BRISTOL - 4

[Standard Noise]

Goose Necks? Someone's showing their age!

[easyJet Galley King]

RE: Lufthansa Pricing

Do my eyes decieve me? Looking into BRS-BKK in May, and via Lufthansa's website am being quoted £3885 in economy! Please tell me this is a mistake?

Alternatives:
£637 with Air France via CDG with long connection outbound,
£450 with EVA from Heathrow direct
£420 with Gulf Air from Heathrow via Bahrain,

Best book me Purple Parking at LHR then......

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Regardless of Hares and Goose Necks there is no room to park diverted aircraft, no busses to move diverted pax to the terminal, no handlers to offload their bags and no belts to collect them from.

BRS has the least spare capacity of most regional non-BAA airports and as such should be well down the list of alternate operations.

CWL meanwhile coped very well when *most* airlines decamped there from BRS during the alleged slippery runway 'episode'.

It is to airport like CWL with tarmac to spare that alt ops will be directed in my opinion. I also don't think the strike will happen. Its not a finely balanced cost/saving calculation as keeping a FSP scheme for 2,000 new joiners would cost maybe £12 million over a decade. A repeated 2 day stoppage of BAA ops would cost them more than that in the first hour..

WWW

[Bristol_Traveller]

Oh for heaven's sake. The LH website is appalling for doing this. I've already moaned at CS about this problem, and it looks like I'll have to moan again. It'll be very frustrating if load factors on BRS-FRA are low because of this problem.

The trick is to select the LH operated flights, not the code shares. If you pick the codeshare (which is a codeshare with TG), it just prices on full fat economy.

Try this schedule.

01-MAY-08
LH 4963 BRS-FRA
LH 772 FRA-BKK

13-MAY-08
LH 773 BKK-FRA
LH 4960 FRA-BRS

FARE BASIS: VLNCGB / £403 + TAX (£246.40) = £649.40

Hope this helps. It's certainly in the ball park. There's a cheaper fare (£360 - W class), but I wouldn't advise it because it's only 50% miles earning in M&M, and zero in quite few other *A plans.

[birdscarer]

WWW - You're quite right but I doubt that will stop BRS from trying to get a share. Its all money in a very competitive industry. But I too doubt if striking will be the answer.

EGK - have you tried a third party search engine? Just an idea.

[MUFC_fan]

KLM have £623 for BRS-AMS-BKK return for 2 weeks departing 1st May.

F100s and B744s (mixed config.). Good flight times aswell.

[iwak]

Hi guys

just wondering how loads on noc and ldy were over xmas

[Bristol_Traveller]

Cabin Baggage Restrictions lifted eff 07-JAN-08

The list of airports allowed to have more than one item of cabin baggage has just been published:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/transportforyo...y/cabinbaggage

Lots of your old favourites (LHR, BHX, MAN..), some surprises (Cambridge! Southend! Benbecula!), and some close to home (CWL, PLH..)

But what's this... no BRS? No EXT?

Maybe BE, EZ, and FR wouldn't stump up for the new machines eh? So much for bloomin LOCOs....

[Confirmed Must Ride]

Just what the stressed check-in bod wants - more confusion from the DfT.

All foreign pax travelling thru UK must think we are a joke. Now it seems that you can take 2 bags thru BHX but not BRS or LGW and you can thru LHR??

AMS/FRA and CDG to name a few must be having a great laugh at our expense and coining it in.

[nivsy]

Glad to hear that BRS will be getting better screening facilities. Must say having flown from the airport on 23d December it was well - rather poor at best...... being snaked along all the way back to the entry point then back round again! Shabby really. Did not think much of the departure area either come to think about it. Broken glasses in cafe left on the floor - generally unclean but granted was busy period.


Nivsy

[symphonyangel]

Re the handbaggage lifting of the one bag rule, i see that easyjet, flybe and Monarch to name just 3 are all sticking to the one bag rule regardless of what the airports do. No doubt Ryanair will do likewise. So why would Bristol go to the expense of getting new equipment or extending its security area if the airlines are going to stick with the one bag rule regardless.
Seems its only BA who have said its a 2 bag rule for all now. BMI even split it 2 bags for business class and 1 for economy.

[MerchantVenturer]

It is a nonsense. The passenger will be perplexed enough as it is with some airports allowing more than one cabin bag and others not, without the added confusion of some airlines allowing only one cabin bag even at airports where they could allow two.

