Hi W.

By coincidence my question about there being no such thing as bad publicity was put to the travel writer Simon Calder (he seems to have been as much in media evidence as Andrew Skipp in recent days) on today's BBC Bristol lunchtime tv news.

He came up with the idea that the whole country is now aware that Bristol is quite a busy airport with many flights which was not the national perception before all this happened. I take the point but does it mean any of these people living far from the west country would ever actually use BRS?

The way things are at the moment if a passenger falls down and twists his ankle getting off an aircraft the press will link it to the runway in some way -"Now passenger falls down near danger runway" sort of headline.

That cartoon reproduced in the R & N thread on the BRS situation is brilliant.

Today's Bristol Evening Post quotes 'industry sources' saying the airport will have lost around £500,000 as a result of the disruption. An easyJet spokeswoman said her airline will pay for the bussing of pax to the likes of CWL, BHX and LGW.

In the report Andrew Skipp admits, "Our communication with passengers has been bad. It should have been better". He also indicated that legal action was unlikely.

My considerable experience as a slf is that communication from airports/airlines in many places is often lacking; I would like to think that if nothing else this experience would concentrate the minds of those at BRS at least, but I won't hold my breath.

I have three rotations booked out of BRS in the next eight weeks. Fingers crossed the airport and its airlines have a smooth run for a while!!

Speaking to one of my colleagues at Cardiff, he said he hadn't enjoyed being at work that much in ages. As much as we were a bit bereft of things to do, neither had we! Still, back to normal now, thank goodness.

I see in the Newcastle thread that EK is starting DXB soon, good news for them but I'll be very suprised if the fill an A330 daily from there, would make a nice cheeky double drop with BRS I think :zzz: :zzz: sorry was dreaming there!With the works in the departure lounge to extend the business lounges and add more capacity I wonder if they're doing it in the hope it may attract airlines such as EK that have a large business cabin.

Oh dear; that's a shame that DXB went to NCL. I would have thought that would be another flagship route to go alongside EWR.

I'm not sure how much of the terminal expansion is aimed at us "business travellers". We tend to be awfully bad at spending money in shops and cafes, generally preferring to turn up 10 minutes before gate closes (boarding pass already printed out at home) and race to the plane.

I understand that BA's Terraces lounge is getting the chop? With the future of Flybe's aspirations at Bristol still somewhat uncertain, I wouldn't be embarking on a lounge extension plan at the moment. You might find the only lounge passengers are from the EWR flight each day (12 of them) and a handful of KLM, SN and "Priority Pass". (Although I guess you can also book directly and add them to package tours).

The master plan contains a forecast that a Dubai route (one of only four long-haul scheduled routes for which it is thought there would be demand from the Bristol catchment) would be carrying 120,000 pax per annum by 2015.

I suppose BRS would prove a problem at the moment as Emirates seem to be using A330 equipment which I assume could not make Dubai non-stop with a full payload (with any payload?) off the rolling hills of Broadfield Down.

It seems that before 2015 there will be flights to Dubai from many regional airports if its hedonistic outlets continue to spring up at the current rate of knots, let alone onward transfers from there with Emirates.

I’ve been reading with interest the debate on the CWL thread re rail connections.

Given that any rail link to BRS would be prohibitively expensive to build and would be a shuttle that required a change of train at Temple Meads, I wonder whether the Flyer service is not a better option anyway for a ‘rail-locked’ airport like BRS.

The Flyer service, operated by 50-seat First Coaches on behalf of the airport, runs every fifteen minutes from/to Temple Meads Station from early to late (although frequency drops to a 30-minute one from mid evening) and it is possible to book through-rail journeys direct to/from the airport using the coach for the last/first bit, a 25-minute journey.

As Temple Meads is on a main-line railway ‘crossroads’ with regular services in all directions it means access can be gained from many areas. Any arriving rail passengers at TM can be sure of an ongoing connection to the airport within a few minutes.

Bristol Airport is shown as a station in First Great Western’s list of stations on its web site and the Flyer appears on TM station’s arrival and departure screens.

It seems increasingly popular and frequency was increased a few months ago, with the next step being a ten-minute frequency for much of the day and evening.

The Flyer accounts for 5% of passengers (currently around 285,000) using the airport each year, and the airport’s stated aim is to get public transport use up to 13% by the time 9 million annual pax are reached, with the Flyer carrying the bulk.

They bloomin' well can't, you know. First need to get their act sorted because several times recently, the most recent being last Sunday, I've personally seen people not be able to get on the flyer because it's full - and I'm talking in both directions. It's annoying when it's full at BIA; it's just not acceptable when people making connections have to wait half an hour at BTM. Trying to get on at one of the intermediate stops is a complete lottery. First are walking a very fine line and we've all seen recently how easily you can suddenly end up on the wrong side of acceptable.

