Bristol Airport - Overview

[Aviador]

Great update TheLocalYokel

 

[TheLocalYokel]

BRS Overview updated today.

 

[superking]

A hard long job well done.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Addendum to 2018 BRS Overview

Schedule for Summer 2019

This is a summary of all flights from BRS this summer showing the number of rotations per airline to each destination every week. Where there is more than one rotation in a day on any route I’ve indicated the maximum number per airline.

Some routes don’t operate all summer and not all airlines operate the indicated maximum daily number of rotations for the entire season.

I’ve not attempted to differentiate between scheduled and charter carriers - the distinction is not always clear on some routes anyway - and I’ve shown the carrier rather than any tour company where this applies. I hope I haven't missed out anything. Please let me know if I have.

I will copy this to the BRS Overview thread as a reference point.

Austria

Vienna: easyJet (2 x weekly);

Innsbruck: Flybe (1 x weekly)

Balearic Islands

Ibiza: easyJet (4 x weekly); TUI Air (4 x weekly); Ryanair (3 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly); British Airways CityFlyer (1 x weekly)

Mahon: easyJet (4 x weekly); TUI Air (2 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (2 x weekly)

Palma: easyJet (17 x weekly, up to 3 x daily); Ryanair (10 x weekly, up to 2 x daily); TUI Air (5 x weekly, up to 2 x daily); Thomas Cook Air (3 x weekly); British Airways CityFlyer (1 x weekly)

Belgium

Brussels: bmi regional (17 x weekly, up to 3 x daily)

Bulgaria

Burgas: TUI Air (2 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly); BH Air (1 x weekly)

Canary Islands

Fuerteventura: easyJet (2 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (2 x weekly); TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Gran Canaria: Ryanair (2 x weekly); TUI Air (2 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Lanzarote: Ryanair (3 x weekly); easyJet (2 x weekly); TUI Air (2 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (2 x weekly)

Tenerife: easyJet (4 x weekly); Ryanair (3 x weekly); TUI Air (2 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (2 x weekly)

Cape Verde

Sal: TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Croatia

Dubrovnik: easyJet (2 x weekly); TUI Air (2 x weekly)

Pula: easyJet (2 x weekly); TUI Air (2 x weekly)

Split: easyJet (5 x weekly)

Cyprus

Larnaca: TUI Air (2 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (2 x weekly)

Paphos: easyJet (3 x weekly); TUI Air (2 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Czech Republic

Prague: easyJet (6 x weekly)

Denmark

Copenhagen: easyJet (4 x weekly)

Dominican Republic

Punta Cana: TUI (1 x weekly)

Egypt

Hurghada: TUI Air (1 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

France

Bergerac: Ryanair (2 x weekly)

Beziers: Ryanair (3 x weekly)

Bordeaux: easyJet (5 x weekly)

La Rochelle: easyJet (2x weekly)

Limoges: Ryanair (2 x weekly)

Marseille: easyJet (3 x weekly)

Nantes: easyJet (3 x weekly)

Nice: easyJet (10 x weekly, up to 2 x daily)

Paris CDG: bmi regional (14 x weekly, up to 3 x daily); easyJet (7 x weekly)

Toulouse: easyJet (7 x weekly)

Germany

Berlin Schoenfeld: easyJet (7 x weekly)

Cologne: Ryanair (4 x weekly)

Dusseldorf: bmi regional (6 x weekly)

Frankfurt: bmi regional (18 x weekly, up to 3 x daily)

Hamburg: bmi regional (6 x weekly)

Munich: bmi regional (13 x weekly, up to 2 x daily)

Greece

Athens: easyJet (2 x weekly)

Corfu: easyJet (3 x weekly); TUI Air (3 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (2 x weekly)

Crete-Heraklion: easyJet (2 x weekly); TUI Air (2 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Crete-Chania: Ryanair (2 x weekly); TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Kefalonia: easyJet (2 x weekly); TUI Air (1 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Kos: TUI Air (2 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Preveza: Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Rhodes: TUI Air (3 x weekly, up to 2 x daily); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Santorini: TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Skiathos: TUI Air (1 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Zakynthos: Thomas Cook Air (4 x weekly); TUI Air (3 x weekly); easyJet (1 x weekly)

Gibraltar

Gibraltar: easyJet (3 x weekly)

Hungary

Budapest: Ryanair (3 x weekly)

Italy

Bologna: Ryanair (2 x weekly)

Catania: easyJet (2 x weekly)

Florence: British Airways CityFlyer (1 x weekly)

Genoa: easyJet (2 x weekly)

Milan Bergamo: Ryanair (3 x weekly)

Milan Malpensa: bmi regional (2 x weekly)

Naples: easyJet (3 x weekly); TUI Air (2 x weekly)

Pisa: easyJet (7 x weekly)

Rome Fiumicino: easyJet (7 x weekly)

Venice Marco Polo: easyJet (7 x weekly); Ryanair (4 x weekly)

Verona: TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Lithuania

Kaunas: Ryanair (3 x weekly)

Madeira

Funchal: easyJet (2 x weekly)

Malta

Malta: Ryanair (3 x weekly); Air Malta (1 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Mexico

