BRISTOL - 4 [Archive] - Page 9

MerchantVenturer

26th Jun 2012, 19:20

At the moment the Flyer buses, airport accredited taxis and certain other vehicles are allowed to access the road that passes right outside the front of the passenger terminal. These vehicles have to pass through two physical security barriers, one of which is permanently attended by security staff.

It's true that at present passengers on alighting from the Flyer buses have but a few metres to walk before entering the terminal. The same applies in reverse further along the road outside the arrivals area.

The video link gives an overview of the proposed expanded airport and it is clear that bus passengers will have further to walk between bus and terminal.

I suppose that this is part of the pros and cons of the expansion. No doubt some people will whinge as they do regularly in the local press when they have to walk the full length of the corridor from the western apron to access or leave their aircraft.

The expansion would remove the road entirely from in front of the terminal. This might be considered advantageous from a security point of view.

It's going to be a few years before we see anything approaching the full expansion. Airport management has said many times that the expansion will proceed incrementally as passenger numbers dictate.

Development at Bristol International Airport (Mar 09) - YouTube

commit aviation

27th Jun 2012, 08:36

The changes to the front of the terminal in terms of access will be mandated. After GLA the requirements were changed although it was acknowledged that in many instances it would not be practical for airports to comply with all the requirements immediately. However at the point any redvelopment takes place they will require these to be met.

Welshtraveller

10th Jul 2012, 19:25

Hi,

Which aircraft type operates the Bristol to Verona route next summer?

Think it is Thomsonfly but the aircraft appears to be based in Verona based on the flight times, Outgoing BRS 1350 / 1655. Return VER 1105 / 1220. Not sure if this is correct.

Thanks.

ub2

10th Jul 2012, 20:56

its a 737-800 & is on a w pattern with lgw i believe

Welshtraveller

14th Jul 2012, 10:15

Thanks UB2, very useful.

andrew1968

16th Jul 2012, 17:40

CAA not reported for Bristol yet!

Bristol Airport have published their own stats for June, mighty fine reading they make too!

June 2012
Pax: 604,550
UP: 6.89%

Movements: 5,685
DOWN: 11.83%

January to June:
Pax: 2,708,166
UP: 2.54%

Movement: 30,649
DOWN: 6.85%

Absolutely outstanding performance when you take into effect the reduction in movements, neary a 12% reduction with nearly 7% increase in passengers!

Superb set of results for June! Long may it continue. :D

andrew1968

18th Jul 2012, 14:15

Helvetic Airways have published Winter flights Oct to Mar from BRS to ZRH, different flight times to what they are now, but same days!

Good news for Bristol, but I fear not so good for Cardiff as no sign of any flights continuing over the water this winter as with the double drop in the Summer schedule!

jetstreamtechrecords

19th Jul 2012, 08:10

new competition on BHD LGW wont go down well in Exeter:eek:

MerchantVenturer

20th Jul 2012, 11:07

Blue Islands have applied for a route licence to operate a 2 x daily Guernsey-Bristol which would be in competition with Aurigny.

A previous application was rejected and and at least one report suggests this application will go the same way.

Blue Islands point out that, until they introduced their 2 x daily Bristol-Jersey route last year, passenger numbers had declined between JER and BRS over recent years with Flybe the only carrier. In the past year passenger numbers have increased by 35%.

They believe they can create a similar impact on GCI-BRS.

Aurigny argue that there is insufficient traffic for two operators on GCI-BRS.

Blue Islands apply for Guernsey to Bristol license - Business News | businesslife.co (http://www.businesslife.co/BusinessNews.aspx?id=blue-islands-apply-for-guernsey-to-bristol-license)

Fight on for Blue Islands - Guernsey News from ITV Channel Television - channelonline.tv (http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_guernseynews/displayarticle.asp?id=480629)

andrew1968

20th Jul 2012, 17:00

The airports mayfly shows easyJet operating a 3rd A320 next week!

Based aircraft:

3 x A320
8 x A319

More good news for Bristol, although we could do with a new operator to replace the destinations/flights dropped by TCX for Summer '13

Morrihell

21st Jul 2012, 00:59

The third A320 arrived from Faro Friday AM, replacing an A319.

Some (tech?) issues Friday, the afternoon Ryanair came in/went out to Dublin rather than using one of the based B738s.

The evening Palma flight is being operated by a Gatwick based A320.

