,404 passengers and November saw 412,084. The quietest month is January which in 2015 saw 361,143 passengers, although January this year had a big leap to 408,154. No doubt this coming November will see an increase on last year's 412,084.

 

[Jerry]

80 international departures

Definitely shows the vast difference between the 2 airports! Or maybe the difference between having 2 low cost carriers based there and having none.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Definitely shows the vast difference between the 2 airports! Or maybe the difference between having 2 low cost carriers based there and having none.

It's really down to the size and economic strength of the respective catchments. It also has to be remembered that BRS is doing all this with a postage stamp sized airport, a number of physical and natural (weather) disadvantages and a site that is difficult to reach by road. Imagine what it would be like if it was better situated, larger and with no weather problems.

BRS handled 2.124 million passengers in 2000 with the only low cost airline being Ryanair to Dublin, which also served CWL from DUB at that time. CWL had its best year in 2007 when 2.094 million people used the airport but bmi baby was at its zenith then.

Barbara Cassani, the CEO of Go, said in her book, go an airline adventure, that when the airline (then owned by BA) was looking for a second base to complement Stansted they used a consultant (in order to keep the identity of the airline secret) to embark on a Europe-wide trawl of airports. They eventually drew up a short list of East Midlands, Newcastle, Edinburgh/Glasgow and Bristol.

She recognised that the BRS catchment included the wealthy and populous Thames Valley corridor, and the West Country was (still is) full of well-off older people with time to spare. Add in the booming economy of the Bristol region (then in 2001, and now) and Go decided on BRS. When easyJet later bought Go it didn't take them long to get the same message as Cassani and her team and they've been growing ever since, the recession hiatus apart.

 

[kraktoa]

i was talking about arrivals today. But assuming whatever goes out comes back in......so same difference i guess. So a reduction from 80 flights to 50 (give or take) from Aug to Dec.

I was expecting it to be more of a reduction.

As an airport worker i will be glad when this summer is over. High passenger numbers is hard work.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

i was talking about arrivals today. But assuming whatever goes out comes back in......so same difference i guess. So a reduction from 80 flights to 50 (give or take) from Aug to Dec.

I was expecting it to be more of a reduction.

As an airport worker i will be glad when this summer is over. High passenger numbers is hard work.

BRS website boards today show 88 international arrivals and 16 domestic arrivals; 80 international departures and 16 domestic departures.

The international discrepancy is down to many flights that went out on Saturday evening returning after midnight on Sunday in the early hours of the morning (scheduled to do so), but the domestic should be the same both ways as they all go out and come back during the same calendar day 24-hour period.

 

[CraigW92]

It's really down to the size and economic strength of the respective catchments. It also has to be remembered that BRS is doing all this with a postage stamp sized airport, a number of physical and natural (weather) disadvantages and a site that is difficult to reach by road. Imagine what it would be like if it was better situated, larger and with no weather problems.

BRS handled 2.124 million passengers in 2000 with the only low cost airline being Ryanair to Dublin, which also served CWL from DUB at that time. CWL had its best year in 2007 when 2.094 million people used the airport but bmi baby was at its zenith then.

Barbara Cassani, the CEO of Go, said in her book, go an airline adventure, that when the airline (then owned by BA) was looking for a second base to complement Stansted they used a consultant (in order to keep the identity of the airline secret) to embark on a Europe-wide trawl of airports. They eventually drew up a short list of East Midlands, Newcastle, Edinburgh/Glasgow and Bristol.

She recognised that the BRS catchment included the wealthy and populous Thames Valley corridor, and the West Country was (still is) full of well-off older people with time to spare. Add in the booming economy of the Bristol region (then in 2001, and now) and Go decided on BRS. When easyJet later bought Go it didn't take them long to get the same message as Cassani and her team and they've been growing ever since, the recession hiatus apart.

It's been an interesting look with the GO and Easyjet merge, I think it's been documented that CWL were trying to court Easyjet back before the merge actually ( with EZY already interested in BRS itself ) but of course with the the already established GO base it was much easier to just pick up and consolidate and strengthen there, and really from that point as local as pointed has gone from strength to strength, with a quite extensive destination portfolio and offers a very good product.

