BRISTOL

[Devonair]

In the light of Easyjet announcing a Toulouse route from Bristol, I wonder if Flybe will shift their route down the M5 to Exeter as they seem to be doing with Bergerac.

[MerchantVenturer]

Obviously very good news for users of BRS and for jobs, although doubtless the NIMBYs and other opponents of the airport’s expansion will throw up their hands in horror again.

Still no sign of an easyJet Paris route which has long been rumoured.

Poland and the new French destinations ought to be popular – there is a large Polish community in the West Country, centred around Bristol (there has even been recruitment of Poles to come over and drive the buses in Bristol and Bath in recent times), and the second home owners and their visitors will doubtless take advantage of the new destinations in France. I presume the Croatia route will be summer-only.

I wonder now what will happen to Flybe at BRS. This airline has already reduced its Bordeaux, Bergerac and Belfast City rotations out of BRS. There has been speculation that the reduction in the BHD route was due to easyJet’s competing BRS-BFS service.

Now easyJet is going head to head with Flybe on the Toulouse route and daily at that (easy’s other new routes out of BRS are not daily). Will there be enough traffic for two airlines flying daily, even with the aerospace connection, or will one throw in the towel? In fact, according to the Bristol Filton Airport website there is a Mon to Fri Airbridge route from there to Toulouse as well, presumably only for aerospace staff and others having official business.

Devonair's muse might well turn out to be correct, although Flybe's Bristol-Bergerac will continue to operate this summer, but at a reduced schedule compared to previous years.

[WATABENCH]

Great news for BRS, keep em coming, by the way the FCA BRS-CUN operates via MAN OB and direct IB, another month or so and we should find out about charter routes for 2007 summer, hopefully some nice new routes may be amongst those lot too!
I'd like to see a route to Almeria from BRS, i'd of thought it'd go quite well once a week on BY or FCA

[WOWBOY]

What is ahppening at BRS today:

Arrivals:

1600 BA4028 MUNICH - DIVERTED TO BIRMNGHAM
1650 WOW486 NEWQUAY - ESTIMATED 1900
1700 WOW305 MANCHESTER - DIVERTED TO PLYMOUTH
1825 T34537 DURHAM TEES - DIVERTED TO EXETER
1835 OL889 BREMEN - DIVERTED TO FILTON
1845 T34507 ABERDEEN - DIVERTED TO EXETER
1915 BA4089 PARIS-CDG - DIVERTED TO BIRMINGHAM

Departures

1720 WOW486 LEEDS/BRAD - CANCELLED
1725 WOW306 MANCHESTER - CANCELLED
1950 BA4042 EDINBURGH - BY ROAD TO BHX

[caaardiff]

Cardiff had a few diverts too, must be weather - fog has been bad in South Wales. A Bmibaby diverted to BHX and a BY diverted into BRS around 17.00 - looks like they were lucky to get in there.

[MerchantVenturer]

A look at the BRS website arrivals page suggests it is the smaller aircraft that have been unable to land at BRS this evening. The weather has been foggy but fortunately the wind has been out of the west which means that runway 27 has been the operational runway.

This runway is equipped with Cat 3 ILS, which seems to have facilitated those aircraft with Cat 3 capability to land at BRS this evening. Those that are not so equipped (mainly the turbo props and smaller regional jets) appear to be the ones that have diverted.

Interesting that the OLT from Bremen got in at Filton, just across the city. Shows how local the serious fog is, but of course the hill on which BRS sits gets more than its fair share of the murk and mist.

[682ft AMSL]

To assist with a small project, could anyone with BRS knowledge share with me the airlines / routes that have been attracted to the airport following it's purchase by Macquarie back in 2000. Any info on how they have invested in the airport & any general feedback on the benefits on having an established private airport operator at the helm would be welcomed. PM me if required.

Many thanks

682

[Kellycsi]

OLT at Filton

Can anybody confirm if the OLT flight to Bremen via Hamburg still routes through Filton before Bristol. I drive pass Filton every morning and have noticed the OLT Saab there several mornings recently.
It always used to fly from Filton for the Airbus employees before starting thier service from BIA.
I know that Airbus gives them a lot of business so do they pop into Filton first, pick up the Airbus employees then hop to Bristol and pick up the public? This would make them more money I suppose?
Anybody got the answer?

[redfield]

The OLT hasn't been scheduled through Filton since it started flying from BRS: its been in Filton a couple of times recently due to the fog; pax have been checked-in at BRS.