Some very late flights tonight, no doubt frustrating for both staff and passengers.

MH

WATABENCH

21st Jul 2012, 18:16

EZY A320 had a bad bird strike, engine ingestion and damage to blades I believe, hence delay last night

santito

25th Jul 2012, 10:41

QR are going to start flights from BHX later in the year... QR have discussions ongoing with 2 other airports. I wonder if BRS is a contender for a 787 service? Ops should be possible given the 787's excellent runway performance?

Would make sense given Newcastle manages to sustain a daily EK 777, and would QR want to go head to head in EDI and GLA against EK/EY?

Apart from EDI, BRS, and GLA, and maybe LBA, I can't think who else would be in contention...

Cardiff and Belfast both have the wrong demographics/ pax numbers in my opinion, Newcastle is doing 'OK' (Not amazingly) with the EK set up, LPL too close to Manchester, EMA too close to BHX...

MerchantVenturer

25th Jul 2012, 18:52

The two other airports rumoured to be under consideration are Gatwick and Edinburgh.

BRS is probably too close to BHX to make it a contender (and of course LHR not far away either) even if the B 787 overcomes the current runway limitations.

Three, four or five years down the line might see a different economic situation that would enable expansion to the Middle East from more UK regional airports and not just by Qatar, in which case BRS ought to be in with a shout.

I'd love to have a Middle East connection from BRS by a major airline from that region and would certainly use it but I fear I will have to wait a few years yet.

2J&D

26th Jul 2012, 16:14

I think although BHX/LHR are close to BRS there would still be a demand for a ME departure from BRS....If you look at the current operations in the UK, EK operate from GLA now twice daily and from NCL, which is about (?) to be upgraded to a 777 from an A330. The distance from EDI to NCL and in fact GLA from EDI cant be too different from where BRS sits in relation to BHX/LHR etc... But we know that the Bristol catchment area covers a fairly large area. After all not all the pax on the EK flights from the other airports are purely from within a 50 mile radius! The people of the SW have to travel from somewhere!

If QR feel that EDI would work with competition from a rival not too far away, I can't see why this could not be the same for a BRS departure.

I am basing this purely of my own experience of trying to fill these seats for the airlines and whilst there may not be a massive demand purely for the ME, there is big demand for eastern connections that I think might make a QR flight work, even with just 2 AUS points of arrival at present.

Pandy

30th Jul 2012, 13:39

Is my memory correct in recalling QR has A319LR's which they use as a sort of route tester, could that be an option until the 787's arrive in greater numbers ?

Confirmed Must Ride

31st Jul 2012, 08:19

EY now adding their prefix to BRS-DUB flights as code-share agreement with EI has just been signed.

AirGuru

31st Jul 2012, 08:31

What are the registrations of the 2 based TCX A320's at the moment ?

Thanks

EK406DXB

31st Jul 2012, 08:57

Hi AirGuru TCX currently have G-DHRG and G-SUEW based at BRS

AirGuru

31st Jul 2012, 13:58

Thank you ! What aircraft operates the ZTH ?

yeo valley

31st Jul 2012, 15:58

Thank you ! What aircraft operates the ZTH ?

A320 airbus operates zth.

IrishFlyer2013

31st Jul 2012, 16:11

G-SUEW & G-DHRG will both be operating BRS-ZTH on Thursday. There are two flight's to Zakynthos from Bristol. The flight numbers are TCX7252 & TCX7162.
TCX7252 will be operated by G-DHRG & TCX7162 will be operated by G-SUEW. This could change however.

EI-A330-300

3rd Aug 2012, 13:41

FR are dropping the third daily DUB flight for winter. Now its both EI and FR on 2 daily flights.

ub2

3rd Aug 2012, 15:17

and the timmings are not to good either with a 6.30 am dep & a 21.10 dep from brs & return trip 8.45 am arr & 23.30 arr , 7 days a week, imo ryanair are handing pax to EI as there timmings are better

OltonPete

15th Aug 2012, 13:22

Source: CAA

July 2012 655095 +4.8%

This seems to the best of the UKairports percentage wise (for July) for those handling in excess of five million per annum.

I assume easyjet are mainly responsible?

I know it has been discussed earlier in the thread but to save trawling back, does anyone know if Turkish Airlines have been approached.

BHX has settled down to excellent figures and Edinburgh has now started. I know London and BHX are close but Turkish are one of those airlines who don't seem to bother too much about proximity.

