Bristol: Passenger Reviews, Q&A, and Travel Advice

[8mileshigh]

We recently returned from a short break in Ireland flying into Belfast with EasyJet as we were mainly in County Donegal.
Our flight out was early on the first Saturday of the school holidays, had to have a bag in the hold, so as we live nearby took advantage of the twilight bag drop. Quick and easy with a pass to use the short stay car park for free. Taxi picked us up in South Bristol at 04:30, we had pre booked fast track security for £5 each and to my surprise we were in the departure lounge at 5am. This was busy but there are about 40 departures before 9am. The flight was full and boarded from a contact stand on time arriving early in Belfast.
Return flight was at 21;45 on the following Wednesday, looking on FR24 the aircraft was late back in earlier from Italy. It had a long layover then did Faro return and then to Belfast, To my amazement it arrived in Belfast early, quickly boarded and then left early again. Load was probably about 60%, not unusual on this flight.
We landed early and were parked on stand 12, the captain shut down the engines before the stand and we were then towed onto stand by a tug, something I didn’t realise happened, is this standard procedure? Then coach to terminal and bags already on the belt.
I know there are issues with car parking due to the redevelopment of the long stay car park, experience told us to use taxis. Altogether though a good experience in peak season

 

[Aviador]

Thanks for the full rundown @8mileshigh I haven't heard of aircraft being towed onto stand before at BRS either. I've just been looking at the Group Ops procedures for BRS and I cant find anything suggesting certain stands require being towed onto stand.

 

[8mileshigh]

Half term trip to Rhodes using EasyJet Holidays. We were on the 06:50 departure on the Sunday morning, again took advantage of the twilight bag drop with free car parking in the short stay car park. It appears that the new multi storey car park is in use although the public transport interchange is not yet complete. Arrow taxi from south Bristol at 04:10 half price fast track security booked in advance and in the departure lounge at 04:40. The area was busy but seats were easily found.
Work on extending the building towards stands 1-3 looked well advanced and hopefully will be in use soon.
On boarding the captain came into the cabin and announced an hours slot delay due to Rhodes restrictions, he invited families with kids to visit the cockpit and then within 5 minutes the slot vanished and we were away. Good customer relations from the crew. Flight was on an A321, comfortable enough for a four hour flight.
Rhodes Airport is one of the better Greek airports I’ve used, quickly through immigration and customs arriving and when we dropped the bags for our return there were no queues either at bag drop or at security and immigration. The departure lounge has floor to ceiling windows all along the ramp side giving unrestricted views of the ramp and runway.
Flight back was slightly delayed due to a slot restriction but some time was made up. Back at Bristol there was some queuing due in some part to the work in progress. However we were through within about 30 minutes and on our way home.

 

[t.ash.27]

Fairly quiet at the airport this morning. Bag drop and through security in under 20 minutes! Lots of seats available but departure boards not working.
Appalling response from staff to a passenger having a medical emergency

 

[Aviador]

Appalling response from staff to a passenger having a medical emergency

Can you give more details?

 

[Aviador]

I've been reading some of the highly revealing TripAdvisor comments on Bristol's new £60m transport interchange. From an asset management perspective, the design appears to be a textbook success. By multi layering the infrastructure stacking a 16 bay public transport hub, a massive 2,000 space multi storey car park extension, and the main drop-off zones into a single vertical footprint, BRS has pulled off a massive land maximisation plan other similar sized airports may seek to replicate. It segregates public transport vehicles from private cars perfectly, unlocks a ton of high yield non aeronautical commercial space such as a new M&S Foodhall, and it physically clears the terminal forecourt to make way for Farrans' massive £30m terminal extension project.

However, reading the reviews from afar, the classic friction between operational efficiency and basic passenger convenience seems to be out in full force. The public feedback is heavily critical of the new vertical flow. Reviewers are venting about the multi level transit process having to negotiate lifts, escalators, and that long, glazed bridge link just to reach the check-in desks. There are also plenty of complaints about peak wave gridlock at the automated payment barriers on the top tiers when the low-cost morning departures hit all at once.

Watching the rollout from a distance, it looks like a classic case of an airport building an incredibly smart, highly monetised transport engine that checks every box for future 12-million passenger capacity, but at the cost of the quick, seamless "regional" transit experience BRS used to be known for.

For those on the forum who have actually used the new interchange during the current summer rush, how do you feel it is holding up? Is the terminal bridge link a smooth experience with heavy bags, or does the vertical design feel like a bottleneck when a few full flights land at the same time?

 

[tpm]

I always take the bus, so can't speak to how busy the MSCP lifts are at peak times, but it's not like other airports don't have similar problems at peak times (e.g. at Heathrow after arriving at one of the satellite terminals that's connected by a people mover train, we had to wait for a train to come that even had some space because the first three were so full you couldn't even get on; similarly with the lifts up from the Heathrow Express platforms, you might have to wait a bit sometimes).

That "glazed bridge link" at Bristol is really not very long, I'd say 50m at most. And then another 50m to get to the terminal.

My main gripe is that

1. The terminal forecourt is not covered, so if it rains you and your luggage get soaked before you even get to the terminal. There is/was a plan to have a canopy, at least according to images from the planning application/consultation. I don't know if that's still coming or was quietly shelved though.
2. There is no entrance in the center of the terminal which would be the shortest path from the bridge. Instead you have to go to either the entrance at the left of the main terminal building or to the right, and then once inside circle back to the middle to go up the stairs to security.

As a bus user I of course prefer the setup from the good old times where the A1 would drop you off right in front of the terminal entrance and pick you up from right in front of the terminal entrance, but times change and I can see how that's not really sustainable.

I think the new transport hub is great, and that 24/7 M&S is very nice too. Not just for convenience, but it also makes the whole place feel safer and more pleasant. And of course one can wait "inside" the hub area by the M&S where there are some seats and also toilets.

I think we have to remember how it was before: There was no MSCP, only long rows of surface parking. This is of course ca. 10-20m below than the terminal, so everyone first had to drag their luggage from the far corner of the car park towards the middle, and then up to the terminal either via stairs (!) or via long-winded ramps. Not to mention two busy road crossings. I for one would rather wait 5 minutes for a lift than do that again! From the top of the transport hub it's all level to the terminal entrance then, that's definitely a major improvement.

Also, for a while (years, I think) the transport hub would also be all the way down there between the hotel and the first MSCP. I for one am happy to no longer have to lug my bags up those stairs/ramps.

There are still things that could be improved. There's not enough seating by the bus bays. Doesn't have to be proper benches, just some perch benches would be great already.

Secondly, the real-time information for buses is lacking. Theoretically it all looks great, but sometimes I show up a few minutes before the scheduled departure time of an A1, and there is no sign of it anywhere and none coming by in the next 15-20 minutes either. What happened here? Was it cancelled? Did it leave early? Are the scheduled timings displayed not accurate? Your guess is as good as mine! Less important during the day time, but later at night it's really grating when you show up 5 minutes before a scheduled departure and there's no bus and the next one is scheduled in 30-60 minutes.