Cancun: TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Netherlands

Amsterdam: KLM Cityhopper (28 x weekly, 4 x daily); easyJet (12 x weekly, up to 2 x daily)

Poland

Gdansk: Ryanair (3 x weekly)

Katowice: Wizz Air (3 x weekly)

Krakow: easyJet (4 x weekly); Ryanair (3x weekly)

Poznan: Ryanair (2 x weekly)

Rzeszow: Ryanair (2 x weekly)

Warsaw Modlin: Ryanair (4 x weekly)

Wroclaw: Ryanair (2 x weekly)

Portugal

Faro: easyJet (16 weekly, up to 3 x daily); Ryanair (7 x weekly); TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Lisbon: easyJet (5 x weekly)

Porto: easyJet (3 x weekly)

Romania

Bucharest: Ryanair (2 x weekly)

Sardinia

Olbia: easyJet (3 x weekly); bmi regional (1 x weekly)

Spain Mainland

Alicante: easyJet (14 x weekly, 2 x daily); Ryanair (10 x weekly, up to 2 x daily); TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Almeria: Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Barcelona: easyJet (14 x weekly, 2 x daily)

Bilbao: easyJet (3 x weekly)

Girona: Ryanair (5 x weekly); TUI Air (1 x weekly); Thomas Cook Air (1 x weekly)

Madrid: easyJet (7 x weekly)

Malaga: easyJet (16 x weekly, up to 3 x daily); Ryanair (8 x weekly, up to 2 x daily); TUI Air (2 x weekly); British Airways CityFlyer (2 x weekly)

Murcia: easyJet (7 x weekly)

Reus: Ryanair (1 x weekly); TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Seville: easyJet (2 x weekly)

Valencia: Ryanair (2 x weekly)

Sweden

Gothenburg: bmi regional (2 x weekly)

Stockholm Arlanda: easyJet (2 x weekly)

Switzerland

Geneva: easyJet (10 x weekly, up to 2 x daily)

Basel: easyJet (4 x weekly)

Tunisia

Enfidha: TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Turkey

Antalya: Thomas Cook Air (5 x weekly); TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Bodrum: easyJet (3 x weekly); TUI Air (1 x weekly)

Dalaman: Thomas Cook Air (5 x weekly); easyJet (3 x weekly); TUI Air (2 x weekly)

USA

Orlando Sanford: TUI Air (1 x weekly)

UK and Republic of Ireland

Newcastle: easyJet (14 x weekly, up to 3 x daily)

Isle of Man: easyJet (2 x weekly)

Guernsey: Aurigny (7 x weekly)

Jersey: Blue Islands, as Flybe franchise partner (9 x weekly, up to 2 x daily)

Belfast International: easyJet (17 x weekly, up to 3 x daily)

Aberdeen: bmi regional (5 x weekly)

Edinburgh: easyJet (25 x weekly, up to 5 x daily)

Glasgow: easyJet (22 x weekly, up to 4 x daily)

Inverness: easyJet (7 x weekly)

Cork: Aer Lingus Regional (7 x weekly)

Dublin: Aer Lingus Regional (21 x weekly, up to 4 x daily); Ryanair (20 x weekly, up to 3 x daily)

Knock: Ryanair (3 x weekly)

Shannon: Ryanair (2 x weekly)

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Image by Tom Collins source: wikimedia.org

Last update 29 March 2020 - TheLocalYokel

Bristol Airport, (IATA – BRS: ICAO – EGGD), is the United Kingdom’s 9th largest airport in terms of passenger numbers. It is wholly owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, a $190 billion investment vehicle.

In 2019 8.959 million passengers used the airport, an increase of 3.0 % on 2018. Bristol is the only UK top ten airport to see passenger number rises in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Situated about eight miles to the south of the city whose name it bears, the airport is actually located in the unitary authority of North Somerset.

The Bristol city region is a major business centre and one of the most economically successful in the United Kingdom and this provides a large reservoir of business passengers wishing to fly; the airport also has the good luck to have a huge number of well-off people living within its hinterland, with the predisposition and means to travel regularly.

Thus it is that the airport’s significant physical disadvantages have been largely disregarded by those eager to fly for both leisure and business.

The runway is short and undulating, its length being 2011 metres/6598 feet; it is invariably windy and the elevation (190 metres/622 feet) brings an above average amount of mist and fog.

Road links are awkward and there is no rail link at all, although this has been overcome somewhat with the airport-initiated Bristol Flyer dedicated bus service (A1) operated for the airport by First West of England. It links the airport with the central country bus and coach station, the main railway station at Temple Meads and city centre hotels. The Flyer runs at up to 10-minute frequency in both directions from very early morning until mid evening, reducing to 20-minute frequency and regular journeys through the night. There is through-booking capability from/to the airport via the national rail system, National Express Coaches and the Bristol local bus network and over 10% of the airport's passenger use the Flyer each year.