They are still expanding Spain and Italy and the UK could be said to be in a better position.

Pete

LGS6753

15th Aug 2012, 15:50

THY are promoting themselves as an airline with connections via IST. The subtext is that the connections are to the Indian sub-continent (as well as further east).
They are Bristol's best chance of getting a "middle east" airline to operate from there as the gulf carriers tend to operate larger aircraft which would be financially and operationally less suitable.

MerchantVenturer

15th Aug 2012, 18:57

The 655,095 passengers this year is BRS's best ever July beating 2008 by 3,000.

2008 was the year that BRS saw the 6 mppa breached for the one and only time so far (6.228 for the whole year).

The other thing to remember is that BRS has seen passenger gains (slight to be sure) in 2010 and 2011 but with fewer rotations.

This is a trend of the past few years. In 2006 5.710 mppa was obtained with 66,000 atms whereas in 2011 5.768 mppa needed only 53,000 atms.

The pattern is continuing this year with, for example, July's 4.8% increase in passenger numbers obtained through 2.3% fewer atms. There will come a time though when atms will need to be increased if passenger numbers are to rise significantly.

This year April, May and June have also been very good coming second only to 2008 for those months.

Were it not for the greater disparity between summer and winter compared with 2008 this year might have seen the 6 mppa barrier breached again.

As things are it looks like somewhere between 5.8 and 5.9 mppa at the end of this year.

And yes Pete, easyJet is the main contributor followed by Ryanair. easyJet had eleven aircraft based from May this year compared with mid/end of July of recent years when the eleventh aircraft would arrive. Of the eleven based Airbuses there are three 320s based for peak summer. Last year there were two.

WATABENCH

12th Sep 2012, 11:20

Helvetic ceasing CWL flying for winter, BRS continues :D

Severn

18th Sep 2012, 10:02

MerchantVenturer

18th Sep 2012, 11:02

That's a tremendous amount of seating for this route, especially in the winter.

I'm as keen as anyone on seeing BRS prosper and grow its route network but up to 5 x daily looks ambitious. I hope I'm wrong and that the professionals involved know better.

I can't help thinking that if the fares are roughly on a par the bmi non-stop route will be more appealing.

The based bmiRegional ERJ 145 currently operates the 3 x daily BRU for Brussels Airlines but will be replaced this winter by a Flybe Q400 (in Brussels Airlines livery so far as I'm aware).

The new route will presumably preserve the aircraft and crews at BRS and possibly see other routes in the future.

There is also the Airbus shuttle from Filton to Toulouse currently operated by bmiRegional. This is reportedly moving to BRS when the Filton runway closes at the end of the year.

I haven't heard whether the new contract winners for this service have been announced. Presumably the new owners of bmiRegional were amongsts the bidders. If they were to win that would increase their presence at BRS.

Scilly Skybus

It's been reported on a Scilly Islands website that the DH-6 operated BRS-ISC summer route that's been in existence since 1995 will end as of this year, as will the SOU route to the Scilly Isles.

The reason seems to be to do with the closure of the BIH helicopter link to the islands from Penzance and Skybus's decision to try to fill the void by running a high-volume shuttle from airports in Devon and Cornwall (Exeter, Newquay and Lands End) to the Scilly Isles.

The BRS route was not high volume (just over 3,000 passengers in 2011) and was expensive but it will be a shame to see it disappear from the network.

BAladdy

18th Sep 2012, 11:02

BMI regional's fares are much cheaper than flight operated by T3

BM's lowest economy fare (excl sale fare) is £115.00 rtn compared to T3's £235.90. Also BM's flights will be more appealing to business pax as they are direct compared to T3's that operate via LBA.

I wonder if T3 will make changes to there operation before october and lower there fares

BAladdy

18th Sep 2012, 18:31

According to Airlineroute.net AF are going to reduce there schedule to CDG from 18 to 12 x weekly for 13

AIRFRANCE S13 European Service Reductions as of 18SEP12 | Airline Route – Worldwide Airline Route Updates (http://airlineroute.net/2012/09/18/af-europe-s13update2/)

Tried to book flights for mid summer next year. However only 1 flight was available to book 6 x weekly. With flights being operated by a E190

fjencl

18th Sep 2012, 18:38

Individual.com (http://www.individual.com/storyrss.php?story=163491900&hash=25e40173acbc939d6b083705aff080ff)

EI-BUD

18th Sep 2012, 19:03

Great to see bmi regional starting new routes, however, they will need to market this heavily and effectively. How do they market the current passengers in the most effective way to ensure that the frequent flyer on ABZ BRS know that they fly, as people are creatures of habit so need to be marketed effectively.

