Bristol-5

[Severn]

BRS Based Aircraft = 29/30
easyJet: 17 - (7x A319, 10x A320)
Ryanair: 4 - (4x B738)
TUI: 4-5 - (4x B738*, 1x B787 based 5 days a week)* given the MAX issues, could be 2x B752 and 2x B738 this summer
Thomas Cook: 3 - (1x A320, 2x A321)* changes throughout the season to 2x A320s, 1x A321 at times
KLM: 1 - (1x E190)

[Sharklet_321]

Bristol is one of the UK’s best airports in terms of passenger performance. I mean the city of Bristol has 465,000 people yet the airport is quite possibly handling 10m pax this year into next. No other UK airport is performing like this when compared with population size (that I know of)

[BHX5DME]

Originally Posted by Sharklet_321

Bristol is one of the UK’s best airports in terms of passenger performance. I mean the city of Bristol has 465,000 people yet the airport is quite possibly handling 10m pax this year into next. No other UK airport is performing like this when compared with population size (that I know of)

Manchester ?
If we are purely looking at city populations but lets don't start an argument about catchment areas, this is just an observation

London7.2 Million
Birmingham992000
Leeds720000
Glasgow560000
Sheffield512000
Bradford467000
Edinburgh450000
Liverpool440000
Manchester420000
Bristol380000

[PDXCWL45]

Originally Posted by Sharklet_321

Bristol is one of the UK’s best airports in terms of passenger performance. I mean the city of Bristol has 465,000 people yet the airport is quite possibly handling 10m pax this year into next. No other UK airport is performing like this when compared with population size (that I know of)

You have to remember that with Bristol it's essentially the main airport for the entire south west of the island of Britain not just the city of Bristol

[MerchantVenturer]

Originally Posted by BHX5DME

Manchester ?
If we are purely looking at city populations but lets don't start an argument about catchment areas, this is just an observation

London7.2 Million
Birmingham992000
Leeds720000
Glasgow560000
Sheffield512000
Bradford467000
Edinburgh450000
Liverpool440000
Manchester420000
Bristol380000

380,000 is the Bristol municipal population figure at the last census - eight years ago. The municipal population is now estimated at 460,000.

https://www.bristol.gov.uk/statistic...ion-of-bristol

The boundary of Bristol has not expanded since the early 60s - prior to then it would expand at regular intervals down the centuries as the urban area spread into neighbouring Somerset and Gloucestershire. The urban area has continued to spread incessantly beyond Bristol's municipal boundaries during the past 50 years particularly into what is now the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire. Bits of urban North Somerset and Bath & Northeast Somerset unitary authorities are also contiguous with municipal Bristol. All this means that the actual physical unbroken urban 'city' as opposed to the municipal one has a population of around 700,000. Had the borders continued to expand as they did until the early 60s this would now be the population of municipal Bristol.

Eurostat's concept of larger urban zones that measures a city and its commuting zones is probably a more realistic guide to metropolitan area populations.

The Bristol city region has one of the most successsful economies in the UK. Bristol is the only English city outside London to produce more money for the Treasury than it receives.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/b...t-board-622667

Its buoyant economy and physical location roughly between CWL and EXT are two pointers to the passenger numbers that use BRS. Another is the large number of older, often retired people who live in the West Country who have the means, time and desire to fly for leisure.

The only real surprise is that such a small, awkwardly situated, poorly connected site with challenging weather conditions at times owing to its 600 feet elevation punches so heavily. With a bigger, better placed site one wonders how many passengers it would now be handling. The airport owners/management still reckon that 20 mppa is feasible by the 2040s but they will have to get over the major hurdle of expanding into the Green Belt to achieve that.

[Buster15]

Originally Posted by PDXCWL45

You have to remember that with Bristol it's essentially the main airport for the entire south west of the island of Britain not just the city of Bristol

Perfectly correct. It also attracts a sizeable number from South Wales who don't particularly like Cardiff airport or because of the fewer destinations it covers.

