Infrastructure, Construction & Developments

[Ray Finkle]

Did the hotel have an operator signed up/announced?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Did the hotel have an operator signed up/announced?

In October 2009 it was reported in the local press that the airport had signed an agreement with Pederson Airport Hotels for a 250-room onsite hotel. Pederson was expected to select an internationally recognised brand over the next few months to run it. At that time Pederson owned three hotels in Bristol (they may still do so, I'm not sure).

This might have been somewhat premature because planning permission was not granted for another 12 months at which time it was reported that work would begin in 2011 with an anticipated completion date of winter 2012/2013.

This was the proposed design.

http://www.epr.co.uk/projects/architect ... l-airport/

Didn't the airport have to renegotiate it's debt with the banks last year? Do you think that could have any implications with respects to the airports plans to expand?

This was apparently successfully concluded last autumn.

http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/sou ... ncing-deal

One important part of the expansion plans was completed last year with three new aircraft stands and the next stage, according to the airport, will involve a central pier and airbridge.

Consultants were signed up last year to work on the first part of the terminal extension and a group of companies selected to carry out various phases of the expansion work as it falls due.

It's the hotel that seems to have gone off the radar.

BRS is the largest UK airport with no onsite hotel.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Did the hotel have an operator signed up/announced?

In October 2009 it was reported in the local press that the airport had signed an agreement with Pederson Airport Hotels for a 250-room onsite hotel. Pederson was expected to select an internationally recognised brand over the next few months to run it. At that time Pederson owned three hotels in Bristol (they may still do so, I'm not sure).

This might have been somewhat premature because planning permission was not granted for another 12 months at which time it was reported that work would begin in 2011 with an anticipated completion date of winter 2012/2013.

This was the proposed design.

http://www.epr.co.uk/projects/architect ... l-airport/


It's the hotel that seems to have gone off the radar.

BRS is the largest UK airport with no onsite hotel.

Thanks for the link, in the illustrations the building look great, especially with the BA 777? departing

Each operator will naturally have their own spec as to the design and layout of the hotel so I wondered if the original company may have pulled out and the delay was down to them having to find a new operator followed by a redesign to suit their needs?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thanks for the link, in the illustrations the building look great, especially with the BA 777? departing

Each operator will naturally have their own spec as to the design and layout of the hotel so I wondered if the original company may have pulled out and the delay was down to them having to find a new operator followed by a redesign to suit their needs?

That may be the case. The local press isn't very active or good at rooting out stories on its own initiative, whether aviation-related or anything else. It relies on press handouts from the organisations themselves which by their nature will only contain information the organisation wants disclosed.

The airport consultative committee minutes of the last few three-monthly meetings have not been illuminating on the subject.

A BA 777 at BRS. Yes, a good one indeed. Now the BA franchises with small aircraft have gone from regional airports like BRS we shan't see BA again. As to the 777 I seem to remember reading the PCN may be insufficient to support such an aircraft - maybe someone like big g or alpha golf or conns757 can confirm or correct this assumption. It would have to backtrack the runway anyway because the wings of anything larger than a 767 overhang the boundary fence on the full length parallel taxiway. This only really affects the occasional 330 that used to come in with rugby charters from Ireland.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Bristol Airport new business lounge opens

The latest addition to Bristol Airport's passenger facilities has opened its doors following completion of work on the new £600,000 Aspire Lounge.

The new facility replaces the old executive lounge, increasing the space available by 50 per cent and introducing a range of product improvements for passengers wanting to relax in style before boarding a flight.

Aimed at both business and leisure travellers, the Aspire Lounge will be operated by long-standing business partner, Servisair, which runs more than 20 other airport lounges across the UK and Europe.

The new facility offers greater levels of comfort in a stylishly designed environment, including kitchen facilities which enable hot food to be provided for the first time, alongside snacks and premium brand drinks.

A series of distinct zones will cater for the differing requirements of business and leisure passengers, depending on whether they want to do some last minute work before boarding or relax ahead of a holiday flight.[/textarea]

Full report (with picture) at: http://www.nailseapeople.co.uk/Bristol- ... story.html

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The latest airport consultative committee meeting (on 1 May this year) has now seen the minutes published on the BRS website with airport CEO Robert Sinclair making the following comments:

* The new executive lounge that opened in early April has had good reviews.

* Work on both the north and south sides of the airport has seen improvements to the car parks, signage and renovation work.

* A new airport control centre would be in place by the end of May this year (presumably it now is).

* The new hourly bus service from/to Bath was mentioned and the Flyer bus continues to be a success.