WATABENCH

19th Sep 2012, 08:40

Is BMI Regional owned by BA nowadays? If so I wonder if eventually down the line somewhere we could see a return to BRS of the flag carrier?

Anybody know what is going on with the hotel at BRS? no signs of any ground being cleared, havent heard anything about terminal expansion in a long time, guessing the owners are being careful on funds??

mathers_wales_uk

19th Sep 2012, 11:14

bmi Regional have no link with British Airways and was bought by Sector Aviation Holdings after it was initially aquired by the IAG Group.

If I am correct Sector Aviation Holdings also own Suckling Airways and the newly aquired Loganair.

At the moment all three will be in seperate AOC's.

andayxd

19th Sep 2012, 11:50

completely off topic.
Is there any Airlines and Aircraft that you would like to see at Bristol?:)

WATABENCH

19th Sep 2012, 12:21

The timings of the flights mean a lot of down time in BRS for the aircraft, perhaps a cheeky little FRA could fit in the middle, no aircraft makes money sat on the deck, take monday for example arriving back to BRS from ABZ at 1020 then not back out until 1640.

Lets say BRS-FRA departing 1100, arriving approx 1230, departing FRA-BRS 1330 arriving approx 1500, in plenty of time to operate the afternoon ABZ service at 1640.

Obviously not ideal times for Business goers to FRA but better than nothing and would connect with a lot of flights eastbound in the evenings I would expect

Just a thought :E

MerchantVenturer

19th Sep 2012, 12:40

Hello WATABENCH.

In February a Bristol-based engineering consultancy was awarded the civil and structural engineering contract to work on the terminal extension at the western end.

At that time it was reported in the trade press that this consultancy would work on the scheme design and aimed to prepare the initial documentation by the beginning of this summer.

It was also reported that the west terminal extension will be a three-storey structure, incorporating a single storey basement, of concrete frame construction with a steel frame to the front elevation.

In the minutes of the most recent airport consultative committee meeting (held in July) no mention was made of the airport expansion other than to report that it was underway with three new aircraft stands completed earlier this year - later officially opened by the then Secretary of State for Transport.

The airport has always said that the expansion would proceed incrementally as traffic dictated so it's no surprise that there's not been much to report.

The hotel formed a separate planning application and so far as I know will be financed by a hotel group. Progress has certainly fallen behind that publicly stated last year and it was not mentioned in the minutes of the last consultative committee meeting. So BRS retains the dubious distinction of being the busiest UK airport without an onsite airport hotel.

There always seems to be work of some sort going on in connection with the airport buildings/facilities and this has been the case for a number of years - I'm not complaining, merely making an observation.

For example, this year the security area has been expanded and an additional immigration point put in place.

Cyrano

19th Sep 2012, 15:12

If I am correct Sector Aviation Holdings also own Suckling Airways and the newly aquired Loganair.

At the moment all three will be in seperate AOC's.

I wasn't aware of an ownership change at Loganair. Do you have a news report or other source for this you could point me at?

Thanks!
C.

mathers_wales_uk

19th Sep 2012, 16:19

Sorry Cyrano it is the other way around. Loganair has aquired Suckling Airways and this was announced in Summer of 2011. They are however keeping their individual AOC.

Here is the press release from the Suckling Airways website - click here
(http://www.sucklingairways.co.uk/news_4.asp)

bobsyerunlce

21st Sep 2012, 12:17

Re Andy's post about carriers at BRS...
My wishlist, however far fetched it may be would be for the return of Lufthansa, and for either Emirates or Turkish.
On the LCC front, I think Wizzair would do well at BRS. On the occasions I've used them, I've been impressed.

EZYPZY

21st Sep 2012, 12:51

Wizzair launched a Warsaw - Bristol service one or two years ago. It got axed shortly after, don't even think the service took off the ground...

MerchantVenturer

21st Sep 2012, 14:10

Yes, in March 2010 Wizzair did announce a 2 x weekly service to Warsaw to commence in September that year. Within eight weeks of its announcement they cancelled the route - four months before it was due to start.

