Infrastructure
The minutes of the recent airport consultative committee meeting give some detail about current and future infrastructure developments, viz:
1. The Eastern Terminal Extension currently in process of construction will open on 1 July this year.
2. The Silver Zone Car Park extension is 'progressing well'.
3. The A 38 road works that will improve airport access are due to be completed by the end of this month.
4. Work on the onsite hotel will commence 'shortly' for opening in spring 2016.
5. The planned Western Terminal Extension will include a new security search area.
6. A planning application will be made to extend the basement under the terminal in conjunction with the approved first phase of the Western Terminal Extension. The basement will assist in the provision of facilities and storage.
7. A new Silver Zone Car park reception is in the offing.
The works for the South Bristol Link Road that will connect the A 370 at Ashton and the A 38 just outside the city boundary seem to be about to start with a planned finishing date of 2016. The new Metrobus route from Temple Meads to Ashton where it will link with the South Bristol Link Road also appears about ready for construction to begin with notices at the Redcliffe roundabout warning of major Metrobus route-related work for ten weeks
The link road ought to ease the path of airport-related traffic as the tedious crawl around the Ashton and Bedminster congested suburban streets will be eliminated. Whether the Airport Flyer will use the Metrobus and link road routes hasn’t, so far as I’m aware, been decided. When this Metrobus route was first proposed there was conjecture that the Flyer might use it to reach the link road.
The airport published its passenger figures for April today which show an increase of 7.1% over April 2014 with 539,000 passengers passing through the terminal. After the first four months of the year the airport seems on track to reach the 6.7 mppa forecast by its management before the year started.