The seemingly inexorable rise in passenger numbers showed no signs of abating in August, with 641,000 using the airport according to CAA stats. This is a record monthly total and is up 5.7% over August 2006. My dodgy maths makes that an average of in excess of 20,000 per day, and Ryanair hasn’t even opened its base yet.
According to the Bristol Evening Post, the major planning applications re the proposed £80 million expansion will now be submitted in November – yet another slippage in time.
With the rolling twelve-month passenger total now 5.8 million, and likely to grow significantly in the next year, the commencement of what will undoubtedly be a protracted planning process cannot begin soon enough.
Another snippet from the aforementioned local rag is that a BRS management team is visiting the annual World Route Development Forum, this year being held in Stockholm, with a Canadian route top of their agenda. At last year’s forum the airport failed to secure a route to Canada but who is to say the renowned persuasiveness of the BRS negotiating team won’t do the biz this time?
Also on the airport wish list are German routes, with FRA being specifically mentioned, and Seville, where a lot of traffic is expected to be generated in connection with the new Airbus facility there.
The mention of FRA is interesting as it could suggest the airport is not yet as close to securing a route as some had believed.