CAA Provisional Statistics Update

[TheLocalYokel]

Guernsey

For much of 2012 the monthly CAA stats have not included BRS-GCI despite it being a year-round route.

I've just compiled the 2012 BRS annual passenger figures (see BRS Overview) from CAA stats recently published and BRS-GCI is shown as having carried just 6,833 passengers in 2012, down 72% on 2011.

A check with each month in 2012 confirms that the CAA only showed passenger figures for the route in January, April, May and November and that the totals for these months add up to 6,833.

I've raised doubts before about the accuracy of CAA stats. It seems that around 15,000-20,000 passengers have not been counted on the GCI route in 2012 (the eight months where the CAA showed nil returns) and it leads me to wonder how many other routes are grossly inaccurate in their figures and not just at BRS.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

CAA stats February 2013

355,376 passengers passed through the terminal in February 2013, down 0.7% on February 2012.

Unusually for BRS in recent years monthly atms are up, though only 1.1%, and due largely to the Airbus Corporate Shuttle.

Rolling total stood at 5,908,089, up 2.4% on a year ago.

Broadly flat figures then, though the leap year factor has removed around 3% compared with February 2012 so not too bad at all in the circumstances.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Seat availability 2012

I found an interesting breakdown of seat availability at BRS in 2012 including comparisons with recent years.

The data was tucked away at the foot of a report detailing bmi regional's new routes - see this link (the seat details are at the bottom of the report):

http://www.routesonline.com/news/29/bre ... m-bristol/

The authors seem to have stuck to the ten airlines with the largest share of seats and the total comes 97.9%. The remaining 2.1% would be accounted for by Helvetic, Blue Islands and Aurigny (scheduled) and by charter operators Air Malta, Balkan and Austrian together with airlines not normally seen at BRS operating some of the winter ski charters.

Unsurprisingly the top two are easyJet with 52.9% of available seats and Ryanair with 23.8%, so that these two together account for around three quarters of all Bristol's seats. The next in line is Thomson with 7.6%.

A rough calculation shows that throughout the year right across the board about 80% (or slightly higher) of Bristol's seats were occupied in 2012.

The trend in recent years shows an encouraging slight rise in seat occupancy. 2012 saw 1% fewer seats than 2011 but passenger numbers were up 2.6%, and compared with 2010 there were 4.5% fewer available seats in 2012 but passenger numbers rose in this period by around 3.4%.

 

[alphagolf]

CAA Stats for March 2013

March 2013 Pax: 427,962 UP: 5%

Rolling YTD Pax: 5,927,792 UP: 2.5%

ATM's March: 4,006 UP: 5.8%

Rolling YTD ATM's: 50,658 DOWN: 2.8%

A good set of results for Bristol this month, increase of ATM's I would imagine due to the presence of bmi regional with both there scheduled and charter services.

There is a slight variance in the CAA's own stats between the total Pax numbers and the totals when adding both Dom & Int Pax of 367.

Breaking the figures down between domestic and international makes some interesting reading:-

Domestic (March 2013): 101,787
Domestic (March 2012): 96,965

International (March 2013): 326,542
International (March 2012): 315,088

Well done Bristol :good:

 

[TheLocalYokel]

March 2013

CAA stats show that 427,962 pssengers passed through the BRS terminal in March 2013, up exactly 5% on March 2012. Atms were up 5.8%. Rolling 12-month total was 5,927,792, up 2.5% on the same period last year.

The additional atms were mainly due to the Airbus corporate shuttle, operated by bmi regional, which accounted for fewer than 3,000 passenger in the month (2,200 to Toulouse and 690 to Hawarden).

Stripping out the Airbus corporate shuttle passengers and atms means that the airport would have handled around 425,000 passengers in the month (a rise of over 4%) with atms only marginally up (less than 1%).

Overall, a satisfactory month for BRS in terms of passenger numbers.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Scotland-bound passenger growth lifts Bristol Airport to No 1 slot

More passengers are flying from Bristol Airport to Scotland than from any other UK airport outside London, according to new figures.

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data shows nearly 630,000 journeys were made between Bristol and Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness in 2012 – a 4.5% increase on the previous year.

Bristol Airport’s biggest carrier, easyJet, operates 22 flights a week from Bristol to Edinburgh, 19 to Glasgow, and a daily flight to Inverness.

Just under 300,000 passengers used the Bristol-Edinburgh service alone last year, benefiting from a schedule which includes four flights a day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Glasgow is also served by four flights on a Friday, with three a day on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.

