Route Development

[TheLocalYokel]

Wouldn't it be nice to see a few new airlines operating from brs. Bit jealous of bhx today

Yes it would, not least to ease the growing easyJet monopoly a bit.

 

[forest1979]

Aside from the runway restrictions (or maybe frustratingly it is just that) why do we think bristol isn't on the list of airlines who have new aircraft coming that can do the East coast or Middle East for example? At nearly at 8 million passengers a year, bristol itself is a big city, plenanty of business and wealth plus a whole part of the country that has to bypass bristol to get to the likes of BHX to use for example the new primera air services.. I just find it really hard that they haven't landed something to really write home about.. Norwegian fir me is the one to try and nail..
maybe a new CEO, team will bring some fresh energy.. if it doesn't and CWL for example countinue to attract and have a diverse mix of airlines then I fear growth may stall while others continue to grow around us. BHX is a great example over the last couple of years but again you wonder why it has taken a while to achieve what it has given just the population and demographics of the city

 

[Jerry]

Aside from the runway restrictions (or maybe frustratingly it is just that) why do we think bristol isn't on the list of airlines who have new aircraft coming that can do the East coast or Middle East for example?

With the Middle East BRS were really gazumped by CWL with Qatar and that future service might put off any of the other ones and they tend to do a lot of cargo as well so that might be a problem. I believe Emirates are looking at 787 9 and 10 version. With the East Coast of the US there does seem to be a new set of airlines looking at TATL now so who knows but like Qatar then a low cost airline might be tempted by any offer made by the Welsh government. Look at Norwegian at BFS. The Welsh government do want a TATL link especially as it would boost inbound welsh tourism as well. So it will be a case of wait and see for both airports.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I agree that Qatar was a huge surprise, probably a shock, to the airport. The 787-8 would have had no trouble from the BRS runway on such a relatively short long-haul route as Doha. The runway could not have been a factor there. Maybe the lack of cargo facilities was but it would be a surprise if cargo had been the clincher. Commercially there would seem to have been only one horse in the race, given the size and make-up of the BRS catchment, both business and leisure.

But that one horse fell. To plagiarise Conan Doyle, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." What remained, and it wasn't that improbable really, is that CWL was able to benefit from the Welsh Government being able to speak to the Qatari government at governmental level and negotiate on matters beyond the actual air route which itself had become a driver. The local councils around Bristol are as much use as a chocolate teapot in that sort of thing. I don't blame them - they haven't the funding of a government or the high level government contacts.

Given its less than promising site, location, difficult surface connectivity and weather BRS has worked miracles in the past 15 years to get to 8 mppa. It's still growing and short of a horrendous Brexit or something similar I don't see that growth slowing down that much. With easyJet averaging load factors over 92% throughout the year on its 60-plus route network the strength of the catchment is demonstrated.

BRS might have to accept that it's a short-haul airport. Its current master plan all but accepts that, certainly in terms of scheduled flights, with less than a handful of long haul scheduled destinations reckoned to be viable. The new master plan that will be worked up over the next year might change things.

BRS isn't dong too badly with its list of airlines: Aer Lingus Regional (Stobart), Air Malta, Aurigny, bmir, BACF, Brussels Airlines (admittedly operated on their behalf by bmir), easyJet, Flybe operating for Blue Islands, KLM Cityhopper, Ryanair, Thomas Cook, TUI, Wizz Air, WOW plus the likes of Air Europa, Austrian, BH Air, CityJet, Enter Air, Freebird, Jet2, Neos, Titan operating regular charter flights according to season.

A transatlantic scheduled service would be welcome but would it necessarily increase the airport's profits (their raison d'etre) or improve the local economy to a significant degree? I've seen no evidence that the daily (less in winter) CO BRS-EWR had a major effect on the local economy during its five and a half years operation. Bristol is at the end of the M4 corridor and is able to do extremely well on the back of LHR which in truth is not that far away, particularly from some areas of Greater Bristol.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the airport is working hard to attract more airlines, more routes and increased frequencies on existing ones. They have been doing this for many years with no small success. Knowing some of those involved, I am certain they won't rest on their laurels.