I'm not sure what scope there would be for Wizzair now. Poland was well covered this summer by Ryanair (six routes) and easyJet (a seventh) with Modlin due to start this autumn with Ryanair. In addition Kaunas, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest are operated between them by easyJet and Ryanair.

Bristol would-be mayors not keen on airport

Bristol's first mayoral elections will take place in November. This week the nominees from the three main political parties together with a prominent independent candidate took part in a debate, with the airport one of the topics.

The Lib-Dem and independent spoke against airport expansion with the Lib-Dem seeming to say that Bristol doesn't need an airport at all. He said there are other ways of achieving good international links. The Conservative was only grudgingly in favour of some sort of controlled expansion, leaving the Labour man as the only one who thought the airport should push forward but even he didn't appear to be ecstatic about the idea.

It's a good thing for the airport that it's located in the North Somerset unitary authority area though the city council and future mayor of Bristol will have an influence over transport links and general support (or otherwise) in the city region.

Those who follow BRS's fortunes will remember that the city council formally objected to the airport expansion application when it was determined (in the airport's favour) by North Somerset Planning Committee in May 2010.

Bristol_Traveller

13th Oct 2012, 17:30

Just thought I'd pop my head in, with a couple of thoughts.

Germany may have got more difficult again, at least with Lufthansa. LH have decided that they will split their European business into two operations. LH (the existing company) will only operate European routes to/from FRA or MUC. All other European routes will move over to 4U (Germanwings) on 01JAN, on a "economy flying" model (aka, slightly upmarket LCC - akin to EZY, I would have thought). 30 aircraft will move from LH to 4U.

That would mean any BRS-FRA/MUC route would need to be operated by LH proper, with fares and revenue expectations probably set accordingly. Last time I checked, we were still under the curse of "close to LHR", with LH umming and erring about whether a route would be competitive against AF/KL, or just cannibalise existing LHR-FRA/MUC traffic.

The LH regular fliers are up in arms, etc.

Meanwhile, I'm going to be trying out using DUB as my starting point for longhaul on LH/*A, using EI for positioning. As well as avoiding UK APD, the fares on LH ex-DUB are substantially lower than ex-UK. It's just a shame that there's no mid-day EI flight - I have to find excuses for long meetings in DUB!

MerchantVenturer

13th Oct 2012, 20:09

Good to hear from you again B T.

As usual, you seem to have summed up the situation accurately. Air France is reducing a lot of its short haul European destination frequencies and BRS is due to see fewer flights next summer, so that might help a bit but in itself wouldn't be the tipping point.

Don't forget that BHX is just up the road too with LH to FRA and MUC amongst its German portfolio.

When LH (Eurowings) operated BRS-FRA April 2008-April 2009 the route was building well enough (99,000 passengers in that period) but then came the deep recession and LH decided that FRA from LHR, BHX and BRS was too much of a good thing. BRS was the newest route of the three and the least developed, and doubtless the one with the least potential especially in such straitened times so it was the obvious one to go. Had the recession not occurred BRS-FRA might well have survived but that can be said about numerous routes from airports around most of the globe. I know that you are familiar (at first hand) with the recent BRS-FRA situation but others might not be.

It may well be then that if BRS is to see an expansion into Germany in the forseeable future the best that might be hoped for is a point to point route. It's not to be sneezed at but it would clearly be of much less value than a LH one into FRA with onward connections.

MerchantVenturer

16th Oct 2012, 19:02

Last year's best ever September was just beaten this year.

619,997 passengers were handled in the month, up just 0.4% on September 2011. This was achieved despite a drop of 5.8% in atms, something that has been going on at BRS for several years.

Rolling 12-month figure was 5,866,309, up 1.8% on a year ago. 2010 and 2011 saw small percentage passenger rises and 2012 looks as though it will too.

A poster on another forum who is always well-informed on BRS matters has said that there is 'much more' to come at the airport in 2013 in terms of route announcements, so perhaps the falling atm trend will at last be halted.

Severn

24th Oct 2012, 19:12

Looks like the TCX timetable on their website has been updated and although not complete, a second A320 will be needed at BRS next summer matching this summer.
There are currently 23 departures at the moment with large gaps on Wed and Fri, and 2 departures using only one aircraft on a Monday and Saturday so I'm sure there will be more flights released soon.
Couple of additions so far; PMI will be up to 3x weekly from 2x weekly in 2012 and DLM will be up to 5x weekly at the height of Summer 2013!

