The BFC complex on the south side of the airfield is effectively a second terminal that's used by air taxis, bizjets and the like as well as aviation industry shuttles for Airbus (Toulouse and Hawarden which alone sees around 2,500-3,000 passengers per month) and BAE (Walney Island), with a stated intention of building their business to cater for a much larger number of business flights.
It seems that passengers for larger aircraft will no longer have to use the BRS main terminal now that the BFC complex with its two passenger lounges has been given the clearance described in Pandy's linked report.
I note that BRS has featured prominently in recent discussion in the BHX thread, with particular reference to long haul and airport profitability. Perhaps this post in the BHX thread might find a more appropriate home in the BRS thread.
I will reopen that old chestnut about Lusgate (BRS) being built out of an old farm with little hope of runway expansion and suggest CWL has a better chance of longhaul operations in the future.
If Filton were to remain an option then I'm sure it would have been a good second London airport with all the motorway and rail connections. However the council have chosen otherwise so poor passengers have to navigate in and out of the city centre on the A38 with very little in way of transportation apart from an odd bus connection.
The Filton issue is certainly arguable and it's been discussed at length in this thread in the past. Briefly, the city council opted to move to Lulsgate in 1957 when they closed Whitchurch Arport because it was too small to develop (a familiar theme?) and bought the former wartime RAF Lulsgate Bottom site next to the A38 which was then the main artery from the North and Midlands to the South West.
Rumour (myth?) has it that they could have relocated to Filton at that time as tenants of the then Bristol Aeroplane Company but chose Lulsgate as they would be the owner/occupiers. In the 1990s BAE, by then the Filton owners, tried to turn Filton into a city airport but, following a public enquiry, the application was rejected by the secretary of state.
The Filton runway was closed at the end of last year by BAE as not being viable (although the various aviation-related industries in and around the site that employ many thousands remain) and isn't going to be reopened despite it turning a profit £1.6 million in 2012.
"Unviable" Filton Airfield made £1.6m before closure | Bristol Post
I think the suggestion that BRS has 'the odd bus connection' slightly underplays the reality.
The Flyer bus (operated for the airport by First Bristol) runs throughout each 24-hour period with 10-minute frequency in both directions from early morning to mid evening, thereafter slightly less frequently and roughly hourly through the night. It carries about 10% of BRS's near 6 mppa and has through ticketing with rail, National Express and local buses. In additon there is a coach from Swansea, Cardiff and Newport that runs hourly at times (two-hourly at other times) for about 20 hours a day with an hourly double-decker bus from Bath again for about 20 hours each day.
It's true there is 'an odd bus' that runs at two-hourly intervals during the day between Weston-super-Mare and Bristol via numerous villages and the airport but it sees relatively little airport traffic.
Moves are afoot to improve road access around south-west Bristol to/from the airport.
Transport scheme will improve Airport journey ? Bristol Airport
As to how the airport reports its profits (also discussed in the BHX thread) I'll leave that to those who have the details. I haven't.