Other bus services include the A2 First West of England half-hourly Airport Connect service to central Bristol for around 22 hours in each 24; the airport-initiated Weston-super-Mare Flyer (A3), also operated for the airport by First that runs at hourly intervals for much of the each 24 hours; the A4 Air Decker from Bath via South Bristol, operated by the Bath Bus Company which runs from 0300 until 0100 at half-hourly intervals for much of this time; the A5 'village bus' that connects the airport with local villages 4/5 times per day; a National Express service 216 (named in honour of the last Concorde ever built, G-BOAF, hull 216, which now lives at its Filton birth place) from Cardiff and Newport that provides 10 return journeys each day at roughly two-hourly intervals; South West Falcon service operated by Stagecoach from Plymouth, Exeter and Taunton that operates 19 return journeys each 24 hours every day of the week.

The Early Years

In 1930 Bristol City Council (known then as Bristol Corporation) opened a civil airport at Whitchurch on the southern outskirts of the city.

During the 1930s Whitchurch saw air services mainly to locations in the UK with the DH Dragon and Dragon Rapide the workhorses, and in 1936 Aer Lingus operated that airline's first ever international flight, from Dublin to Whitchurch.

Annual passengers figures in those days were less than half a typical daily figure at the current Bristol Airport.

At the onset of World War Two the newly-formed BOAC’s aircraft had been moved to Whitchurch and they were later joined by some DC 3s of KLM, these aircraft being transferred to the British register with the consent of the Dutch government-in-exile in London. Whitchurch became the UK’s only land civil airport for much of the war.

The most significant route was the one to Lisbon in Portugal, a neutral country of great political intrigue and importance during the war. The route was operated about four times a week, often by the KLM aircraft, and was used by many famous and important people of the period, including Eleanore Roosevelt (wife of the US President), senior military, industrial and political figures as well as film stars such as Bob Hope (who, incidentally, had lived in Bristol as a very young child many years before) and Bing Crosby.

The Germans did not seriously interfere with the operation of the route as it was in their interest to monitor the comings and goings of those using it, until one day in 1943 a DC 3 (one of the KLM machines, ‘Ibis’) was returning to Bristol when it was shot down by the Luftwaffe over the Bay of Biscay. Amongst those on board was the film actor, Leslie Howard, one of the stars of the epic Hollywood film, ‘Gone With The Wind’; he also played the Spitfire designer, R J Mitchell, in another film and had many other starring screen roles.

Everyone on board the aircraft perished and many theories later emerged as to the reasons why the Luftwaffe had chosen to shoot down this particular aircraft, but there is now ‘evidence’ that suggests the DC 3 might have been mistakenly identified and their actions in shooting down an unarmed civilian aircraft (albeit a camouflaged one) later deeply regretted by the Luftwaffe crews involved.

By the end of the war it was realised that Whitchurch would be incapable of the expansion necessary to accommodate the new generation of passenger aircraft, so the city council took the decision to buy the former RAF Lulsgate Bottom site situated just to the south of the city next to the A 38 trunk road to the South West - it had become a glider field after the war and as a child and local resident I have memories of these aircraft being towed into the air.

RAF Lulsgate Bottom had an interesting incident in 1941 when George Wimpey workmen were building the runway. A Luftwaffe Junkers 88 returning from a bombing raid became disorientated (possibly with some help from RAF radio beam measures) and landed at Lulsgate believing it had reached German-occupied Northern France. A military detachment at Lulsgate promptly detained the crew and the RAF found itself the proud owner of an almost new JU 88.

In fact, by moving to Lulsgate the city council was storing up the same trouble for future generations that had caused it to move its airport from Whitchurch. The much larger Filton aerodrome on the northern edge of the city was reputedly offered by the owners, Bristol Aeroplane Company, but it would have meant the city council becoming a tenant and sharing with the aircraft makers, so they opted for Lulsgate.

Incidentally, some parts of the old Whitchurch airport can still be seen. The main hangar forms part of a sports centre and other smaller buildings remain in non-aviation usage. The former airfield is now partly a large recreational park and there are offices and warehouses elsewhere around the site. A new hospital, another sports centre with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a skills centre opened in 2012 on another part of the old airport site.

The Quiet Decades

Lulsgate opened in 1957 and meandered along quietly and unspectacularly with Cambrian Airways, Aer Lingus and DanAir the major scheduled players, but it was not a big operation in comparison with a number of other UK provincial airports.

By the 1970s the inclusive tour market at Bristol was beginning to grow slowly but received a huge blow in 1974 when Court Line and its associated holiday company, Clarksons, went out of business. Other airports besides Bristol felt that chill.

Annual passenger throughput was barely past 300,000 by the early 1980s but then Bristol struck gold. They appointed a charismatic managing-director called Les Wilson who had worked at Luton Airport. Les soon became Mr Bristol Airport and championed the airport’s cause incessantly - locally, nationally and even internationally.

The 1980s saw a steady rise in charter flights and charter passenger numbers, and by 1988 100,000 scheduled passengers were carried in a year for the first time, with Jersey European (later re-named Flybe) and Brymon Airways (later bought by British Airways) the main non-charter operators. The previous year had seen the city council transferring all employees from the payroll of the local authority to a company set up by the council to run the airport.

Momentum Begins To Pick Up

The 1990s was the decade that launched the airport’s startling rise. Charter and scheduled operators and routes continued to increase and in 1992 the magic one million passengers in a year barrier was broken for the first time.

By then it was accepted that the small terminal building presented a brake on real future progress although it, the runway and other parts of the infrastructure had all seen improvement and expansion down the years.