And I speak as very much a Flyer evangelist and regular long-term customer.

fyrefli

I've seen pax left behind at the airport at busy times but never at the station and I'm there at least once a week.

There is invariably a group of anything from six to thirty people waiting at the TM Flyer stop for the next coach. Clearly from what you say, at other times there are far more than this.

I know what you are saying about First's bus and train services in and around Bristol but the Flyer service is supposed to be run for the airport so they should be cracking the whip to get things working properly.

I spoke to Mr Skipp about a previous general problem with the Flyer. He was very sympathetic and clearly anxious to sort it out with the coach operator.

I suppose the fact that the coach is sometimes full at the station end reinforces my view that the Flyer service is popular and viable as a means of getting rail pax to the airport, but it must operate efficiently or people will cease to use it.

In fairness, I've only seen it happen twice in that direction but it's pretty critical for passengers when it does. IMHO, if the service is to grow any further, they are likely to need a real-time method of appraising demand and a spare coach available, at least at certain times, possibly at both ends of the journey.

The other thing that infuriates me is seeing new arrivals to Bristol habitually greeted by a harrassed driver with no change. I realise that they can't turn the coaches into Bureaux de Change but the now familiar experience of the other passengers rooting around for notes and coins so that some poor travelling soul can be spared the indignity of being sent back into the terminal to scavenge the correct money, sometimes to the tune of "You've got two minutes, my love" or similar, needs to be addressed.

This is normally at the airport end; I'm sure it wouldn't be beyond the wit of the company to come to some arrangement with the airport whereby a member of staff relieves the driver of his ticketing role at that end, or is simply on hand for each coach departure to bank some takings and refresh the "float".

As they also need to manage the queue better at busy times, as I've seen at least one substantial disagreement, selling the tickets in the terminal is perhaps going to be the way to kill several birds with one stone.

Indeed.

forgive me if I am wrong but the case used to be that you could buy tickets for the flyer at the airport information desk.

Moving on Weston MP John Penrose has now been asking for a flyer dervice between the airport and one of westons rail lines. I heard not to long ago that Worle Parkway station was going to be redeveloped as a major station for both Buses and Trains and there would be regular services to and from BIA.

Also must admit Im very dissapointed the NWI service has been dropped looks like ASW seem to be having a bit of a re think regarding using BRS as a large hub, god Knows why not with BE and BA disapearing there is a large gap to fill, maybe not big enough for EZY but ample for ASW. Also hearing that FC are throwing extra weight behind CWL. BRS management, although very talented need to pull there fingers out and stop sitting and living the past. I mean if they have anymore incedents like we saw a couple of weeks ago they may see a big orange bus fly into the distance and not return and we all know what that means.

Hi terrier,

The Weston Area Development Framework proposes major traffic infrastructure developments between Weston/Worle and the M5.

The Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Study has identified a new strategic road link between Weston and Bristol via BIA. However, this is a highly contentious issue and is one of several new road suggestions put forward in the GBSTS, a number of which concern access to BIA from various parts of the city-region (to use the latest government-speak).

Worle Station has been identified as a park and ride site and also a transport interchange.

The Area Development Framework suggests a high-quality 20-minute frequency bus service from Weston via Worle Station to BIA if these proposals come to fruition.

In its master plan the airport says that the strength of such a route would depend on the ability of Worle Station to take high-speed trains, with particular reference to platform lengths.

I emphasise that these proposals are nowhere near certain to happen and I have my doubts about Worle as a rail interchange for the airport anyway.

Whether main line train operators would stop there regularly must be open to doubt. I suggested Parson Street station to the airport for a similar role a year or two ago and they said no main line trains would stop there. It is on the same main line between Bristol and Exeter as Worle.

And if it did happen how many rail passengers would use it to access the airport? Only those coming from Bridgwater/Taunton and further west would reach Worle before Bristol TM.

All other rail passengers would reach TM first. Why would they stay on the train or, in many cases, change trains to board a Flyer at Worle when they could do so at TM where the road journey time would be about the same as that from Worle?

Of course, it may be that Weston people travelling to the airport would use a dedicated bus or Flyer service in reasonable numbers.

The airport master plan discusses Flyer-type options from other places in and around Bristol including Bath, Parkway, Clevedon/Portishead and Nailsea & Backwell station.

I note the Welsh Assembly leader is talking again about an M 4 link to CWL. An M 5 link to BRS would be no longer in length but I doubt there is the political will this side of the Channel.