The growth in passenger numbers from Bristol is pretty amazing.

[PDXCWL45]

Originally Posted by Buster15

Perfectly correct. It also attracts a sizeable number from South Wales who don't particularly like Cardiff airport or because of the fewer destinations it covers.

The growth in passenger numbers from Bristol is pretty amazing.

Yes it does attract a lot of people from South Wales but I'd imagine that it's more likely down to the massive Easyjet base rather than any like or dislike of Cardiff. Being the bigger airport with the more destinations it has a big advantage over not just Cardiff but Exeter as well. The passenger number rise from most of the area is pretty good in general over the last 5 years and will no doubt continue.

[inOban]

Surely it may also attract PAX from points towards London, eg Swindon, because their nearest London airport lacks low cost flights?

[Severn]

BRS Based Aircraft = 29/30
easyJet: 17 - (7x A319, 10x A320)
Ryanair: 4 - (4x B738)
TUI: 4-5 - (4x B738*, 1x B787 based 5 days a week)* given the MAX issues, could be 2x B752 and 2x B738 this summer
Thomas Cook: 3 - (3x A321)* changes throughout the season to 1x A320, 2x A321s from mid-June to mid-August
KLM: 1 - (1x E190)

I do apologise, I got a little confused, have updated the based list for Summer 2019 to correct the TCX based units.

TCX will have 3x A321s based at BRS this summer expect for mid-June to mid-August where an A320 replaces an A321.
The base will be 2x TCX A321s and 1x SmartLynx A321 up to mid-June and from mid-August onwards.
The base will be 1x TCX A321, 1x SmartLynx A321 and 1x SmartLynx A320 from mid-June to mid-August.

[southside bobby]

EZY at Bristol has of course the origins in Go setting up it`s second base at BRS in 2001,the result of enthusiastic negotiations by the Bristol MD over 8 months.

For the second base but with strict criteria Go were "indifferent" in the early stages which airport...EMA/NCL/EDI/GLA/BRS were all options before settling on BRS.

To quote from Ms Cassani CEO of Go in her autobiography...

"While Ryanair had a token presence at Bristol the West Country was desperate to be plugged into the low cost craze.The catchment area was the long wealthy & populous Thames Valley corridor & the West Country was full of well-off older people with time to spare".

In the event Go carried 750,000 pax in the inaugural year at BRS more in fact than STN`s own inaugural year.

[SWBKCB]

For a number of years the EZY bases at BRS and NCL were similar in size and range of destinations - BRS has forged ahead and NCL has largely stagnated. Now, NCL is arguable the "better" airport in terms of airport infrastucture and surface access, but doesn't have the catchement area and, by far the most important factor, the level of local economic activity.

[MerchantVenturer]

Originally Posted by SWBKCB

For a number of years the EZY bases at BRS and NCL were similar in size and range of destinations - BRS has forged ahead and NCL has largely stagnated. Now, NCL is arguable the "better" airport in terms of airport infrastucture and surface access, but doesn't have the catchement area and, by far the most important factor, the level of local economic activity.

I used to fly-BRS-NCL-BRS quite often but haven't done so for a number of years. Although not a great fan of actually using airports any more - too much hassle these days in my view (others will no doubt differ in their view on this) although I still need to fly from time to time - I always found NCL one of the better airports to transit which is appropriate as the city and its region is such a great place to visit in my opinion.

With its Metro NCL certainly knocks spots off BRS's surface connectivity although BRS's main bus link, A1 Flyer, now does use a separate and dedicated busway for part of its journey. Bristol's elected mayor wants an underground system for Bristol and he said recently that the anchor route would be between city and airport, although that part would no doubt be above ground. Talk is always cheap with politicians. Nevertheless, the airport has contributed the lion's share for a £600,000 survey with the local authorities into finding ways of improving BRS's surface connectivity.