 

[Marko1]

It will be interesting to see what direction the airport will go firstly with the appointment of a new CEO plus the new master plan. Personally I would like to think that we could be aiming for a few new airlines to mix it up a little as I think there is becoming a reliance on easyjet to keep providing the airports growth. I wonder whether the likes of Pegasus , Norwegian , vueling , Swiss , blue air could somehow be tempted . Qatar was a massive blow and somehow I think that has blown future long haul chances so now let's focus on providing a choice of airlines , frequencies and fares to suit everyone .

 

[Kernow Bravo]

Wouldn't it be nice to see a few new airlines operating from brs. Bit jealous of bhx today

OK, so Primera is starting flights at BHX, but let's not forget that UA are pulling out, so it's not all good news.

Low cost long haul seems to be flavour of the month, but it remains to be seen whether such a model will work without interlining capabilities once stateside.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Routes Online

I came across this article published a couple of months ago in Routes Online which gives an overview of the airport's progress and a look forward.

CEO Robert Sinclair (moving on to LCY in the near future) features in the article and says that he is reasonably confident that the good growth of 2017 will carry on into 2018. (This would mean nine consecutive years of growth following the recession-led blip of 2009 which had been preceded by 12 consecutive years of growth - my italics).

When talking about a possible North American route he says the airport's proximity to the Thames corridor is an advantage but on the flip side LHR has many daily New York services. He continues to suggest that the airport will gain ME and NYC routes at some point but I think that's just something he would be expected to say. He's been saying it for a number of years.

The spectre of Brexit looms in the article but overall it seems positive.

http://www.routesonline.com/news/29...-on-americas-and-middle-east-network-targets/

 

[Kernow Bravo]

Brexit is definitely the elephant in the room, which is why I think that, if only for contingency reasons, BRS should be targeting the reintroduction of ZRH (preferably on LX, using BM codeshare if necessary) as a high priority. It is also an opportunity for LX in the event that KL/EI/SN/LH are unable to continue operating connecting services as they do currently, even if only temporarily.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Brexit is definitely the elephant in the room, which is why I think that, if only for contingency reasons, BRS should be targeting the reintroduction of ZRH (preferably on LX, using BM codeshare if necessary) as a high priority. It is also an opportunity for LX in the event that KL/EI/SN/LH are unable to continue operating connecting services as they do currently, even if only temporarily.

Taking up Kernow Bravo's remarks about Brexit I've had a look at BRS's eastern and central European routes in the June CAA stats, ie those countries that were in the former Soviet Bloc, because a number of these routes will likely suffer in the event of a severe restriction on free movement.

Hungary
Budapest - Ryanair 4,765 passengers, average load 183.3, load factor 97.0%

Lithuania
Kaunas - Ryanair, 4,430, 184.6, 97.7%

Romania
Bucharest - Ryanair, 2,889, 180.6, 95.5%

Bulgaria
Sofia - Wizz Air, 3135, 156.8, 87.1%

Czech Republic
Prague - easyJet, 5,466, 151.8, 97.3%

Slovak Republic
Kosice - Wizz Air, 2014, 167.8, 93.2% - route ended after 19 June

Poland
Gdansk - Ryanair, 3,333, 185.2, 98.0%

Poznan - Ryanair, 2,966, 185.4, 98.1%

Rzeszow - Ryanair, 3,391, 188.4, 99.7%

Wroclaw - Ryanair, 2,962, 185.1, 97.9%

Warsaw Modlin - Ryanair, 6,296, 185.2, 98.0%

Warsaw Chopin - Wizz Air, 2,959, 164.4, 91.3%

Katowice - Wizz Air, 3395, 169.8, 94.3%

Krakow - Ryanair and easyJet, 10,326

The total number of passengers was 58,327 which was 6.84% of the overall number at BRS in June. The load factors for the most part are very high although, as ever, we don't know the yields. It does show the importance of these routes to the airport though as the footfall from them is high, albeit anecdotal evidence suggests that passengers on many of these routes are not big spenders on ancillary items at the airport.

