Hello again G3jetman.
Interesting quote from the CEO, Robert Sinclair, who said, “These figures are a very positive signal that the South West economy is moving in the right direction. The resurgence in business travel has been particularly strong with several airlines, including KLM and Brussels Airlines, adding capacity on routes to major European hub airports. We expect this growth to continue throughout 2013,
with further route announcements in the pipeline.”
BRS has been consistent in its passenger growth over many years.
Looking back at the CAA stats to 1968 there have been only six years since then when annual passenger figures fell against the previous year, viz, 1969, 1974, 1985, 1990, 1996 and 2009.
When it's considered that through much of the 1970s BRS was a loss-making airport that the city council didn't know what to do with - there were calls from some quarters for its closure as it was something of a drain on the city rates - its current situation is remarkable, even more so having regard to its less than desirable location, constricted site and awkward surface access.
Many people from Les Wilson's days onwards have worked very hard to turn the place into England's third busiest regional airport, eclipsed only by two airports serving far larger catchments.
The unanswerable question is: how big would Bristol's airport be now if it had been moved to a better site when Whitchurch was closed in the 1950s?
Was such a site available then?
Anyway, we are where we are and Lulsgate is now the only game in town and ever likely to be - and it hasn't done at all badly.