The Aberdeen service operates twice daily with a direct jet service by bmi regional using an Embraer 145. Passengers can check in up to 30 minutes prior to departure and enjoy a free hold baggage allowance of 20kg, as well as complimentary onboard catering.[/textarea]

Full report at: http://swindon-business.net/index.php/2 ... no-1-slot/

 

[TheLocalYokel]

CAA stats April 2013

487,573 passengers used BRS, down 0.7% on April 2012. Atms were up 4.1%. Rolling 12-month total was 5,923,551, up 2.4% on a year ago.

The atm increase has to be placed in context. It was mainly due to the Airbus corporate shuttle operated by bmi regional which accounted for fewer than 3,000 passengers.

The main reason for the admittedly small monthly decline is that charter passengers were down by about 8,000, caused by some late-starting summer routes and earlier-finishing ski routes, and domestic scheduled passengers were down by around 3,000. This was offset to some extent by an increase of around 8,000 scheduled international passengers.

It has to be said though that without the Airbus corporate the percentage decline in April would have been above one per cent.

I've looked at the new bmi regional German routes. Hamburg which started in February and became double daily on weekdays last month averaged 17 passengers per flight, the same sort of figure as in the previous two months, whilst Frankfurt which started on 2 April averaged just 20. HAM is now 2 x daily on weekdays and will use the ERJ 135 (as will Hannover that started this week). The other routes will be 145-operated.

Clearly the loads must pick up. We'll await the summer. In BA franchise days (ended in 2007) the Frankfurt and Munich (which also started this week with bmi regional, as did Milan Malpensa) had average loads in the high 20s throughout the year - obviously higher in summer than in winter. When LH tried the FRA route in 2008-2009 using Bae 146-300s of Eurowings the average loads throughout the year came out in the mid to high 50s, but there were onward connections into the LH mainline network then, something not happening with bmi regional at the moment.

Other key business routes operated by smaller aircraft are Zurich and Brussels. Helvetic carried 1219 passengers in April, an increase of 91% on April 2012, but this year from April they operate 4 x weekly compared with 3 x weekly last year, when the route was a joint one with Cardiff Airport. An encouraging increase but the average load was no more than 36, or a load factor of 42%. Work to be done there clearly then, but things are moving in the right direction.

The same applies to Brussels with the Flybe-operated DH-8-400 on behalf of Brussels Airlines which saw a huge 38% increase over the previous April with 4,240 passengers, but the average load was still around that of Helvetic to ZRH.

Looking ahead to the summer, there is reason to be optimistic. For example, on Friday next (24 May) the first day of the 11th-based easyjet aircraft (another 320), there are 98 airline departures shown in Mayfly, a few more than on midsummer Fridays last year.

Note: In case anyone has read another well-kown aviation forum and thinks I've gone in for some plagiarism, I do have an alter ego.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

CAA stats May 2013

589,428 passengers used the airport in May, up 8.1% on May 2012 and the second best May ever, just 2,000 fewer than the record-breaking year of 2008 when the 6 mppa barrier was breached for the first and so far only time, although 2013 looks on course to be the second.

Atms were up 6.4% and the rolling 12-month figure was 5,967,431, up exactly 3% on the same period a year ago.

A quick look at the new bmi rgional routes figures suggests a mixed bag with Milan and Munich seemingly the best performers but I'll have to check properly when I have more time.

Addendum

Full bmi regional BRS route passenger figures for May now in BRS bmi regional thread.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

June 2013

CAA stats show that 632,704 passengers passed through the airport in the month, up 3.8% on June 2013. Atms were up 9.5%, due to a large degree to the bmi regional Airbus corporate shuttle which actually adds disproportionately small passenger increases.

Rolling 12-month total was 5,990,723 up 2.7% on a year ago.

At this rate the rolling 12-month total may well break the 6 mppa barrier in July - for the first time since 2008.

The June passenger increases featured over 23,000 more passengers than in June 2012 and over 17,000 more than the previous best June which was in 2008.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-c ... corde.aspx

In the above recent BRS press release the airport commented for the first time publicly (so far as I'm aware) on the disparity between its own and the CAA's monthly passenger figures - see below quote.

Bristol Airport is preparing for a busy summer holiday season and has already recorded its busiest June ever last month, with over 625,000* passengers travelling through the terminal. This surpassed the previous record, set in 2008, by 15,000 and with a 3.4 per cent increase on the same month last year.

*Due to differences in the way some flights are recorded, Bristol Airport figures may contain small variances when compared to those reported by the CAA.

For several years I've commented on the monthly disparity - the airport's figures are usually a few thousand below the CAA's - but have never found the reason and the press release doesn't actually clear it up.