 

[Marko1]

Greece seems to be on the up at the moment but I can't help wondering why there isn't more scheduled services available. Particularly to Rhodes and where I currently am in Mykonos. Lovely place that would be particularly popular for better off than average Bristolians ( I'm not staying , on a cruise ). I wonder why easyJet hasn't to date added more routes to this region other than the 2 currently and 1 to b launched this autumn

 

[TheLocalYokel]

CAA stats show a very mixed picture for BRS and Greece in June.

Salonika has been dropped by Thomson
Skiathos down 22%
Rhodes down 7%
Kos down 51%
Santorini down 20%
Chania up 35%
Corfu up 19%
Heraklion up 2 %
Kefalinnia up 89%
Zakinthos up 3%

One or two of the drops might be because in 2016 there were 5 Wednesdays and 5 Thursdays in June whilst in 2017 there were 5 Thursdays and 5 Fridays. So depending on the day of flight there might have been 4 instead of 5 rotations on some in 2017.

For all that I'm surprised to see the scale of some of the percentage drops, especially given the airport's overall very strong performance in June.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Tunisia

Thomas Cook and Thomson planning to re-start services to Tunisia from Bristol next year, although Thomson seems more guarded in its approach.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/flights-operator-bristol-airport-tunisia-258037

 

[kraktoa]

Tunisia

Thomas Cook and Thomson planning to re-start services to Tunisia from Bristol next year, although Thomson seems more guarded in its approach.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/flights-operator-bristol-airport-tunisia-258037

Nothing bookable yet.

The Russians thankfully turned up in huge numbers on cut price deals the last 2 years. That allowed the big hotels to function and not get moth balled. Now the germans and italians are returning. Hope Brits fly soon as the FCO advise has been amended last week on its website. No more advisorys against travel to all parts of Tunisia even though they are in a state of govt imposed emergency.

I will indeed go if flights resume to the packaged beaches.

 

[superking]

I see tcx released flights to Tunisia from a few English airports nothing released for BRS. Do we know if any thing will happen for a service from BRS weather its TCX or TUI.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I see tcx released flights to Tunisia from a few English airports nothing released for BRS. Do we know if any thing will happen for a service from BRS weather its TCX or TUI.

LGW, MAN, BHX, GLA and NCL I believe. Seems odd that there is nothing in the South West especially as TCX are apparently expanding their BRS programme next summer.

For an airport handling over 8 mppa and serving one of the wealthiest catchments in the UK BRS does seem to be overlooked on occasions. Even the Transport Secretary (Grayling) admitted earlier this year he hadn't realised how busy BRS was.

Perhaps the airport needs another drum-beating boss in the Les Wilson mould, although airlines already serving the airport would know of its strengths and weaknesses.

I seem to remember something being published somewhere (can't remember where) a few weeks ago suggesting that both TUI and TCX would be considering re-starting flights to Tunisia from BRS next year, although I think that TUI seemed a bit more positive about it than TCX.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Rumours of a Bristol Jet2 base in S18

The above post appeared in the BHX thread today. The poster is usually very well informed on BHX matters.

 

[Aviador]

The above post appeared in the BHX thread today. The poster is usually very well informed on BHX matters.

It would be natural progression considering they made the leap into the South with Birmingham and Stansted. Jet2 is not shy on taking on the big airlines and given Ryanair's stance on Brexit, Jet2 could capitalise on their failure to release routes soon enough.

 

[Marko1]

I like to be positive on this but I was positive on Qatar too

 

[Jerry]

The last time there was a rumour of a new airline at BRS they ended up announcing that they'll fly to Cardiff. Maybe it'll happen again? It's a case of wait and see!

 

[andrewgreen]

Does the rumour actually say Bristol or the Southwest ?