As to capital projects, the CEO said this:

* Plans are being developed for the enclosed central walkway which should improve customer experience when waiting to board aircraft and efforts are being made to reduce waits to no more than 15-20 minutes. The central walkway will require board approval and will provide gate lounges with seating.

* There was no further update on the airport hotel.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I note that one of the large advertising hoardings along Northside Road on the approach to the airport now contains an advertisement for the design engineers appointed some time ago to oversee the first part of the terminal expansion.

There is an eye-catching picture of the expanded apron, piers, walkways and air bridges with aircraft parked - seems a lift from one of the airport videos/pics - accompanied by words to the effect that the company is proud to be involved with the airport's 'prestigious' development.

This advertisement has appeared within the last few days, although the engineeering company was appointed many months ago, which leads me to ponder whether we are about to hear some positive news of a start date for the next phase of the development.

 

[Aviador]

Sounds very positive and I wouldn't have thought it would appear for no reason. No smoke without fire as they say.

 

[big g]

Keep an eye out around September

 

[Aviador]

Keep an eye out around September

Thanks big g, so there "IS" no smoke without fire?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The minutes of the latest BRS consultative committee meeting (31 July 2013) have been published on the airport's website in the past few days - well done for putting the minutes out so speedily this time.

As is the case in the past, and I've whinged about it before, the minutes are very sterile and give little away to the public, albeit the members of the committee who are supposed to represent the public seem to have access to a lot more information not put into the public domain via the minutes.

The minutes this time are not particularly interesting anyway but the central walkway is mentioned in two different sections of the minutes although not in any detail.

Under CEO's Report:Capital Projects it is said that 'the new central walkway plans are progressing', and under Planning Matters Update the comment is made that 'members received a report updating on the central walkway'. What they were told remains out of the public domain it would seem (one of a number of examples of the point I made in paragraph two above).

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Had an email today from a spokesperson at BRS in response to one or two issues I raised.

Inter alia, I suggested the time was now ripe for terminal enhancement and the email reply mentioned the central walkway - see below:

We are continuing with a busy summer and working towards on-going customer enhancements and developments including a central walkway.

 

[kraktoa]

unlike the western walkway, i dont think the central walkway is going to be a raised structure. It will snake out towards the old terminal on the ground floor level with wide stands to fit wider/larger aircraft. Thats my understanding having spoken to a few people.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

unlike the western walkway, i dont think the central walkway is going to be a raised structure. It will snake out towards the old terminal on the ground floor level with wide stands to fit wider/larger aircraft. Thats my understanding having spoken to a few people.

I hadn't heard that. The images of the proposed expansion seem to point to the central and eastern walkways being above ground level with airbridges at certain points, although it may be that the images actually depict a structure that rises from the ground and is possibly even two-storey.

I realise that the airbridge positions as shown on the images may be illustrative but it does appear that one is destined for the central walkway, albeit I've heard in the last week that this airbridge may not feature immediately when the central walkway is built until the situation re long haul is resolved.

If the central walkway was at ground level would that not obstruct the buses that convey passengers to remote stands? It's difficult to see on the images.

Furthermore, when the airport applied to the local authority for non-material amendments to the outline planning application the central walkway featured prominently and the impression was certainly given that an airbridge would feature.

The relevant post within this thread is the one on 25 January this year.

This link is to one of the airport's images depicting the proposed new walkways.

http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/about-u ... age-3.ashx

 

[g3jetman]

TheLocalYokel is indeed right....the Central Walkway will be 2 levels ! Watch this space!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Apologies as I'm not familiar with Bristol but in the picture on the airports website is the terminal building shown as it is now or does that show an extension as well as the new walkways? It certainly will be impressive when fully complete.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

TheLocalYokel is indeed right....the Central Walkway will be 2 levels ! Watch this space!

Many thanks for that g3jetman. It's great to see you posting.

Apologies as I'm not familiar with Bristol but in the picture on the airports website is the terminal building shown as it is now or does that show an extension as well as the new walkways? It certainly will be impressive when fully complete.

I've tried unsuccessfully to find an up-to-date picture on the Net.

Briefly, part of the complex shown in the image contained in my post of 7.48pm yesterday is in place.

The current terminal was completed in 2000 and is the main block in the middle of the picture with an extension to the east (east is towards bottom right hand side of pic) built a few years later.

The walkway past the control tower (also completed within the past 13 years) is in place except for the right angled section at the top of the picture.

Most of the other depictions remain to be carried out with the central walkway (the one extending from the terminal in the middle of the pic with one airbridge shown) the next part to be tackled.

