CAA stats show that BRS handled 8,234,086 terminal passengers in the year, up 8.3% on 2016.
2018 is expected to see a smaller increase both in numbers and in percentage terms than recent years but should still take the airport well past 8.5 mppa.
Most of the growth will be concentrated on easyJet (15 based aircraft with a 16th for peak summer - was 14 in summer 2017); TUI (2 x B757s and 2 x B738s based - an increase of one B738 over summer 2017); Thomas Cook (2 x A321s and 1 x A320 based, an increase of 1 x A320 over summer 2017).
Ryanair has today announced a new route for next winter - Seville at 2 x weekly. They operated this route in summer 2010 and summer 2011. A few weeks ago easyJet also announced they would be flying to Seville at 2 x weekly from 2 June but their announcement spoke only of a summer route.
Even with the Airbus connection between Bristol and Seville two airlines on the route might be too much.
Ryanair also announced today that their Valencia route would continue through next winter at 2 x weekly. Previously it was summer-only and was in fact switched to Castellon in 2015 but returns to Valencia next month.