Stone Cold II

24th Oct 2012, 22:05

From what an engineer said to me the other night was that TCX were going to only have one based A320 and EZY would do the rest. How reliable that information is I don't know, probably vey unreliable.

macdo

25th Oct 2012, 07:59

That is incorrect. BRS will have two A320's for s13 at BRS. Directly from DFO last week.

Stone Cold II

25th Oct 2012, 19:04

As I said, probably very unreliable information I was given.

MerchantVenturer

25th Oct 2012, 19:53

A poster on another forum who is always well-informed on BRS matters has said that there is 'much more' to come at the airport in 2013

The 'much more to come' comment was made during a discussion on the expanded (from the early version) TCX BRS prigramme next summer and was said to be in addition to and unconnected with the Thomas Cook holiday programme.

There are certainly a number of Thomas Cook holidays advertised next summer using easyJet as well as the TCX flights.

Robert Sinclair, the BRS CEO, was a guest on a local radio show yesterday and chatted about the airport and its prospects. He is optimistic that 2013 will see passenger numbers similar to the airport's best ever year in 2008 when over 6.2 million passengers were handled. CAA stats show the latest 12-month rolling total as 5.866 million.

crackling jet

28th Oct 2012, 08:48

Morning MV,

Any idea of the " lots more to come in 2013", oh and from a source within the airport, the hotel starts next month

PPRuNeUser0176

28th Oct 2012, 14:03

From 16 November Aer Lingus will re interduce a third daily flight on Friday and Sunday.

DUB-BRS 10.10-11.20
BRS-DUB 11.45-13.00

MerchantVenturer

28th Oct 2012, 14:25

'Much more to come'

Hello cracking jet.

I have no specific details as I'm repeating a comment in another forum from someone who I know is well informed about matters at BRS and who doesn't normally post comments unless they have substance. It appears to allude to new routes though whether new airline (s) as well is unclear.

I'll PM you the link to the other forum site and you can read for yourself if you wish.

Aer Lingus Regional 3rd DUB flight Fri and Sun

Ryanair has dropped to 2 x daily from 3 this winter so it seems that EI has seen a gap.

andayxd

28th Oct 2012, 18:55

Personally i would like to see some A321's in Bristol.
Only ones you seem to get are the charters from Austrian operating to Innsbruck.

Also i read somewhere, can't remember where but Air France should be upgrading their aircraft from the ATR 45 to there Embraer 145 ?

And i read on another website that TnT was operating a night freight flight using there 737-300 from Bristol? starting sometime in OCT, but the post seems to be deleted now.?
:ugh:

bravoromeosierra

29th Oct 2012, 11:42

Almost. From the S13 timetable, CDG is downgraded to a once daily (excluding Sunday) E190.

flyerboy

29th Oct 2012, 12:56

Looks like increase on the KL1049/1050 from next month as the F70 is replaced by an E190

MerchantVenturer

29th Oct 2012, 19:24

Confirming flyerboy's post, the KLM winter timetable does show the KL1049/1050 as an E190 with the other two daily rotations F70s.

However, when next summer's season kicks in with the return to 4 x daily all the services are back to the F70 in the timetable.

Standard Noise

31st Oct 2012, 20:08

And i read on another website that TnT was operating a night freight flight using there 737-300 from Bristol? starting sometime in OCT, but the post seems to be deleted now.?

I know I take on the role of unit sloth on a nightshift, but this one has got past me.

Severn

12th Nov 2012, 13:01

There was talk that TCX was removing 1x A320 from their BRS base in Summer 2013 but with next summer’s schedule now up it is now certain that Thomas Cook will basing 2x A320s in Summer 2013 (same as Summer 2012)

SUMMARY:
Summer 2012:
19x Destinations, 6x Countries
29x weekly flights operated by based aircraft
4x weekly flights operated a w-pattern other UK airports, 2x to CWL,1x to EXT and 1x to HUY

Summer 2013:
17x Destinations, 6x Countries
29x weekly flights operated by based aircraft
1x weekly flight operating a w-pattern to EXT

Flights per week:
(note: nc= no change from Summer 2012)

SPAIN: 9x weekly (+1)- (8x weekly in Summer 2012)
Mainland:
REU: 0 (-1) - (1x weekly in Summer 2012)

Canary Islands:
ACE: 1x weekly – (nc)
LPA: 1x weekly (NEW) - (did not operate Summer 2012)
TFS: 1x weekly –( nc)