BTW, I thought Penrose MP was against further BRS expansion.

On another matter, I came across this US newspaper link re the BRS-EWR service.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/4478763.html

It discusses the history and future of this route and CO’s strategy in serving smaller European airports.

The report also says that the airport has suspended landing fees for the first three years. Presumably this is the so-called ‘subsidy’ that others have spoken of in the past in connection with this route.

Where the buggery flip did you find that report MV??? Nice one though, a very interesting report strait(as it were) from the CO horses mouth, basically as i've read it, the BRS route is of high importance to them for their future strategy of serving smaller european cities with 757-200s to offer something the other US carriers dont, and the route has helped them immensly due to not being able to secure LHR slots, and is doing well for them, all sounds tickedy boo with CO to me :D

FCA Longhaul
 

FCA Longhaul starts tomorrow!
FCA58 BRS-SFB(via MAN of course), G-OOAN B767 operating, STD 10:20. Not a bad start 222 pax booked up to yesterday, a/c holds 256.
Lets hope all 3 SFB/POP/VRA go well and become great routes for FCA, BRS and the south west as a whole, everybody has been wanting these routes for so long now, lets hope they get behind it and get booking, this old phrase comes to mind; "USE IT OR LOSE IT" :ok:

good luck to all at fca brs/man hope longhaul is a big sucess from brs and long may it continue cancun route next please!!! xl has their 767 popping in to say hello in april however it's bound for lourdes so nowhere exotic!:ok:

Well if the eejits at XL ops don't stop fannying about, it'll be lucky to reach the end of the taxiway never mind bloody Lourdes! Tw*ts!

any date for xl 767 at BRS

I saw this on the website deps board, but its not there today. Also no arrival/dep on SFB site.
How did it go? (Did it go???)

Fca Sfb
 

Given the figs above that represents a Load Factor of only 86.7% which is poor for long haul given that flights costs are a greater % of total (especially if you have to pay for a tech stop in MAN).

Will need to do better going forward.....

I have searched on google without luck so can some helpful fellow point me in the direction of a Bristol Airport movements site?
MTIA

yes it did operate, and went well. the same next week, then the return sectors kick in the following week. next month the cuba and dom rep series start up operations sat-sun-mon, i/b tues pos o/b to EMA

'I have searched on google without luck so can some helpful fellow point me in the direction of a Bristol Airport movements site?
MTIA'


Try this mate. It has some MAYFLYS etc so maybe what you're looking for.

http://apron.bristolairport.com/

CYM - A load factor of 87% isn't good? sorry have to disagree with you CYM, lets not forget this is the first flight, and Premium was full, I imagine the bosses at FC and BRS would count that as a success, lets not forget that the average CO load factor is less than that and according to MV's brilliant post with attatchment earlier in this thread they're very happy with it.
CO took a little while to become established and so will FCA longhaul, I expect you'll find the load factor will be less on quite a few of the winter longhauls, but at the end of the day it's paving the way for FCA 's 787 to come to BRS.
I dont understand how you would be dissapointed with a load factor like that especially when your money making cabin is chocca :confused:
Crackling Jet - Just to clarify your post, the POP goes out fortnightly starting next week, not next month and the VRA starts in May not March me ol mukka :ok:
MV - Spot on post as usual but the winter flights werent released til bout Sept, 2-3 months after the initial launch, not leaving very long to sell it :ok:

watabench,

thanks for that, misread the schedule, must have got carried away with exitement :ok:

Just to add to my earlier post, the FCA EMA-SFB going out today, 1st of season but an established route for FCA and has been flown for 3-4 years now has a booked figure of 217, the EMA-CUN that went yesterday had a booked figure of 222 and again is a well established FCA route, so I'd say the 1st BRS longhaul route held it's own even with going via MAN, also the 1 off BRS-CUN in OCT went full :ok:

Wanabench
 

Yeild / Load Factor Management paid my mortgate for most of my professional life for one of the largest UK Tour ops so am very familiar with this field.

Comaprisions with schedules carries are largely invalid in this area. Inclusive tour combines cost elements, hotels, transfers etc as well as substancially higher cost of sale, eg brochures, higher agents commission etc etc that do not apply to the shed sector. Margins on premium seats are 'icing' not 'cake'

In winter, in my experience with long haul you need to be looking at load factors of 90- 92% (on the flight element) and acceptable yield levels for a route to be viable in the long term. New routes that attract high levels of (free) publicity tend to be forwarded loaded so would have expected a high lf on this service - especially given that as the CWL services dont start until late Mar so FCA have a captive ex CWL market too. Once direct flights ex CWL are available how attractive will a via MAN service be?