A further walkway stretching towards the bottom right of the picture is yet to be built, with the right-angled extension at the very bottom being on what is currently the old terminal building, now used as office accommodation for various departments.

The extensive transport interchange, multi-storey car parks and other buildings are also something for the future.

At present there is a series of ground level car parks that take up much of the land along the right of the picture and also some out of shot. There is also a large surface car park on the south side of the airport but that's well away from the area shown in the pic.

The outline planning consents are all in place. The airport has always said the expansion will go ahead incrementally as passenger numbers increase.

Last year three additional aircraft stands were built and there has been almost continuous work in and around the terminal and beyond for the past decade on such things as moving a substantial amount of landside to airside, the western walkway, additional security stations, extra immigration channels, new business lounge, revamping of retail and food outlets and many more relatively minor (in the grand scheme of things) works, albeit the total amounts to many million pounds.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Many thanks for the info, it's just to get an idea of what is there now and what is planned to be built. As I said earlier it will be very impressive when finished.

 

[ljm104]

Saw this on the news today. Not much new information, but interesting nonetheless:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23988550

I do wonder if these proposals, along with the welsh governments acquisition of Cardiff, are undermining confidence in expansion at Bristol. Despite good passenger figures, and chronic overcrowding in the terminal building, development at Bristol seems to be happening at truly glacial rate.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Saw this on the news today. Not much new information, but interesting nonetheless:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23988550
I do wonder if these proposals, along with the welsh governments acquisition of Cardiff, are undermining confidence in expansion at Bristol. Despite good passenger figures, and chronic overcrowding in the terminal building, development at Bristol seems to be happening at truly glacial rate.

As you are aware this proposal was put forward some time ago and is back in the news now because one of its proponents has decided the time is ripe for a bit more publicity for it.

It's not the first proposal for a Severnside airport on the Welsh side of the estuary, and there was also one proposed for the English side at Pilning north of Bristol over ten years ago that was rejected by the then government.

I can't think that a Severnside airport is any more than an irritating sideshow so far as the BRS ownership/management are concerned, with almost no likelihood of it ever being built.

The same applies to the Wales Government's purchase of CWL. Unless they are prepared to plough in astronomical sums to attract and subsidise airlines with unsustainably low fares and by so doing effectively enhance their catchment beyond South Wales - pay them to fly in other words - which would immediately attract cries of 'foul' by competitors (notably BRS) that would be sustained by the EU, CWL will always have the problem of a considerably smaller and less affluent catchment.

What state ownership is likely to do is get CWL back to the situation it enjoyed six or seven years ago when it was seeing two million passengers a year - it's currently just over one mppa. But even then BRS was handling six million with around 700,000 being 'Welsh' in the sense that their journeys originated or terminated in South Wales.

In 2012 it was reckoned by the CAA that one million 'Welsh' passengers used BRS so an improving CWL will obviously take back some of those but there will have to be a sea change in population movement and demographics for CWL to gain the upper hand.

Looking at CAA stats back to 1968 there have been only 12 years when CWL handled more passengers than BRS. The last time was in 1986. The 1970s and early 1980s were a time when BRS was a loss-making entity for the city council, many of whose councillors were opposed to owning an airport, and there were many calls for it to be closed down.

It was only when the late Les Wilson appeared as managing director in the early 1980s and turned the airport around almost single-handedly that its real potential was recognised and it's been on the up since that time.

The major expansion was badly bogged down with the need to deal with objectors to the extent that the timetable became several years behind that originally set out. With hindsight that might now be considered fortunate because of the recession although BRS was affected later and began to recover earlier than most regional airports and did not suffer the pain of many.

The airport always said the expansion would go ahead incrementally as passenger numbers built, and there has been a lot of preparatory work going on which has been reported in the national and trade press.

Three new aircraft stands were completed last year and the next phase of infrastructure expansion will be the central walkway with the commencement of construction thought to be imminent.

So to summarise, I don't think that the Severnside proposals or the state ownership of CWL will have any bearing on the BRS expansion plans.

My only negative thought is that the sum of £150 million has been mentioned which may seem a lot of money to take annual passenger numbers from 6 mppa to 10 mppa which is the current maximum under the airport's planning consents. If it reaches that number there will be the father and mother of a battle to get planning permission to go beyond it, and the airport accepts that many more than 10 mppa will almost certainly require a second terminal and airline apron on the south side of the airfield (see master plan).

There are a lot of rumours around at present that an important announcement (believed re an airline) will soon be made regarding CWL which ought to give an indication how quickly the airport will get back up towards those good times of a few years ago.