Both sets of stats are for terminal passengers - transit passenger numbers can be found in table 02 2 'summary of activity' but are't included when the CAA lists airports in size according to passenger levels.

In June the airport said there were 625,438 terminal passengers passing through BRS whereas the CAA total is 632,704.

There must be people being paid money to gather these figures so why don't they tally?

Small rant over but there should be no reason for two sets of figures on something that should be relatively easy to get right.

 

[kraktoa]

Does BRS figures deduct cancellations and no shows from the CAA figures??

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Does BRS figures deduct cancellations and no shows from the CAA figures??

That could be part of the answer, I suppose, but in June the discrepancy amounted to 7,000 passengers - a lot of cancellations and no shows!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

CAA stats July 2013

Another very satisfactory month!

678,831 passengers were handled, up 3.6% on July 2013. Atms were up 13.3% but, as explained in an earlier post, this is to a considerable extent the result of the Airbus Corporate Shuttle that in fact carries a disproportionately low total of passengers compared with the whole.

These are the best ever July figures (23,000 more than last July, the previous best).

Rolling 12-month total is 6,013,520, up 2.6% on this time last year and the first time the rolling total has exceeded 6 million since 2009.

 

[Ray Finkle]

That's a nice set of numbers especially with it being the best July ever. Good to see the rolling total above 6mill again.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A regular theme in this thread going back to the beginning is the difference in passenger figures each month between those published by BRS and those published by the CAA.

It's been said in the past that the discrepancy is the result of different methods of data collection.

Today I've had an email from a spokesperson at BRS saying: There are variances between our stats and those provided by the CAA. This is due to a number of minor differences including a main issue of infants aged 2 years and under. The CAA includes under 2’s in the total figure, and as an airport we only include fare paying passengers, which is the same as most other airports

So, it seems that it's down to under twos in the main. The CAA is showing nearly 679,000 passengers passing through the terminal in July but the BRS figures are around 7,000 fewer than this.

I wonder if the CAA counts guide dogs as well. :nea:

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Bristol Airport aims high in Devon and Cornwall

Campaign to raise region’s awareness of 100+ destinations

Bristol Airport launches a marketing campaign across Devon and Cornwall today (Monday 2 September) highlighting the wide range of routes available to passengers across the South West.

The campaign comes on the back of significant growth in market share in the two counties which indicates that Bristol is increasingly seen as the airport of choice in the region.

Analysis of data from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority shows that just under a third (33 per cent) of air journeys made by residents of Cornwall have an origin or destination at Bristol Airport, with the number even higher (35 per cent) for Devon*. In total, just under one million passengers from Devon and Cornwall used Bristol Airport last year.

Bristol Airport’s analysis of CAA data estimates that its market share has risen since 2008, when it accounted for around one fifth of the market for air travel in Devon and Cornwall.

Alongside print, radio and outdoor advertising across the region, the Bristol Airport team will be visiting travel agents on both sides of the Tamar during the course of the week. The campaign focuses on the range of destinations available from Bristol (over 100 served by direct flights), offering a convenient alternative to the long trip to airports in London.

Shaun Browne, Aviation Director at Bristol Airport, said:
“Air connectivity is vital to people across the South West, both for business and leisure purposes. Without flights to destinations across the UK and Europe parts of our region would be cut off from the many benefits that travel brings.

“We have seen major structural changes across the regional airport market in the UK since the economic downturn, with the South West particularly hard hit by airfield closures. Our message to people in Devon and Cornwall is that Bristol Airport can fill the gap, with a great range of routes and services which mean that you do not have to go to London when you want a foreign holiday or need to do business overseas.

“Access from the south via the M5 is good, and links to the rail network are better than ever with our Flyer bus operating between the Airport and Bristol Temple Meads station every ten minutes at peak times.

“Serving the wider region is an important part of our vision, both through a comprehensive outbound route network or as a gateway to overseas visitors exploring the fantastic attractions the South West has to offer.”

*Based on analysis of data from the CAA Passenger Survey 2012[/textarea]
BRS press release at http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-c ... hment.aspx

In 2012 around one million BRS journeys were made by people originating/terminating in South Wales and now it's reported that a broadly similar number orginated/terminated in Devon and Cornwall. Both figures, whether actual passenger numbers or as a percentage of BRS's traffic as a whole, are up on surveys/estimates in previous years.