Infrastructure-wise BRS has been a building site for the past 20 years and so it continues. Well over £300 million has been spent on infrastructure in that time, with the terminal that opened in 2000 continually expanding and walkways/piers constructed. Currently a new admin building, a new aircrew building, an extension to the multi storey car park and two more aircraft parking stands are being built with a new fire station recently completed. The old terminal building is due to be demolished soon for more aircraft stands and another walkway/pier connection built.

Beyond that the airport currently has planning applications with the local authority for further expansion that would enable it to reach 12 mppa by the mid 2020s, and in the years after that it wants to increase the size of the site - but not lenghten the runway (it's clear on that) - which would mean taking some of the surrounding Green Belt. Part of the current airport site is already within a Green Belt Inset.

It won't be easy. There are already organsised groups opposed to the current application as there were (unsuccessfully then) when the airport received planning consent for what has enabled the major expansion since 2011 to go ahead, with some of that consent still to be built.

Typing this has whetted my appetite for another visit to Tyneside.

[LiamNCL]

Originally Posted by MerchantVenturer

Typing this has whetted my appetite for another visit to Tyneside.

Dont leave it too long

[highwideandugly]

I agree..NCL..is still one of the UKs best,calmest,easiest...and probably...quietest airports to transit through.

5.5 million passengers can’t be wrong.

Bristol has done amazingly and hats off to them!

[MerchantVenturer]

Originally Posted by inOban

Surely it may also attract PAX from points towards London, eg Swindon, because their nearest London airport lacks low cost flights?

The last CAA passenger survey that included BRS was in 2015. As we know these surveys are really snapshots but this one broadly confirmed what other surveys have found going back over the past decade.

The 2015 survey found that 76.4% of BRS's originating/terminating passengers began or ended their journey in the South West, with 8% of that 76.4% having an origin or final destination in Wiltshire. it's not broken down any more than that but it might be surmised that some came from the Swindon area, although Wiltshire was the third lowest provider of all the counties in the South West, viz,

Bristol 32.5%
Somerset 24.5%
Devon 16.9%
Gloucestershire 9.6%
Wiltshire 8.0%
Cornwall 6%
Dorset 2.6%

The counties include unitary authorities within them and it is highly likely that much of the Somerset and Gloucestershire contributions came from the unitary authorities that abut Bristol.

In terms of the airport's overall passenger numbers 1.5% had origin or final destiation in the South East.

[Severn]

KLM upgrading 1 of 4 daily flights to a B737
KLM are upgrading their evening departure Mon-Fri to a B737 from Monday 24th June.
The B737-700 will arrive from AMS at 16:55 and depart BRS at 17:25 Mon-Fri.

From the 24th June, the schedule will be as follows:
Mon-Fri - 4x daily (1x B737-700, 3x E190)
Sat, Sun - 4x daily (1x E175, 3x E190)

The B737 will operate through to the start of the winter season (beginning of November), where it will revert to Cityhopper only (still 4x daily) - mostly E190s and some E175s.

[Bristol_Traveller]

Any whispers of resumptions of the Brussels and German routes? I see Loganair are back at EMA with BRU and INV.

SN told me they have no timetable for resumption. And LH have given me no response at all.

[marko1]

Originally Posted by Bristol_Traveller

Any whispers of resumptions of the Brussels and German routes? I see Loganair are back at EMA with BRU and INV.

SN told me they have no timetable for resumption. And LH have given me no response at all.

Brussels airlines currently is selling its brs to Brussels flights starting sept and have been for a few months so denials seem strange.

[Bristol_Traveller]

Originally Posted by marko1

Brussels airlines currently is selling its brs to Brussels flights starting sept and have been for a few months so denials seem strange.

SN have repeatedly pushed back that resumption date, so I shouldn't rely on it too much.

[MerchantVenturer]

easyJet

Another new summer 2019 route from BRS - Lyon from 1 July, M and F. LYS has been operated by easyJet from BRS in the ski season for a number of years but this is the first LYS summer operation by the airline from the airport.