Bristol-5

[Bristol_Traveller]

Limited FIS screens are now running, apparently on Windows 10. Return to a full service will be 'some time way'.

Did it take a ransomware attack which brought everything down to justify doing an upgrade to a newer, security maintained, operating system?

[shamrock7seal]

Airport masterplan 20m pax.

Is there space in the airport boundary to extend the runway length and add a starter strip? Surely this will assist in marketing the airport to the likes or Emirates or Etihad?

I could see BRS targeting the following carriers in the years to come:

FINNAIR Helsinki & connections
TURKISH AIRLINES Istanbul & connections
SWISS Zurich & connections
WOW Iceland & connections
ETIHAD Abu Dhabi & connections
EMIRATES Dubai & connections (subject to runway extension/starter-strip)

Will bmi regional still be around in 10-20 years time? What aircraft will they replace their ERJ-145's with?

[PDXCWL45]

I honestly don't see Bristols owners spending a lot of money for something not guarenteed. Etihad are in retreat and Emirates even with the 787 10 might not have the right aircraft not to mention that BRS has no cargo facilities. It's also quite possible that both airlines see Bristol as being covered by their Heathrow flights.
As for the airlines mentioned Turkish could be a possibility but they might also see Bristol as being covered by their Heathrow flights. WOW has been and gone and Finnair would be interesting to see. Swiss like Turkish could also be a possibility in the future.
As for flyBMI i think it's anyone's guess as to what'll happen to them!

[MerchantVenturer]

Originally Posted by shamrock7seal

Airport masterplan 20m pax.

Is there space in the airport boundary to extend the runway length and add a starter strip? Surely this will assist in marketing the airport to the likes or Emirates or Etihad?

I could see BRS targeting the following carriers in the years to come:

FINNAIR Helsinki & connections
TURKISH AIRLINES Istanbul & connections
SWISS Zurich & connections
WOW Iceland & connections
ETIHAD Abu Dhabi & connections
EMIRATES Dubai & connections (subject to runway extension/starter-strip)

Will bmi regional still be around in 10-20 years time? What aircraft will they replace their ERJ-145's with?

The current master plan (published in 2006) set out five options for extending the runway, from the status quo ('do nothing' as the plan puts it) to extensions of various lengths. All were focused on the eastern end of the airfield next to the A38 road - the falling ground at the western end makes extending the runway there extremely difficult.

Most of the options would mean taking possession to a greater or lesser degree of part of a common which is also a designated local nature reserve, and dropping the A38 into a 150-metre long tunnel.

One of the options was the construction of a starter strip which the 2006 master plan deals with in this way.

Option 4 – extend the runway by 239m with a 150m starter strip
A starter strip is a length of aircraft pavement that can be used by aircraft at the start of their take off run, but not for landing purposes. This option would add 389m to the runway 27 take off run, but only about 150m to the runway 09 take off run. This therefore means that runway 09 has performance penalties compared with runway 27. However the need to encroach on to Felton Common is avoided.

In 2006 the airport decided: Our overall conclusion is that the improvement in performance that might be achieved by extending the runway is relatively small in comparison with the costs and the potential environmental impact. The 'do nothing' option was the one chosen then.

The matter was to be kept under review at future updates of the master plan. The airport is currently preparing a new draft master plan to be published probably early next year for further public consultation following two rounds of pre-draft master plan public consultation over the past eleven months. However, the airport has said categorically that a runway extension does not form part of the new master plan.

To get anywhere near 20 mppa will require a larger site which the airport recognises and is exploring ways of acquiring extra land - it already owns some outside the present airport boundary. Another problem is the airport being situated within the Green Belt although part of it is in a Green Belt inset and the airport hopes that more of the site can be so designated in future.

[speedbreak1]

PDXCWL45 I would say Turkish would be more worried about diluting pax on their BHX flight rather than LHR. LHR can easily absorb the loss of any pax originating from BRS whereas BHX may be less easy. I would look at it as *relieving* pressure from LHR.

[PDXCWL45]

Originally Posted by speedbreak1

PDXCWL45 I would say Turkish would be more worried about diluting pax on their BHX flight rather than LHR. LHR can easily absorb the loss of any pax originating from BRS whereas BHX may be less easy. I would look at it as *relieving* pressure from LHR.

I'm sure that if Turkish launched a BRS route they wouldn't be worried about BHX or relieving pressure on LHR.
What I'm saying is that they may feel that the South West and South Wales is covered by their Heathrow flights and maybe to a lesser extent BHX as well. They may feel the area is covered . I think it depends on what there strategy is for the UK. Whether in the future they want to expand and operate from the smaller airport's in in UK or that it's covered by the airports they operate to now.

[kfsimpson]

Originally Posted by PDXCWL45

I'm sure that if Turkish launched a BRS route they wouldn't be worried about BHX or relieving pressure on LHR.
What I'm saying is that they may feel that the South West and South Wales is covered by their Heathrow flights and maybe to a lesser extent BHX as well. They may feel the area is covered . I think it depends on what there strategy is for the UK. Whether in the future they want to expand and operate from the smaller airport's in in UK or that it's covered by the airports they operate to now.