As for Bristol Airport, the new security area is part of a larger amelioration of the terminal building. The new CEO stated last year that he was determined to reduce the security queues and so extra lanes and stations are being added (to give a total of nine), and internal work is being carried out to increase the airside area and reduce the landside area of the building.

The terminal was opened eight years ago and when the airport master plan was published in October 2005 it stated, “The terminal building is increasingly experiencing congestion and is already operating at or near its capacity at peak periods”. The plan continued, “We estimate the terminal can continue to function until 2009 when passenger numbers are forecast to exceed 6mppa”,

With the new Ryanair base, it is anticipated that 6 million will be exceeded significantly in 2008 - the CEO, in the airport consultative committee minutes on the airport website, has accepted the airport will get ahead of its projected annual passenger figures in the next twelve months,

However, the £100 million expansion plans are already two years behind the original schedule and are now being reviewed before planning applications are submitted. BRS is faced with a well-organised anti-expansion lobby and it is anticipated that the planning applications will result in a planning enquiry which will further delay matters.

The airport has therefore embarked on a multi-million pounds ‘makeover’ on parts of the terminal infrastructure that do not require planning consent in a bid to try to find more room for passengers’ needs, especially those waiting to depart.

[Standard Noise]

2 flights booked, one next week with EZY and one next month with RYR. To avoid the hold baggage charges, one has just purchased a new bag which will do trips up to 3 or 4 days and fit the bill as hand baggage. According to the respective airlines' websites, I have saved enough on not having hold baggage to more than pay for the bag.

Buy a bag to the full size of the cabin baggage limits and you won't need two bits of hand baggage, and it won't matter where you fly from. It's not rocket science chaps.

[Bristol_Traveller]

Seems its only BA who have said its a 2 bag rule for all now. BMI even split it 2 bags for business class and 1 for economy

Prior to the "one cabin bag" rule for all, most airlines implemented a policy of one bag for economy passengers, and two bags for premium economy and business, so the BMI rule (for example) is only going back to what they used to do prior to the imposition of the "one bag through security" rule.

In Economy (and certainly on airlines like FR and BE), there simply isn't enough overhead locker space/load capacity to allow people more than one bag.

However, the "one bag through security" rule played havoc with Business and PE passengers. I've just come out from MAN in Business on BMI, and there was acres and acres of overhead locker space. I'm away for 6 days, so I have a rucksack with the laptop/washbag/cables/camera/PDA etc, and a wheelie-bag with clothes in. On the way out (yesterday) I had to check the wheelie-bag. Coming back (on Thursday), I can bring it with me and therefore possibly stand a chance at making the 45 minute connection between me arriving and trying to get the MAN-BRS flight on WOW.

Whilst I accept that, by volume, BRS is now awash with LOCO passengers, it's worth bearing in mind that CO, LH, KL, and AF all offer Business products, and with that an expectation of carrying TWO cabin bags on board (or at least to the plane door!).

[Silvertop]

Cabin Baggage

Eventually (I hope never) some event, say a heavy landing, RTO or worse, will cause a locker to open (I've actually lost count of the times that I've seen one pop open whilst taxying) and some "trolly bag" is going to cause someone some serious injury. The CAA will act retrospectively (as usual) and all baggage above a certain weight or the size of a brief case, will go where it belongs....in the HOLD.
Happy New Year
Silvertop

[Vasto1M]

Anyone know why the Eastern Airways IOM service isn't operating for the next few weeks?

[easyJet Galley King]

Air Southwest to leave Bristol?

Heard it via crew transport today....

[cornishsimon]

from what i understand WOW's based aircraft will not be based at BRS following the start of the summer08 schedule, the crew base at BRS will also shut and the crew and a/c will be redeployed to either NQY or Plymouth to cover the new routes to GLA & NCL.

however from previous posts the BRS based a/c was only doing charter work anyway. the current Routes will still stay but be served by a/c based at either NQY or Plymouth

[Standard Noise]

Well strike me down with a pint of scrumpy! I come in for a nightshift and there's a big Beluga in front of the tower. What's occurring?

[Churchillian]

Hello SN. The Beluga was routing Bremen to Chester, but went around due crosswinds; they sat in the hold and looked at weather for CC, BB, NX and TG before opting for us. Talking to the crew after landing they apparently have stringent crosswind limits which become even stricter at certain airports after dark. Bristol was the only option that fitted the bill. A few of us had a look inside and it's one big space in there - great for a hangar party! Nice to see something different on the apron though.