Bristol (BRS) - General Thread

[big g]

I guess ready for S17.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

All very quiet at BRS at the moment.

The airport hasn't even got round to publishing the August passenger figures on its website. They usually appear by the middle of the following month at the latest.

I thought they might have made something of the fact that July saw 823,000 passengers; the first time that a month has seen over 800,000.

 

[Marko1]

It certainly seems very quiet at the moment doesn't it. You would have thought that they would be singing from the rooftops about passenger figures and there was barely a mention about the terminal extension opening. Maybe this is all to build up the suspense ready for a massive route announcement - say mutual with new routes with ezy and fr , a Middle East route a third tcx aircraft and a jet 2 base - well I can dream ...

 

[superking]

carry on dreaming. some do come true now and again.

 

[ezy_brs]

Hi all! I will still be posting on this forum just not as actively as I was a few months back as I have now a new daughter and time has just run away with me what with work and home life taking priority! So now we have all settled down to a routine I will hopefully (and I am being rather optimistic i feel!) be able to post more updates for everyone!

With regards to this thread now the bosses of BRS has just returned from Chengdu in China where the latest of the World Routes conference has just taken place. I expect an announcement over the next couple of months but personally I feel that if there is a major announcement, it will be another service to NYC again I feel over the Middle east. I could be wrong but I feel that the market isn't there from the southwest when you consider Aer Lingus and Wow market their flights with connections. I think a direct service would be very healthy competition and a route operated on United's 787 would be easy from BRS and very affordable. Aer Lingus also offer connections to the middle east and beyond but the connections to North America and Canada far exceed ones to the middle east in my experience.

The three new stands will start construction apparently the end of October, with completion ready for Summer 17. For those unsure of the location please see the attached file courtesy of Google Earth. The extension of the stands is shown with the red boarder. All stands will face North. The guy that lives in the house will get nice views in the mornings!!!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

On the day of the Brexit referendum announcement I happened to speak to a very senior member of the BRS management briefly and by chance - you can't really get more senior, no clues then - and asked him directly about NYC and ME. He told me that ME was not imminent but did not respond to the NYC point. The circumstances were such that I could not press him.

Three new stands seem very welcome and necessary.

Many congratulations on the arrival of your new daughter.

 

[forest1979]

Rumour has it in the telegraph that the massive cash injection to save monarch also includes an order for 45 Boeing 737's to be delivered as part of a fleet renewal from 2018. Great news as it's an airline with a long history and would be a shame to see it go (not sure how likely that was)
I'm posting on here as if the above is true and more planes are coming, I wonder if they might consider Bristol as a new base? There are a number of underserved and routes that are not served at all by easy and Ryanair that they could possibly tap into..
I thought I had read before that they had made a big Boeing 737 max order so not sure if the above is new or revised news...
Would be good to get some thoughts...

 

[Jerry]

There are a number of underserved and routes that are not served at all by easy and Ryanair that they could possibly tap into..
I thought I had read before that they had made a big Boeing 737 max order so not sure if the above is new or revised news...
Would be good to get some thoughts...

Though Monarch are changing to a LCC most of their routes are med routes which are mostly well served at BRS. Would be brave of them to take on Easyjet and Ryaniar. They'd probably have more success across the bridge.
It's seems strange to me for an airline that flies Airbus to completely change to Boeing? If the A321's are to big then why not change to A320 completely? Unless you wanted to make the airline attractive to a 737 airline?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A few years ago Monarch stated publicly that BRS was one of the airports they were looking at but that may have been before they changed their focus from being a holiday charter airline to a scheduled airline.

I suppose that Monarch is in the same position as Jet2 when it comes to BRS. It can be confidently assumed that the airport has spoken to Monarch and Jet2 but it really depends on any deal that can be made and whether Monarch (or Jet2) believes that, despite its undoubted prosperous leisure and business catchment (as well as secondary catchments) there is still a gap that they could fill at BRS.

I find the economics of running airports and airlines as arcane as those of football clubs. I've tried to get under the skin of the subject over many years but each time I think I'm getting somewhere something occurs that leaves me somewhat open-mouthed. I was very surprised that Wizz Air turned up so Monarch, Jet2? Who knows?..........I don't.

It would certainly be good to get another airline because, despite the fact that easyJet has had a major influence in turning BRS into what it is and I've been very grateful for their presence on many occasions, there is always a danger when relying too much on a single customer.

 

[Jerry]

A few years ago Monarch stated publicly that BRS was one of the airports they were looking at but that may have been before they changed their focus from being a holiday charter airline to a scheduled airline.

Didn't they try basing at EMA in 2014 and that failed? It could've given reticence to expand more. I think the old Monarch probably would've done well at BRS because they would've gone in as a holiday airline but is their room for another based LCC at BRS? And from what i can see Wizz are the only airline on 3 routes whereas Monarch would be going onto the main sun routes. I think it will be a while though before Monarch does any expanding. Will be interesting to see where they got the investment from.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Monarch has certainly featured prominently at BRS over the past 30-odd years but as a carrier for holiday companies and there was never a base.

I've got a lot of cine recording events at BRS (and other airports) over the past 40-odd years (all now on video) and one series of shots shows a Monarch Boeing 737-200 departing BRS for Ibiza on r/w 27 on a glorious summer's day in the early 80s. I saw my first Boeing 757 at BRS - a Monarch flight to Malaga that was a weekly event in 1984.

I've also flown to and from Salzburg from/to BRS a number of times in the 1990s, early 2000s on Monarch 757s when they carried for Thomson Lakes & Mountains.