[MerchantVenturer]

Originally Posted by MerchantVenturer

For some reason the monthly provisional figures (CAA stats) for the CO BRS-EWR route have been corrected upwards in recent months when the final figures are published. This does not seem to happen to other BRS routes or to other EWR routes from the UK.............On this basis expect the final Jan figure to work out in the low 5,000s.

The CAA stats have indeed been amended for the BRS-EWR route and now show 5008 pax used it in January. If there were 22 rotations this works out around 114 pax per flight or 66% average load factor.

As was said earlier in this thread, not great but the Jan-Feb period is traditionally a relatively poor performer on many routes and, as always, we don't know the yield.

[fyrefli]

Atrocious Weather

Originally Posted by MerchantVenturer

A look at the BRS website arrivals page suggests it is the smaller aircraft that have been unable to land at BRS this evening. The weather has been foggy but fortunately the wind has been out of the west which means that runway 27 has been the operational runway.

I came in on EZY6162 from AMS and the viz was dreadful. Wasn't so much fog as cloud pretty much all the way to the deck; dreadful viz, held for 10 mins 'cos we needed the landy to guide us down to the taxiway and on to stand (PF said it was something blocking the taxiway but I think that was a "lie to children").

Probably the lowest viz I've ever flown in - even including a surreal day we were launching one at a time through sea fog for a bit of soaring on the front of the cloud at Rhossili!

Cheers,

Rich.

[WOWBOY]

Hi,

I would just like to ask what check-in desks are assingned to which airlines?

and

Are all Air Southwest operstions still handled by BA? when the based aircraft arrives will they still be handled by ba?


Regards
WOWBOY

[rampboy767]

Since BA already do the in house services like check in, gate and dispatch for Air southwest they will do the same once an based aircraft is here in april and serivsair will do all ground handling operations along side BA dispatching the aircraft like they do at present. BA provide services like dispatch and checkin for other airlines like SN Brussels, Eastern Airways & BA Connect, with all ground handling operations by serivsair.

[MerchantVenturer]

Originally Posted by WOWBOY

Hi,
I would just like to ask what check-in desks are assingned to which airlines?
WOWBOY

This link ought to help.

http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/flig...res_board.aspx

It seems that most of the time BA-checked-in flights, including WOW, use desks 22-26.

[WATABENCH]

WOWBOY, i thinks its only BA, Continental, Easyjet and First Choice that have dedicated desks at BRS, others dont have dedicated desks as such but usually check-in in the same areas, BY usually next to EZY, KL/BE/EI and other sched usually next to BA and other charters usually in 2nd check-in hall next to FCA desks.
Hope that helps you.

[WATABENCH]

If anyones interested the Airbus A380 will be in Filton on 10th June, just for all you spotters out there!
No idea of times but was on local BBC website www.bbc.co.uk/bristol

[Vasto1M]

Looking through the summer there are two Thomsonfly departures for Tuesday mornings....
TOM3761 PUY 0725
TOM6357 AYT 0845
any ideas if one of these flights isn't happening or will there be two Thomsonfly a/c at Bristol on tuesdays?

[redfield]

I think the AYT is a W rotation. AEA have just confirmed 3x weekly flights, BritishJet on a Saturday evening and SN are doing the OLB and BIA at least through June - these are the flights that Euromanx/Trade Air operated last year.

[MerchantVenturer]

CAA stats for 2005 now published.

BRS is the 9th largest UK airport in terms of pax handled with 5,199000, a whisker ahead of NCL’s 5,187000. In eighth place is EDI with 8,449000 so there is some way to go to get into the UEFA Cup positions.

In the past five years BRS has increased its pax throughput by 144.7% and is beaten only by PIK in the top twenty UK airports, which has increased its numbers by 165.8%, rising from 905,000 to 2,405000 during the same period.

Most heavily used routes out of BRS in 2005 were EDI (329,000), GLA (299,000), Belfast airports combined (295,000 with 233,000 at BFS and 62,000 at BHD), DUB (288,000), AMS (264,000), NCL (253,000), AGP (230,000) and ALC (201,000).

The CO EWR route carried 55,254 pax in 2005, and bears an interesting comparison with the CO BFS-EWR that commenced a week after the BRS route towards the end of May and carried 56,747 pax.

[Standard Noise]

I'm surprised the BFS (Muckamore Intl) - EWR isn't doing better than that.
Still, the Brizzy figures are one in the eye for the doom mongers.