The city council did not have the resources to borrow the money required to build a much-needed new terminal building. For a long time Bristol had had a decidedly left wing ruling Labour Party, albeit rather champagne socialist in background and outlook, and they agonised over whether to allow their airport company to sell off the site.

In the end a compromise was reached in which in 1997 a 51% share was sold to First Group with the council retaining the minority stake. Tragically, Les Wilson had been killed in a road accident in 1995 and never lived to see the outstanding results his hard work eventually brought about.

Part privatisation allowed the new terminal and other important infrastructure improvements to go ahead and in 2000 the new terminal was opened; not before time because the airport was already seeing in excess of two million passengers annually. At the same time the A 38 road outside the airport boundary was diverted to allow the installation of a Category 3b ILS on the westerly runway (27) – the reciprocal 09 cannot be so equipped because of the surrounding topography.

The 21st Century - the first decade

In January 2001 First Group and the city council sold the airport for £198 million to a company owned jointly by the Australian Macquarie Group and the Spanish Ferrovial Group (through its subsidiary, Cintra). In 2007 Ferrovial divested itself of its half when it purchased BAA, citing possible competition issues, and Bristol Airport became jointly owned by a Macquarie fund (50%) and the Canadian Ontario Teachers Pension Fund (49%) with Sydney Airport possessing the other one per cent (in 2014 Macquarie sold out to Ontario who now own the airport outright).

Within a few months of the Macquarie/Ferrovial purchase Go announced that Bristol had been selected as the airline’s second base, to complement its original Stansted operation. The association was an immediate success, much greater than either airline or airport had anticipated. Go went on to build up its route portfolio and when that airline was bought by easyJet the growth just went on and on; from the initial two-Boeing 737-300 Go base easyJet had increased the base size to 12 A 319s by 2008.

The airport’s new owners continued to put in significant sums and a new control tower was followed by an extension to the check-in hall, covered walkways to some stands and major amelioration that involved a new and expanded security zone, as well as changing the designation of a large area of landside to airside.

In 2009/2010 over £10 million was spent on a first floor level walkway to the western apron to serve eight stands there and remove the need for bus transport to those stands. Money was also spent on a much bigger duty free shop, refurbished toilets a new fleet of buses for the Flyer to central Bristol coupled with an increased frequency of ten minute intervals for much of the extended working day.

As the first decade of the new century unfolded more scheduled airlines joined in the party: Air South West; Aurigny; Aer Arann; Air France; OLT; Eastern; Lufthansa; and the major prize (in 2005), Continental Airlines to Newark each day. These joined the already established carriers such as Ryanair, KLM Cityhopper, Brussels Airlines (in its various incarnations) and Scilly Skybus.

It wasn’t all positive though. Flybe axed four of its five routes (seemingly after being squeezed by easyJet) and when that airline bought BAConnect in 2007 it decided the five-E145 aircraft base at Bristol would be an unprofitable one for it and removed the entire fleet together with BA’s eight routes. SAS after successful summer routes to Stockholm (2007 and 2008) and Oslo (2008) pulled out in 2009 following the airline's horrendous losses and the culling of 40% of its route network together with the release of thousands of members of staff. Lufthansa called a halt to its Frankfurt service in April 2009 as the world recession began to bite after a twelve month operation that carried nearly 100,000 passengers. The biggest setback though was the news that Continental was to discontinue its Newark service from November 2010, citing poor support from business passengers, the recession and air passenger duty.

Bristol’s oldest customer, Aer Lingus, had returned in the early 2000s but could not compete against Ryanair on its Dublin route and so left the West Country skies. However, in 2010 the Aer Lingus livery was seen again at Lulsgate with Aer Arann operating routes to Cork and Shannon as an Aer Lingus franchise( and in 2011 it was back competing with Ryanair to Dublin).

Ryanair had decided to make Bristol a base and added 14 new routes in late 2007 to those already flown to Dublin, Shannon and Girona from other bases. The base was expanded in summer 2009 to four aircraft and in 2010 to five with more routes added though, in typical Ryanair fashion, some came and went with bewildering rapidity to be replaced by others.

The charter market, unlike at some airports, held up reasonably well and XL set up a base and remained (only to go out of business in September 2008), along with the traditional Thomson, First Choice and MyTravel bases. However Thomson and First Choice amalgamated in 2008 as did Thomas Cook and MyTravel. In summer 2010 Viking set up a one-aircraft base, partially as a de facto replacement for XL, but their associated travel company went out of business towards the end of that summer and Viking disappeared from the Lulsgate scene.


The 21st Century - the second decade

Bristol Airport, like everywhere else, was adversely affected by the recession but its effects came later and began to recede earlier than at most regional airports. 2009 saw a fall of 10% in passenger numbers to 5.6 million but since then every year has seen gains, the only top ten UK airport to boast such a performance.

