I'm certainly no apologist for BRS. My association with the airport is as a relatively local resident and as a passenger user of many decades and, although in general I find the facility suits my needs very well for short haul and some long haul via hubs (there are times when the London airports or sometimes BHX make more sense for me for long haul), I'm not uncritical at times, but that's the case with most if not all airports I've used when being picky.
I believe strongly that BRS has been extremely fortunate in the high quality of its senior management beginning with the late and legendary Les Wilson, with seemingly supportive owners since privatisation. For too long in city council ownership the elected representatives didn't know whether they wanted an airport or not and some wanted to be rid of their loss-making airport entirely. The same applied to the loss-making docks at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury which have also enjoyed a remarkable renaissance since being handed by the city council to the private sector (on a 150-year lease in this case).
The master plan of a decade ago that included the huge outline expansion plans now approved was delayed in execution for several years mainly by the need to overcome the many objections raised by the highly-organised opponents. The recession then took a hold on the economy with the inevitable negative affect on the aviation industry although BRS was affected later and to a lesser degree and began to recover earlier than many regional airports in this country.
Nevertheless, passenger numbers did not keep pace with the original master plan projections after 2008 which is a major factor in the pace of the infrastructure expansion as the airport had always said it would be carried out incrementally as passenger traffic increased.
In fact, in recent years such things as additional aircraft stands and the central walkway that's nearing completion have seen some of the expansion planks put in place, and since part privatisation in 1997/full privatisation in 2001 there have been numerous amelioration schemes of one sort of another with, at an estimate, approaching £100 million spent in that time.
16 months ago two frameworks of 13 contractors were signed in order to avoid the costly and time-consuming EU procurement rules when the expansion plans moved forward. The extension of the main terminal to the west appears to be moving forward - I read somewhere recently that work will begin within two years - with a design contractor appointed two years ago.
I'm not aware of any plans by EXT and CWL to match this scale of infrastructure expansion apart from the Western Gateway proposals at CWL which at this stage appear no more than a wish.
Given their track record I'm confident that BRS will be expanded by the current management/owners as demand dictates. It's just a pity that the physical limitations of the place present such an obstacle to what could be realistically achieved at a more suitable site, but that's the fault of previous generations and BRS is not the only airport in the wrong place by any means.