Is there room for another based airline at BRS? As I posted in #713 I really can't forecast with any confidence what airports or airlines might do. I've been trying to for 30-40 years and still can't get anywhere near. Your guess is certainly as good as mine.

 

[Ornsack]

All very quiet at BRS at the moment.

I feel they've gone quiet on their social media too. Their Instagram went from posting near daily to every other month. They're either very busy or not at all!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I feel they've gone quiet on their social media too. Their Instagram went from posting near daily to every other month. They're either very busy or not at all!

I have no doubt that the 'routes team' is working very hard behind the scenes. It's enjoyed great success down the years and is extremely well led by someone who joined the airport over a quarter of a century ago and 'came up through the ranks'. There isn't much he doesn't know about the aviation scene in his patch and further afield.

I don't know if the apparent lower key approach is a deliberate change of policy or just a reflection of current times, but until a year or two ago BRS was prolific with news releases across the usual outlets. Perhaps there isn't so much high profile news to release at the moment. Since the arrival of Wizz and WOW and the expansion of easyJet with a lot of new routes (ditto Ryanair on a smaller scale), the only other 'big' routes news this year has been the TOM B 787 transatlantic announcement.

Lots of time, money and effort has no doubt been put into the almost continual infrastructure expansion of the past few years, which is still going on, and that has certainly been publicised.

Another point is that once or twice BRS was perhaps too open with, for example, a statement last year that a resumption of a NYC route was more or less certain for this year. It may be that they now keep shtum until something is definitely going ahead. I've heard no comment following the World Routes Conference last month; in previous years there has usually been an optimistic general press statement if nothing else.

It seems highly likely, although not yet announced, that easyJet will continue its based fleet expansion with an additional aircraft (number 14) next summer, so that ought to generate a new route or two and/or expansion of some existing routes.

It's obviously unrealistic to expect the non-stop new airline announcements, new route announcements and infrastructure announcements to continue unabated. Currently it seems that the airport is taking a breather.

Addendum (4.10.16)

There is a press release on the BRS website today regarding WOW's 10,000th passenger. I'll post it in the WOW thread.

 

[tpm]

Based on previous experience, the reinstatement of NYC should be imminent. BRS has a long history of announcing or starting new routes just after I had a need for them, most recently Vienna, Basel, Sofia, Frankfurt, Munich

 

[Aviador]

Hi all! I will still be posting on this forum just not as actively as I was a few months back as I have now a new daughter and time has just run away with me what with work and home life taking priority!

Congratulations ezy_brs !

 

[Jerry]

I have no doubt that the 'routes team' is working very hard behind the scenes

If you put any potential long haul routes aside then i'm only guessing but the more sucessful BRS is the more harder their job becomes? BRS has routes to most of the major sun destinations and the major cities of Europe. Most of the routes they'll be after i assume will be minor ones. I wonder if they may concentrate their efforts on the Nordic countries? Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki are missing and maybe the airport could attract Norwegian as well with them flying these routes. Be interesting to see what routes BRS gets next in the coming years.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

If you put any potential long haul routes aside then i'm only guessing but the more sucessful BRS is the more harder their job becomes?

Scandinavia is not well served apart from Copenhagen (easyJet) and Keflavik (easyJet and WOW), although Iceland isn't always regarded as being in Scandinavia.

SAS has served both Stockholm and Oslo from BRS as mainly short season (6-7 weeks) summer offerings (usually 2 x weekly) with the last being to Stockholm in summers 2014 and 2015. Load factors on the Boeing 737-600 were very good being in the very high 80s% for the duration of the service but for whatever reason SAS did not return this summer.

In 2007 and 2008 BRS had a short season summer route to Stockholm at 2 x weekly and a full summer season route to Oslo at 3 x weekly in 2008. Loads on both were very good but prior to the 2009 season SAS undertook a major downsizing which involved scrapping nearly half its routes, and BRS was amongst those that went.

Last year or early this year Ryanair said that they would be looking to add Scandinavian routes at BRS but Brexit has probably put paid to any ideas they may have had in this regard.

 

[Jerry]

Norwegian have bases at Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki. Could be a good way of getting Norwegian at the airport and 2 weekly to each destination.

 

[Marko1]

I would say there is probably a dozen or two European routes that could be developed from brs with notably Scandinavia and Eastern Europe ripe for development. However I think the future growth could be by adding frequencies and/ or capacity on key existing leisure or business routes. As for long haul I am quite sceptical given that Newcastle lost its New York route and Belfast is struggling to keep hold of its New York route even with 0 apd I can't see us getting New York back any time soon. However I would love to be proved very wrong ....

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I tend to agree about NYC although the NCL passenger figures each month were far worse than those on BRS-EWR, although as always we never know the yields.

With LHR little more than just up the road getting long haul scheduled routes will always be a challenge. Most West Country people rarely look beyond LHR when it comes to long haul scheduled; LGW to a much lesser degree and BHX sometimes.

Brexit seems to have scared the world witless and that's another obstacle to getting someone to operate to NYC. The pound v USD value won't help westbound transatlantic travel either, especially the leisure market.

I'm sure there are a number of short haul routes that could be tried and existing ones expanded in frequency as you point out. The yield caveat as always, but as examples look at the figures when Ryanair came on the Krakow against easyjet and Wizz challenged Ryanair on Warsaw. In June Krakow increased by 152% to 9599 and Warsaw across both airports increased by 61% to 7698.

Where would those additional passengers have gone otherwise? Would some even have travelled?