The Swiss airline Helvetic commenced a Zurich service (with Fokker F 100 aircraft) at the end of 2011, at first in conjunction with its existing Cardiff service then solely to Bristol after the Cardiff leg was dropped. At the end of summer 2014 Bristol was also dropped. OLT and Scilly Skybus also ended their association with the airport in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

However, in 2010 the Aer Lingus livery was seen again at Lulsgate with Aer Arann, later Stobart Air, operating routes to Cork and Shannon (this one then went, came back and went again in early 2015) as an Aer Lingus franchise, and since 2011 it has competed with Ryanair to Dublin using mainly ATR 72 aircraft. The airline operates daily to Cork and up to 4 x daily to Dublin.

The newly constituted bmi regional began operating to Hamburg, Frankfurt, Hannover, Munich and Milan in 2013 in addition to its existing Aberdeen service. Hannover was dropped after one season but in 2014 the airline announced a code share with Lufthansa on its Munich and Frankfurt routes which were also increased in frequency up to three times a day. In February 2015 bmi regional announced further expansion with routes to Paris Cdg, Dusseldorf and a peak summer season route to Nantes (axed in 2016 after easyJet began the route). bmi regional also operates to Brussels for Brussels Airlines but lost the Airbus Corporate Shuttle contract to Eastern Airways in January 2016. In January 2017 bmi regional began operating to Gothenburg.

In February 2019 bmi regional (by now operating as flybmi) suddenly announced it was filing for administration and ceased all its flights immediately. Of the lost flybmi routes, Loganair took on the Aberdeen route and Brussels Airlines the Brussels route. Lufthansa will operate the Frankfurt route from March 2020 and easyJet and Ryanair have added Milan Malpensa and easyJet has doubled its daily Paris CDG frequency.

The multi-daily Airbus Corporate Shuttle to Hawarden and Toulouse operates from the Centreline terminal on the airport south side. It is operated by Loganair that stepped in when flybmi ceased to operate having itself regained the contract from Eastern Airways a few months earlier. There is also an up to three times daily BAE Corporate Shuttle to Walney island, Cumbria that uses Beechcraft King Air B200 aircraft.

SAS returned in summer 2014 and summer 2015 on a peak season route to Stockholm (using Boeing 736 aircraft) but unfortunately it did not return in 2016 despite excellent loads.

Ryanair stagnated at Bristol after its early push following its base opening in 2007. Within a few years it had five based aircraft but reduced this to two in summer 2013 apparently over a dispute with the airport over peak hour and parking charges, although there was no reduction in service with aircraft from other bases being utilised. 2017 and 2018 saw four based Boeing 738 aircraft as will be the case in 2019. The airline continued to drop some routes and add new ones in summer. Winter is a different matter with Ryanair adding routes every year.

The Ryanair-owned Laudamotion will begin operating a Bristol-Vienna route from March 2010, competing against easyJet's existing route.

easyJet, after a recession-related reduction in operations in 2009 when its based fleet dropped to ten, continues to grow and each year adds another based aircraft and several new routes. It will have 17 Airbuses (10 x A320 and 7 x A319) based at Bristol in peak summer 2019. As with Ryanair easyJet has substantially increased its winter provision in recent years.

Wizz Air pitched up in July 2015 with a Katowice route and have since added Kosice, Sofia and Warsaw Chopin. However only Katowice remains in 2018.

WOW, the Icelandic low-cost airline began operations to Keflavik (against easyJet) with A 320s in May 2016 with ongoing connections to North America. They ceased to operate from BRS at the end of summer 2017.

British Airways, through its subsidiary BACityFlyer, returned to the airport in the summer of 2017 with four summer routes using E170 and E190 aircraft. The routes were operated again in summer 2018 but they will not be returning in summer 2019.

In addition a KLM Cityhopper Fokker E190 night-stops for the Amsterdam route with the airline operating a 4 x daily service, with one of the rotations operated by a Boeing 737 from summer 2019.

Other airlines serving the airport with regular scheduled services in 2017 are Blue Islands operating in Flybe livery with Flybe flight numbers (ATR42) to Jersey and Aurigny (ATR72) to Guernsey.

Thomas Cook had three A321s based in summer and one in winter. In September 2019 the airline and associated tour company ceased trading. They had been operating at the airport in various guises for many decades.

Centreline, one of the world’s most capable, service-orientated fixed based operators that provides a full range of general aviation services, from engineering and handling to private air charter and aircraft management. It has substantial hangar and other building space, including passenger lounges and these are used by Airbus Corporate Shuttle passengers as well as by others. Part of the business was formerly called the Bristol Flying Centre.

Infrastructure development has continued seemingly without a break over the past five years. After the western walkway of 2007, three new aircraft stands were built in 2012 with a central walkway/pier with new pre-boarding zones in 2014.

A multi-million pound extension to the eastern end of the main terminal building was completed in summer 2015 and a bigger western extension was largely completed in 2016 with an enhanced immigration area was completed in spring 2017. The long-awaited onsite hotel (Hampton by Hilton) opened in February 2017.

The open air Silver Zone car park was massively extended in 2016/2017 (and an impressive new associated office block opened the following year). The airport's first multi-storey car park opened in 2018 and was increased in size over winter 2018/2019. Another aircraft parking stand near the old fire station was built for the start of the summer 2018 season and two more will be ready for summer 2019 at the eastern end of the airfield near the old terminal building. A new admin building and a new fire station both on the south side of the airport will open in 2019.