Although I no longer think that the two airports can be compared, FR and particular EZY have been in simple terms killing CWL for years, the demise of baby had a helping hand of course, although has Local has pointed out the two catchments are extremely different and also flying patterns on top of this differ, significant investment in the Welsh Valleys and in the South Wales region will help CWL in the longer term.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/how-rival-cities-cardiff-bristol-10864640

Interesting comparison of the two cities published a few months ago. The article seems to have restricted itself to the municipal boundaries which can be misleading.

Because of (mainly) local political squabbles - in which national governments of all political colours have not seriously embroiled themselves to sort out - the Bristol municipal boundary has not expanded since the early 1960s. Until then it would regularly expand into what was then Gloucestershire and Somerset as the urban area grew outwards. In the last 50 years the urban sprawl has burgeoned, mainly into the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire (Filton, Patchway, Staple Hill, Kingswood, Hanham etc) with the result that there is another physical 'city' joined to municipal Bristol (you can't see the join) which, with bits of North Somerset and Bath & North East Somerset unitary authorities, gives an unbroken urban area with a population approaching 700,000.

Cardiff City region includes the economically vibrant Vale of Glamorgan, as well as the city itself. I prefer the EU system of Larger Urban Zones that ignores local or municipal boundaries, which are often artificial anyway, and concentrates on the reality of an economic urban area even though it may not be completely unbroken so Cardiff, for example, would include places such as Barry and Newport, and Bristol Weston-super-Mare (this town is seeing a lot of development) and, say it quietly so as not to upset Bathonians, Bath.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Following some debate in another forum about BRS's capacity to cope with ever increasing aircraft movements and passenger numbers, my alter ego posted the below this evening.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've looked at tomorrow which is fairly typical of most days this summer especially since mid June. The departure pattern illustrates clearly the disproportionality of the clutch of early departures which seems to give rise to most complaints of terminal overcrowding.

Mn-0529 nil

0530-0759 27 first departure 0530

0800-0959 7

1000-1159 8

1200-1359 17

1400-1559 11

1600-1759 17

1800-1959 12

2000-2159 4 last departure 2120

Total 103

75 of these departures feature aircraft with between 156 and 223 passenger seats. There are also half a dozen Airbus and BAE corporate shuttle departures (and arrivals) but they operate from the South Side apron and passengers use the Bristol Flying Centre lounge. I've not included them in these lists.

By contrast, tomorrow's arrivals seem more evenly spread throughout the 24-hour period, although there is not always an even spread within each two-hour segment which is probably why complaints do arise at times about delays in baggage retrieval and immigration formalities.

Mn-0559 6

0600-0759 3

0800-0959 7

1000-1159 13

1200-1359 12

1400-1559 13

1600-1759 13

1800-1959 11

2000-2159 10

2200-2359 12

Total 100

I suppose that BRS is not that different from many smaller regional airports in having these peaks and troughs, although the fact that it's one of the bigger smaller airports (in terms of passenger numbers) probably throws the situation into sharper focus.

 

[kraktoa]

Possible french ATC strike on 15th Sep.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Possible french ATC strike on 15th Sep.

About time. We haven't had one for a couple of months. Are they losing their touch?

The French ATC industrial action seems to have been a feature of aviation life for several years. The controllers must be well paid if they can afford to lose so much money by withdrawing their labour.

In the 1970s Britain was laughingly called The Sick Man of Europe by the rest of Europe because there were so many strikes in the country. These days I guess it would have to be The Sick Person of Europe.

With the French though we seem to accept it as part of their culture, shake our heads and try to get on with life.

 

[kraktoa]

Flying back from Bordeaux tomorrow to BRS. Hope flight does not get canx. I will accept a delay.

I see Ryanair have already canx a few french flights to BRS. Do they put pax up in hotels?

What does EZY do these days for french ATC strike cancellations?

 

[Brum X]

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Very rural isn't it? Glorious views of the Severn estuary, South Wales including Cardiff and Newport, the Quantock Hills and edge of Exmoor, plus the Mendip Hills much closer across the broad Wrington Vale, all from the western end of the field from where this video was taken - provided the notorious BRS mist and fog doesn't intervene.

What you cannot see from anywhere on the airfield, with the possible exception of the top of the control tower, is the city of Bristol itself.