I suspect they have calculated that currently BHX and LHR offer adequate coverage for the SW and Wales. I fly Turkish several times a year, usually from BHX or from LHR if connections don't work. The BHX flights usually seem to be at 80%+ capacity in the back of the plane, but not consistently full. For BRS to offer passengers good connections they would need two rotations per day, and I'm not sure there's the potential for that. I'd love them to try, though! Perhaps once the new IST airport is open and capacity increases they may look at expansion, but given the current state of the Turkish economy, maybe not.

[Bristol_Traveller]

Possibly relevant, but BM have announced codeshares with TK on the HAM and DUS routes (and alledgedly on the CDG route, although that wasn't showing when I looked yesterday).

I haven't looked, but I'm sceptical that the connections will be useful unless CDG does come online. The HAM and DUS routes both fly in the evening, meaning the connections into/out of TK are probably similar.

[caaardiff]

I'm sceptical over how much use this will be to BM. Unless people are connecting to specific TK desintations in Turkey, I can't see many people wanting to transfer through Germany and Turkey and onwards again to another TK destination.

[fanrailuk]

BACF

BACF to cease their routes from BRS at the end of S18

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38...hedule-in-s19/

[yeo valley]

BACF

Originally Posted by fanrailuk

BACF to cease their routes from BRS at the end of S18

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38...hedule-in-s19/

the routes from BRS was known a week or so back.. Old news. It was discussed at length on other forums and on here I believe.
The summer 18 routes finished in September.

[PDXCWL45]

New baggage system for Bristol costs £18.7 million
​https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/business/bristol-airport-baggage-screening-system-2077526?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaig n=sharebar​​​​​​

[toon22]

What’s up this evening. FCO in Cardiff, IOM off to BHX it looks like.u

[MerchantVenturer]

I guess it's mist/fog. It was forecast. The wind direction suggests that 09 is the active runway and it has no Cat3b capability, unlike 27. Thomas Cook from Antalya also shown as diverted to CWL. Several aircraft seem to have landed since the diversions so if fog is/was the culprit it is presumably capricious this evening.

Currently (2000 hours) three more aircraft holding (two Ryanair one easyJet) according to FR24.

[Bristol_Traveller]

Automated Passport Gates

I have given up using the automated passport gates, as I have virtually zero success getting my (late 2016 issue, immaculate condition) passport to be recognised. I use gates at lots of other airports around the world, and the BRS ones are the only ones I consistently have fails at. Every Border Force officer I've asked has said the passport is fine, and the chip/biometrics are readable.

Am I alone in this experiencing this? I'm wondering if replacing my passport with a newer issues might be worthwhile.

[Morrihell]

You're not alone, my partner's passport has had zero success getting back in this autumn, mine has however not had a problem, both mid 2016 issues. Staffing at the gates leaves a lot to be desired late evening as well, especially when all the based aircraft arrive back in one long stream.

Mention it to the the Uk border staff and you get shrugged shoulders and "it's the airport's problem", mention it to airport staff and the shrug is answered with "it's a Uk border agency problem" Ho hum, welcome back to Bristol...

[marko1]

Shannon now on sale for next summer

[Bristol_Traveller]

LHR T2 has similar automated passport barriers to BRS, and my passport couldn't be read by those gates recently. A Border Force officer at LHR confirmed that my passport is OK, but that there's a problem with their gates. I'm assuming it's either the location of the RFID antenna on the gate, or a bug in the software that can't open/validate the data from the RFID. I can't establish if there was a change in the manufacturing process (either physical location of the RFID/Antenna or the way the digital signature is applied) that would account for the problems. (I'm also assuming it's the RFID, not the machine legible part of the passport).

I've heard nothing from the aiport about my question / complaint to them about it.

[MerchantVenturer]

easyJet

New route - Montpellier - commences 2 June 2019 on Sundays and Wednesdays.

[MerchantVenturer]

https://www.bristolairport.co.uk/abo...ng-application

Bristol Airport has submitted a planning application to North Somerset Council seeking permission to increase capacity to handle up to 12 million passengers a year by the mid-2020s.

Currently the airport is restricted to 10 mppa by its planning consents but expects to exceed 9 mppa in 2019. It also wants rationalisation, though not a relaxation, of its night flight quotas.

Some of the matters in today's application include a further enlargement of the terminal, three multi-storey car parks, a pedestrianised forecourt with a canopy, new road layouts within the site, an extension to the Silver Zone car park on the south side and a new taxiway.

The past two decades since privatisation have seen numerous infrastructure work costing £160 million since 2010 and a similar amount before that. One local media report today reckons that if approved today's application would involve £275 million worth of work.

Currently several projects are ongoing: a new fire station; a new admin building (both on the south side); more aircraft stands to be open by next summer, this time on the former staff car park in front of the old terminal building which itself is due to be demolished in the near future to provide further stands; building new levels onto the first multi-storey car park that was opened earlier this year.

The airport is also due to publish a draft of its new master plan in the near future following two public consultation phases earlier this year. The draft will go out for further public consultation. It will look at how the airport might develop over the next quarter of a century when passenger throughput might reach 20 mppa by the 2040s. That would require an enlargement of the site partly into the Green Belt onto adjoining land some of which is already owned by the airport. The airport and local authorities are also investigating ways in which surface access can be improved, both for public and private transport.