Future

The airport management still does not think a runway extension is necessary though - a meaningful one would entail taking possession of a large part of an adjacent common, something that would cause a tremendous furore locally and probably nationally. Fortunately, the airport does have a full-length parallel taxiway.

The Bristol Airport site is a constricted one and is surrounded by Green Belt land which means that, unlike some airports, there are no warehousing or industrial units close by. Cargo traffic is minimal and the two nightly postal services to/from Edinburgh and Newcastle were discontinued in early 2011 when Royal Mail declined to move its base to the south side of the airport.

Over £150 million has been spent on infrastructure since 2010 and a similar amount at today's value in the decade or so before that. More huge sums of money will be needed to take the airport into the second quarter of the 21st Century in line with the owners' vision.

2018 saw the airport embark on a lengthy public consultation process that looked at its development in future years. This was to lead to a new master plan publication of which has been delayed.

It's looking to be handling 12 million passengers by 2025. This will necessitate an increase of its 10 mppa passenger limit imposed by the local authority. In late 2018 it forwarded planning applications that would enable it to handle 12 mppa and at the same time requested a raising of the passenger limit to that figure.

On 10 February 2020 the local authority (the tiny North Somerset Unitary Authority) rejected the airport's planning application to have its annual passneger limit raised from the current 10 mppa to 12 mppa along with associated airport infrastructure expansion. It was expected that the airport would appeal that decision to the national Planning Inspectorate but it will now have to be seen whether the Covid-19 situation has a bearing on that decision.

The airport envisages a passenger throughput of 15-20 mppa by the mid 2040s. This would entail extending the boundary outside the current area into parts of the Green Belt. The airport already owns some of the land.

Covid-19

At the time of writing the latest update (29 March 2020) the worlwide aviation industry is facing an unprecedented challenge. No-one knows when the virus will be overcome nor what affect it will have had on aviation and many other industries, both within the UK and in the wider world. Effectively, much of aviation including Bristol Airport is on hold.

Scheduled flights for winter 2019-2020 and summer 2020

Austria

Innsbruck (easyJet) - winter only

Salzburg (easyJet) - winter only

Vienna (easyJet and Laudamotion)

Balearic Islands

Mahon (easyJet) - summer only

Palma (easyJet and Ryanair) - last one summer only

Ibiza (easyJet and Ryanair) - both summer only

Belgium

Brussels (CityJet - for Brussels Airlines)

Bulgaria

Sofia (easyJet and Ryanair) - both winter only

Canary Islands

Fuerteventura (easyJet)

Gran Canaria (easyJet and Ryanair)

Lanzarote (easyJet and Ryanair)

Tenerife (easyJet and Ryanair)

Croatia

Split (easyJet) - summer only

Dubrovnik (easyJet) - summer only

Pula (easyJet) - summer only

Cyprus

Paphos (easyJet)

Larnaca (easyJet)

Czech Republic

Prague (easyJet)

Denmark

Copenhagen (easyJet)

Egypt

Hurghada (easyJet)

France

Bergerac (Ryanair) - summer only

Beziers (Ryanair) - summer only

Biarritz (easyJet) - summer only

Bordeaux (easyJet)

Brest (Ryanair) - summer only

Grenoble (easyJet) - winter only

La Rochelle (easyJet) - summer only

Limoges (Ryanair) - summer only

Lyon (easyJet)

Marseille (easyJet) - summer only

Montpellier (easyJet) - summer only

Nantes (easyJet) - summer only

Nice (easyJet)

Paris CDG (easyJet)

Paris Orly (easyJet)

Toulouse (easyJet)

Germany

Berlin Schoenfeld (easyJet)

Cologne (Ryanair)

Frankfurt (Lufthansa) from March 2020

Gibraltar

Gibraltar (easyJet)

Greece

Athens (easyJet)

Corfu (easyJet) - summer only

Crete-Heraklion (easyJet) - summer only

Crete-Chania (Ryanair) - summer only

Kefalonia (easyJet) - summer only

Kos (easyJet) - summer only

Preveza (easyJet) - summer only

Rhodes (easyJet) - summer only

Zakynthos (easyJet) - summer only

Hungary

Budapest (Ryanair)

Iceland

Keflavik easyJet - winter only

Italy

Bologna (Ryanair) - summer only

Brindisi (easyJet) - summer only

Catania (easyJet)

Milan Bergamo (Ryanair)

Milan Malpensa (easyJet and Ryanair)

Naples (easyJet)

Pisa (easyJet)

Rome Fiumicino (easyJet)

Turin (easyJet and Ryanair) - winter only

Venice Marco Polo (easyJet and Ryanair)

Lithuania

Kaunas (Ryanair)

Madeira

Funchal (easyJet)

Malta

Malta (Ryanair)

Netherlands

Amsterdam (easyJet and KLM Cityhopper)

Poland

Gdansk (Ryanair)

Katowice (Wizz Air)

Krakow (easyJet and Ryanair)

Poznan (Ryanair)

Rzeszow (Ryanair)

Warsaw Modlin (Ryanair)

Wroclaw (Ryanair)

Portugal

Faro (easyJet and Ryanair))

Lisbon (easyJet)

Porto (easyJet)

Romania

Bucharest (Ryanair)