The full CAA passenger survey carried out at BRS in 2012 is yet to be released to the public domain - it's not on the CAA website anyway. When it is made available to the general public it will be interesting to see how the more local passenger numbers fared. In the past around 45-50% of BRS passengers have been from the Greater Bristol (former county of Avon) area which would have been three million in 2012 if this share was maintained.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Airport targets Plymouth after demise of city's airfield

Bristol Airport bosses say they are boosting Plymouth's economy by bringing visitors into the region – on the back of a record summer for passengers.

A team from the airport has been in Plymouth targeting business and leisure custom in the wake of the closure of Plymouth City Airport in late 2011.

But while bosses said they were "saddened" to see the demise of Plymouth's aerodrome, as reported in The Herald yesterday, they said the airfield and its operator Air Southwest didn't have the frequency of flights to key destinations to survive.

Bristol Airport, with a catchment of seven million people within a two-hour radius, is now placing itself as "the region's airport" and pushing its 100-plus direct-flight destinations, and its capacity to hit major international hubs.[/textarea]
Full report: http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/Bristol ... z2dx1V0YiE

This report is further to my previous post. Shaun Browne, BRS aviation director, said, "We've just had our best summer ever. That will probably include our best ever August."

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Bristol Airport enjoys best ever month

Over 700,000 passengers used South West’s leading airport in August

Bristol Airport recorded the busiest month in its history in August, handling over 700,000 passengers in a month for the first time ever. This surpassed the previous record of 691,000 set in the same month back in 2008.

Passenger numbers were up by 4.11 per cent* over August last year and, following record totals for the months of June and July, completed a record-breaking summer. Total annual passenger numbers for 2013 are expected to pass the six million mark for the first time in five years.

New or additional services to Corisca, Frankfurt and Dalaman all proved popular this summer. Business travel is also expected to continue the upward trend seen during the first half of the year following the end of the peak summer holiday season.

Robert Sinclair, Chief Executive Officer at Bristol Airport, said:
“When you consider that approximately the same number of passengers used Bristol Airport this August as passed through the old terminal in an entire year just over two decades ago, it puts the scale of this milestone in perspective and shows how far we have come.

“Our record-breaking summer is a positive sign that consumer confidence is returning, which is good news for the South West economy as a whole. More and more people across the region are choosing Bristol when travelling for leisure or business, demonstrating the important role regional airports can play in meeting local demand for air travel.

“The next major landmark in our sights is 7 million passengers per annum, which we hope to achieve in the next two to three years as we work towards our goal of becoming a world-leading regional airport handling 10 million passengers each year.”

In 2012, Bristol Airport’s passenger numbers rose for the third successive year, up 2.8 per cent to 5.9 million, making Bristol the only airport in the UK’s top ten to see growth each year since the end of 2009.

Bristol Airport is the UK’s fifth largest airport outside London and the ninth largest in the UK. Planning permission is in place to develop and enhance facilities to enable Bristol Airport to handle 10 million passengers per annum. Development commenced in November 2011 and the first of more than 30 separate projects – the construction of three new aircraft stands – was completed in spring 2012. Other major components include an extension to the terminal building to almost double its size; a new multi-level car-park with public transport interchange on its top level; and an on-site hotel.

*Due to differences in the way some flights are recorded, Bristol Airport figures may contain small variances when compared to those reported by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).[/textarea]

BRS press release: http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-c ... month.aspx

In CAA terms this is likely to be the second month where the airport saw over 700,000 passengers with over 704,000 being handled in August 2008.

The difference in figures is mainly down to BRS not including under 2s in its stats which the CAA does.

If another million passengers per year in the next two or three years does come about the need for terminal expansion will be even more obvious.

 

[Marko1]

Very good results for august. Just a question . Does anyone have any ideas where an extra million is likely to come from. Easyjet has what i would call a mature base with little expansion over the last few years ( only copenhagen and naples being new routes) and ryanair switching to using other bases to operate bristol services. Could we see another airline or two. Just look at how east midlands supports threr low cost airlines on the most popular routes.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The likelihood is that the bulk of any increase will come from existing routes with increased frequencies/larger aircraft (more easyjet 320s for starters).

There are some obvious gaps in the network still - Scandinavia for one - but no doubt some current routes will disappear as is the way of things.

A situation that needs some rectification is the winter.

Like most regional airports BRS is polarising on the summer months (April-October). If the winter months this year had equalled those in 2008 (and before for that matter) 2013 would turn out to be the best ever year, beating 2008's 6.2 mppa.

Although June, July and August this year were the best ever for those months, there were well over 200,000 fewer passengers in Jan, Feb and March (in total) this year than in 2008. April and May this year were almost identical to 2008 and November and December will be closer to 2008 than the early winter months this year if last year is a guide.