The A1 and A3 Airport Flyer bus services are currently suspended until January 2021. As B_T points out the A1 and A3 are airport-run services albeit operated for them under contact by First West of England using First staff and double-deckers (A3 single-deckers) that are painted in a dedicated airport livery. The A2 is a commercial service operated by First WoE with its double-deckers painted in a different airport livery to the A1 and A3.
The A2, being a public service, is no doubt operating using the government COVID funding to bus companies whereas the A1 and A3 probably don’t qualify being airport-operated services.
A recent press release stated that the A1 and A3 drivers had been moved to other First services whilst these routes remain suspended. Furthermore, some of the airport’s own drivers who operate the airport’s onsite buses (car parks, staff etc) have been taken on by First to operate regular buses around the company’s network in a temporary move until next March.
That would presumably mean fewer car park buses within the airport complex.
My experience over many years is that the A1 picks up and drops off most passengers at Temple Meads for rail connectivity. In normal times it operates six times every hour in both directions for much of the 24-hour period, supplemented by First’s A2 at half-hourly intervals that doesn’t normally call at Temple Meads but serves other parts of the central area.
For many years the A1 has provided through rail ticketing to and from the airport. Currently that service also seems to have been suspended meaning that anyone arriving at Temple Meads by train will have to seek out the temporarily diverted A2 and pay separately, assuming there is room with the number of seats on the bus reduced by 50% because of COVID.
The A1 double-deckers do experience peaks and troughs in their loading, partly because of the peaks and troughs in flight arrivals/departures at the airport. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon to see an A1 leave the airport or Temple Meads fully loaded with some passengers waiting for the next one.
BRS is obviously nowhere near its normal airport passenger throughput at the moment; there are today, for instance, 52 departures across seven airlines including 31 by easyJet which is just under half the usual overall daily number at this time of year. Even so there must still be a significant number of passengers travelling through the airport - last August saw over one million passengers using the airport for the first time in a calendar month. I’m intrigued to know how two buses per hour with reduced seating capacity because of COVID (the A2s) are coping without the assistance of at least some of the normal six A1s per hour.
Perhaps many more passengers are using private transport to reach the airport which would be a bit of an own goal for the airport.
In part of its planning application submission the airport laid great stress on increasing the percentage of passengers using public transport, with guaranteed rates of increase each year on pain of penalty. It also said that the current network and frequency would be maintained, with more bus services planned including new on-demand bus services to Clevedon and Nailsea and an increase in frequency of the A3 (Weston Flyer).
Obviously no-one could have anticipated the COVID situation but to withdraw the airport-operated bus services to/from the airport until next January might not be the best
PR move the airport could have made, especially when at least three of the five commercially operated routes are operating (I'm not sure what's happening with the A5 'village bus' or the South Wales National Express route 216) and at a time when the airport has announced its intention to appeal against the local authority’s rejection of its expansion planning application.