Sardinia

Olbia (easyJet) - summer only

Spain Mainland

Alicante (easyJet and Ryanair)

Barcelona (easyJet)

Bilbao (easyJet)

Valencia (Ryanair)

Girona (Ryanair) - summer only

Madrid (easyJet)

Malaga (easyJet and Ryanair)

Murcia (easyJet)

Seville (easyJet and Ryanair)

Switzerland

Geneva (easyJet)

Basel (easyJet)

Turkey

Bodrum (easyJet) - summer only

Dalaman (easyJet) - summer only

UK and Republic of Ireland

Newcastle (easyJet)


Isle of Man (easyJet)


Guernsey (Aurigny)

Jersey (Blue Islands, as Flybe franchise partner)


Belfast International (easyJet)


Aberdeen (Loganair)

Edinburgh (easyJet)

Glasgow (easyJet)

Inverness (easyJet)


Cork (Aer Lingus Regional)

Dublin (Ryanair and Aer Lingus Regional)

Knock (Ryanair)

Not all routes are flown daily whilst others are operated multi-daily.

Charter Routes winter 2018-2019 and summer 2018

Winter Charter 2019-2020

Winter sun routes in 2018/2019 include the four main Canary islands, Malaga and a Thomson route to Cape Verde (Sal) and Hurghada.

With the demise of Thomas Cook in September 2019 only TUI will operating winter sun.

TUI and other carriers on behalf of tour operators handle the winter ski charter routes.

Winter ski routes remain strong from Bristol and 2018-2019 sees weekly charter rotations to: Chambery , Geneva , Innsbruck , Verona , Sofia, Salzburg, Turin, Memmingham and Lleida. For the sake of completeness there were also in excess of 70 weekly scheduled airline rotations to ski destinations involving easyJet, and Ryanair.

There was also the usual programme of Santa flights to Kittila, Ivalo, Enontekio and Rovaniemi in the Christmas 2019 period. As in previous years easyJet also operated an extensive ski season to Kittila as well.

Summer Charter 2020

The based charter aircraft for summer 2020 will likely be one TUI B 787, one Tui B 757 and five TUI B 737-800s. Other charter carriers are likely to appear including Neos and Freebird. The B 787 will operate four-long haul (2 x weekly to both Orlando Sanford and Cancun) and several short-haul each week.

The following are amongst the summer sun destinations - at least weekly, some multi-weekly.

Innsbruck, Ibiza, Majorca, Menorca, Burgas, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Hurghada, Enfidha, Lanzarote, Tenerife, Larnaca, Paphos, Corfu, Heraklion, Chania, Kos, Rhodes, Zante, Kefalonia, Skiathos, Santorini, Naples, Verona, Marrakech, Malta, Faro, Alicante, Reus, Girona, Malaga, Almeria, Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Pula, Cape Verde (Sal), Cancun, Florida (Sanford).



Appendices

Bristol's Annual Passenger Figures from 1961

Bristol Airport's annual passenger figures in millions/parts thereof from 1961 to 2016 - figures from CAA.

1961 0.059

1962 0.070

1963 0.079

1964 0.095

1965 0.106

1966 0.136

1967 0.134

1968 0.130

1969 0.120

1970 0.152

1971 0.201

1972 0.262

1973 0.289

1974 0.184

1975 0.195

1976 0.205

1977 0.211

1978 0.233

1979 0.238

1980 0.239

1981 0.246

1982 0.261

1983 0.331

1984 0.423

1985 0.402

1986 0.469

1987 0.645

1988 0.705

1989 0.838

1990 0.774

1991 0.783

1992 1.026

1993 1.112

1994 1.276

1995 1.431

1996 1.394

1997 1.586

1998 1.814

1999 1.966

2000 2.124

2001 2.673

2002 3.415

2003 3.887

2004 4.603

2005 5.199

2006 5.710

2007 5.884

2008 6.229

2009 5.615

2010 5.723

2011 5.768

2012 5.916

2013 6.125

2014 6.333

2015 6.781

2016 7.604

2017 8.234

2018 8.697

2019 8.959

August 2019 saw over one million passengers in a calendar month for the first time (1.009 million)

Breakdown of BRS Passenger Figures For 2019 Route By Route - ack CAA stats

Amsterdam 457,330 + 5%
Dublin 421,494 - 2%

Edinburgh 396,911 - 1%
Alicante 366,145 + 7%
Palma 363,704 + 2%
Malaga 346,205 - 3%
Glasgow 322,136 + 3%
Faro 307,097 + 2%

Belfast Int 279,075 + 8%
Geneva 215,953 - 2%
Barcelona 204,019 + 1%
Tenerife 203,820 unchanged

Newcastle 191,235 + 1%

Paris CDG 170,698 + 10%

Venice MP 165,147 + 5%

Arrecife 159,881 - 5%

Krakow 131,605 + 2%

Rome Fiumicino 114,886 + 1%

Madrid 108,514 + 2%
Toulouse 105,280 - 5%
Nice 101,057 + 5%

Berlin Schoenfeld 98,583 + 4%
Prague 97,483 + 5%
Dalaman 97,058 + 1%
Ibiza 93,063 - 4%
Inverness 90,954 - 2%