Balearic Islands:
PMI: 3x weekly – (nc)
MAH: 2x weekly (+1)- (1x weekly in Summer 2012)
IBZ: 1x weekly – (nc)
TURKEY: 8x weekly – (nc)
DLM: 5x weekly (+1)- (4x weekly in Summer 2012)
AYT: 2x weekly – (nc)
BJV: 1x weekly (-1) - (2x weekly in Summer 2012)

GREEK ISLANDS: 7x weekly (-1)- (8x weekly in Summer 2012)
ZTH: 3x weekly (+1)- (2x weekly in Summer 2012)
CFU: 1x weekly (-1) - (2x weekly in Summer 2012)
HER: 1x weekly – (nc)
KGS: 1x weekly – (nc)
RHO: 1x weekly – (nc)
JSI/KVA: 0 (-1) - (1x weekly in Summer 2012)

TUNISIA: 3x weekly (+1)- (2x weekly in Summer 2012)
NBE: 3x weekly (+1)- (2x weekly in Summer 2012)

CYPRUS: 1x weekly (-1)- (2x weekly in Summer 2012)
LCA: 1x weekly – (nc)
PFO: 0 (-1) - (1x weekly in Summer 2012)

BULGARIA (NEW): 1x weekly- (did not operate Summer 2012)
BOJ: 1x weekly (NEW) - (did not operate Summer 2012)

PORTUGAL: 0 (-1) - (1x weekly in Summer 2012)
FAO: 0 (-1) - (1x weekly in Summer 2012)

The schedule will look like the below:
Monday:
#1: CFU, BJV
#2: MAH, LPA
Tuesday:
#1: AYT, DLM
#2: PMI, HER
Wednesday:
#1: DLM, RHO
#2: NBE, LCA
Thursday:
#1: ZTH, KGS
#2: ZTH, ACE
Friday:
#1: MAH, TFS
#2: BOJ, DLM
Saturday:
#1: PMI (operates w-pattern to EXT), DLM
#2: NBE, AYT
Sunday:
#1: PMI, DLM
#2: IBZ, ZTH, NBE

LGWAlan

13th Nov 2012, 12:23

James - Thomas Cook are still selling a BRS-JSI on a Wednesday on their own flight

hi_fly

14th Nov 2012, 11:18

Hi - I'm new to this forum but keep a close eye on all developments from Bristol Airport. I received an email from Helvetic Airways confirming their Summer 2013 schedule from Bristol to Zurich.

Timings are as follows (starting 31.03.13):

BRS - ZRH
Mon 09.25 - 12:10
Wed, Fri 20:00 - 22:45
Sun 14:30 - 17:15

ZRH - BRS
Mon 07:50 - 08:40
Wed, Fri 18:00 - 18:50
Sun 12:55 - 13:45

Nice to see this route continue. I've used it a few times over the past year although I've never seen it more than 60% full. But it's good to see they must having some success with it.

Bristol_Traveller

14th Nov 2012, 11:23

A very strange set of movements have appeared on the Mayfly and the website for tonight (14NOV12):

23:59 RYR 9999 BRS B73C-800 189
23:59 EZY 9991 BRS A319 156
23:59 RYR 9998 BRS B73C-800 189
23:59 RYR 9996 BRS B73C-800 189
23:59 RYR 9997 BRS B73C-800 189
23:59 EZY 9994 BRS A319 156
23:59 EZY 9995 BRS A319 156
23:59 RYR 9998 BRS B73C-800 189
23:59 EZY 9992 BRS A319 156
23:59 EZY 9993 BRS A319 156

Shifting some aircraft about?

Severn

14th Nov 2012, 12:24

BT, no flight-plans in for these flights yet, but will check later.
On a different note, any idea what the following flights are for today?
Adria Airways - A319-132 (S5-AAR)
ADR588 BHX-BRS ARR 07:00(Positioning)
ADR584 BRS-RAK DEP 08:54 (Marrakesh, Morocco)
(This aircraft is flying BHX-BRS-RAK-LBA-EDI today)

Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium - A320-214 (OO-TCI)
TCW9518 BRS-ZAZ DEP 07:56 (Zaragoza, Spain)
TCW9519 ZAZ-BRS ARR 16:17
TCW952T BRS-BRU DEP 17:20 (Positioning)

ub2

14th Nov 2012, 13:51

these are dummy flights set up so they know what a/c are on what stand that are parked up for the day or more

ub2

14th Nov 2012, 13:53

its a landrover jolly, it comes back from rak tomorrow

Ranger 1

14th Nov 2012, 21:52

They're probably all playing with the all New Range rover in the sand.
I wonder if Standard Noise got an invite as well? :}