Time will tell, the CAA route stats will be interesting......

CYM, I agree the stats will be interesting reading and yes charters do tend to need to keep a higher yield than schedules, but lets not forget that 87% load factor on a flight thats only been on sale for only 5 months and ops via MAN, and was the first of the season isn't bad at all, the premium pax will be paying approx £180 extra per person on SFB or £300 on a VRA which equates to an extra £11k on a SFB or nearly £19k on VRA a welcome boost to any charter operator.
Once the CWL flights start it will be interesting, I personally think that it will hold its own, however we know that some of the flights from BRS will have shared loads with MAN/EMA so the stats will not prove very conclusive, the only way we will really know is to wait until April when next summers brochures come out, if they still have BRS-SFB/VRA/POP we'll know its been doing good enough for FC.
I've been management in a travel agency as well as worked for a BIG charter airline, in my experiance I dont recall (and this is the gods honest truth) ever booking a passanger from the south west from CWL-SFB/MCO, most people in the BRS/South west dont see CWL as an option for the US, although some must for the flights to be maintained in CWL, people that i've seen over the last 10 years would rather go to LGW and hop on VS or BA as apposed to MYT OR TRAVELCITY as they know they will get a far better service.
The FCA economy inflight service is now being hailed as better or as good as economy in VS/BA, both by passangers, reporters and pruners, coupled that with the strong FC retail influence in the South west it has the hallmarks of doing well.
248 booked on SFB this week at the moment, 8 from being full, PREM full again.
Did the TOM longhaul not ops via MAN? I'm 99% sure the CWL-POP did, what abouth the others?
200 booked on POP operating next week so far.
Watch this space i guess :ok:

....most people in the BRS/South west dont see CWL as an option for the US.

WATABENCH

That will put you off the Christamas card list with our friends over the Mud! :}

In the words of our greatest Bristolian symbol of the future (Vicky Pollard) Shaaauut Up, Yer but No but Yer but I ain bovered and aint dun nuffin or nobody, oh my god soooo cant believe you just said that! :} :}

i think for a first flight those loads are good considering it's out of season as-well and if star class premium cabin is full thats a great start!.one of our crew been working for fca travel shop in winter said bookings really strong on this route for the summer so long may it continue!
crackling jet i'll see if i can get exact date for you!:ok:

Snow clearing at Bristol (BRS)
 

Having watched snow clearing operations from the terminal at BRS this morning, I was amazed to see how long it took to get the runway clear of snow and back to the blacktop.

Is it simply my lack of patience, or did anyone else feel it took an extraordinary length of time to get a fairly small runway open?
ugh:
SW

Well you have to remeber that the runway will need to be de iced and checked for FOD. What would you rather have a quick job not done well which leads to a plane skidding off the runway or a well done job that gets it open and all flights running safley.

I operated into Ivalo (Finland) about a month ago.......in far worse conditions than at BRS today..the RWY took 10 mins to clear:ok:

UK airports as a rule struggle with adverse winter weather because they don't make the investment in adequate equipment. Thats the problem in a nutshell.

For the amount of snow that the southern half of the UK sees each year, can it really be justified to have snow equipment parked up and doing nothing during the rest of the year. Surely the money is better invetsted in equipment that is used all year and then retain minimum snow equipment.

So long as the job can be achieved and achieved safely that MUST be the essential.

Snow gear has a use when its not snowing. Use them for Boxing in an airlines aircraft that havn't payed there fees to the airport. Flyjet for example last year with there 767.

Care to back the Flyjet part of that quote up with some facts Lukeylad....?
For starters.. date, place, nature of debt, and size of it...

The second Sanford departed today; with a load factor of 99.22% (just 2 empty seats).

I have heard from Airport Ops that one of the senior airport management team has resigned - but no names given.

Anyone heard anything or have I been spun one...?

The BBC are running this about the runway issues:

"Seven incidents concerning Bristol Airport's runway were reported this winter before it finally shut after an airline boycott, the BBC has learned."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/6353065.stm

Just reverting back to the earlier problems of the newly resurfaced/ungrooved section of runway (yep, I appreciate it was not necessarily the final top coat...etc), can I ask how the runway resurfacing is now progressing?
Are they pressing on with the night time work and how well is it going?

Thanks

EGCA

Indeed, only six more weeks of resurfacing to go, hurrah! Still, taxilane Z is up and running again, ahead of expectations (glad I've been on leave for most of that.) Maybe we can start shifting some planes at our normal rate again, but not too many, don't want to be giving BIA's marketing people carte blanche here!

Thanks for the info.

Appreciated

EGCA