Paphos 89,252 - 3%
Las Palmas 86,650 - 9%
Murcia Corvera 85,448 new route, switched from Murcia St Javier in January 2019
Lisbon 84,516 + 10%

Seville 79,409 + 193%
Pisa 77,129 unchanged
Larnaca 76,840 + 61%
Warsaw Modlin 75,522 + 6%
Girona 71,456 + 9%
Malta 70,514 + 4%

Bordeaux 68,365 + 17%
Fuerteventura 68,239 - 11%
Zakynthos 67,861 - 6%
Corfu 65,793 - 10%
Mahon 65,562 - 2%
Naples 64,632 + 26%
Cologne 61,792 + 4%
Budapest 60,526 + 8%
Antalya 60,299 + 16%

Basel 52,879 + 5%
Milan Bergamo 51,240 + 1%
Katowice 50,574 + 18%
Milan Malpensa 50,199 + 868%

Gibraltar 49,986 + 4%
Copenhagen 49,083 + 10%
Porto 48,667 + 13%
Heraklion 46,725 - 2%
Dubrovnik 46,657 + 27%
Rhodes 45,685 + 31%
Knock 45,039 + 27%
Hurghada 44,845 + 44%
Poznan 44,445 + 9%
Funchal 43,699 + 10%
Split 41,021 + 9%
Kefalonia 40,927 + 23%

Bodrum 39,968 + 24%
Cork 39,447 - 3%
Athens 38,490 + 9%
Gdansk 38,382 - 12%
Wroclaw 38,010 - 1%
Kaunas 37,960 - 20%
Rzeszow 37,009 + 4%
Bilbao 36,157 + 1%
Bucharest 35,338 - 6%
Valencia 34,626 + 28%
Vienna 33,715 + 9%
Cancun 32,191 + 131%
Pula 30,462 + 4%

Isle of Man 28,553 - 2%
Beziers 28,416 - 4%
Enfidha 27,252 + 174%
Chania 27,411 - 6%
Limoges 27,287 + 6%
Olbia 26,664 + 4%
Burgas 26,597 - 2%
Jersey 26,205 + 7%
Catania 26,137 + 16%
Guernsey 22,236 - 20%
Innsbruck 22,017 - 3%
Brussels 21,424 - 61% flybmi ceased trading February - route then left unserved until September when Brussels Airlines took it on
Kos 21,908 - 15%
Sofia 20,972 + 115%
Marseille 20,597 + 16%

Bologna 19,420 - 1%
Stockholm 19,994 - 31% route discontinued at beginning of winter 2019-2020
Keflavik 18,842 - 2%
Sal, Cape Verde 18,084 - 26%
Sanford, Florida 16,497 + 29%
Aberdeen 15,847 + 20%
Lyon 14,918 + 183% route normally ski season only but operated additionally in main part of summer in 2019
Grenoble 14,861 + 18%
Salzburg 14,521 + 10%
Genoa 14,368 + 23%
Shannon 14,232 + 9%
Marrakech 14,223 new route, taken on by TUI after easyJet pulled out in 2018
Skiathos 13,797 + 3%
Verona 11,655 - 11%
Chambery 11,196 - 1%
Turin 10,750 unchanged

Reus 9,714 - 20%
Montpellier 9,486 new route
Kittila 9,262 - 12%
Nantes 8,886 - 17%
Salonika 8,154 new route - this one comes and goes summer by summer with TUI
Brindisi 8,112 new route
Preveza 7,811 + 13%
Almeria 7,560 - 7%
Biarritz 7,247 new route
La Rochelle 6,534 - 5%
Bergerac 5,981 + 1%
Santorini 5,685 - 24%
Frankfurt 5,453 - 90% route ended in February when flybmi ceased trading - Lufthansa were due to take it on in April 2020
Munich 4,561 - 90% route ended in February when flybmi ceased trading
Hawarden 4,183 + 42% Airbus corporate shuttle route
Dusseldorf 1,686 - 87% route ended in February when flybmi ceased trading
Leida-Alguaire 1,622 + 1743% ski season route restarted in December 2018, axed again from December 2019
Murcia St Javier 1,584 - 98% easyJet route switched to Murcia Corvera in January 2019
Ostersund 1,217 + 133% ski season route commenced December 2018, axed from December 2019
Hamburg 1,070 - 92% route ended in February when flybmi ceased trading
Enontekio 2,069 + 20%
Ivalo 960 - 23%
Rovaniemi 742 - 54%

In addition there were one-off charters/other ad hoc passenger flights to France (Brive, Clermont Ferrand, Tarbes-Lourdes), Norway (Bergen, Oslo), Spain (Santiago De Compostela), Barbados (Bridgetown), Jamaica (Montego Bay) and United Kingdom ( Birmingham, Humberside, Leeds-Bradford, Liverpool, Manchester) that carried a total of 4,625 passengers.

Last update 29 March 2020 - TheLocalYokel

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Overview updated to reflect current winter.

 

[superking]

Some good pax figures.A job well done Localyokel. Thank you from all of us for finding time to do the chart.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Now updated for summer 2019 and 2018's passenger figures.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I've now revised and brought up to date the main Overview file at #25, including all of 2019's route passenger details.