LBIA

16th Nov 2012, 15:47

Well it looks like Eastern Airways are to make some frequency cut backs on there Bristol-Leeds/Bradford-Aberdeen service which is operated by a mix of Saab 2000 & Jetstream 41 aircraft this weekend.
I guess it’s due to the recently introduced bmi regional, direct Bristol-Aberdeen Embrear 135 jet service, Which is far quicker option as it operates non-stop.

MerchantVenturer

1st Dec 2012, 18:45

Flybe BRS-Isle of Man

It seems that the service has been re-instated for next summer - early April to late October on Tue, Thur and Sat as last summer.

It's shown in the Flybe web timetable and is bookable on their website.

Bristol Flying Centre

Bristol Flying Centre set for huge growth in 2013 (http://www.businessairportinternational.com/news.php?NewsID=44802)

Bristol Flying Centre expects passenger numbers to rise 1,700% (http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/bristol-flying-centre-expects-passenger-numbers-to-rise-1700-379557/)

The Bristol Flying Centre which incorporates charter operator Centrelineair has been appointed by bmiregional to handle passengers on the Airbus corporate shuttle service from Bristol to Toulouse from next month. The service will switch to BRS following the closure of the Filton runway.

The BFC has also agreed terms to handle an as yet unnamed 'global brand'.

The result will be a huge increase in passenger numbers to around 84,000 a year from the dedicated site on the south side of the airfield that will see a significant enlargement in its passenger handling capabilities, including two passenger lounges, a crew lounge, security screening facilities and redesigned reception areas.

The BFC CEO Phil Brockwell is quoted: “Our business aviation facility here at Bristol Airport has always been one of the best equipped in the country for aircraft handling and by the end of the year our expanded passenger facilities will complete the first class offering we can give to our customers."

“The bmi regional contract alone will see an additional 40 Embraer 145 movements a week here....................................”

Standard Noise

1st Dec 2012, 19:11

unnamed 'global brand'

Dysonair?

Still no sign of TNT though.:{

MerchantVenturer

4th Dec 2012, 18:31

Blue Islands will increase seating capacity on the 2 x daily BRS-JER route from 4 February next year by replacing the Jetstream with ATR-42 equipment.

140% more seats on Bristol service – Bristol Airport (http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-centre/news-releases/2012/12/blue-islands.aspx)

ub2

11th Dec 2012, 17:18

looking at the timetable for 2013 at brs, it appears a lot of destinations are being done with outer base aircraft & only 2 based aircraft will be needed out of the 5 based at present, so it appears its either a culling of 3 units at bristol or making way for some major new route expansion. anyone with info on which it is

WATABENCH

11th Dec 2012, 20:45

ub2 - I'm guessing your talking of Ryanair? Perhaps the original deal on landing fees is coming to an end, I believe MOL does this regually across his network until he can get the deal he requires, Reus and Gerona sping to mind recently.

Have heard murmerings that BMI regional now with 2 based units (1 for ABZ route & 1 at base to cover charters and tech a/c) and a 3rd on the way to operate the Airbus contract are looking at new routes to core european cities in the new year.

MerchantVenturer

12th Dec 2012, 11:28

There is a parallel discussion about this in the Ryanair thread where someone has posted the summer 2013 timetable as currently constituted.

This shows almost the same number of flights as last summer although Budapest and Warsaw Modlin (started this winter) are missing at present.

The difference is that more flights are shown as being operated by aircraft from other bases than from the BRS base.

Having studied Ryanair timetables at BRS for a number of years I am well aware that they go through several published versions before the season starts.

I suspect we shall have to wait a little longer before the final FR summer 2013 BRS timetable reaches its apogee.

Passenger numbers November 2012

Bristol Airport's own figures show that over 344,000 passengers were handled in November, up over 10% on November 2011, though atms were virtually flat.

Unless December is a disaster the airport should see its second best ever year with around 5.9 mppa (2008's 6.2 mppa being the best).

ub2

12th Dec 2012, 13:56

WATABENCH yes sorry i was referring to ryanair, & it appears that there will only be 2 based a/c from the end of march , although no routes are to go they will be served from other bases

ub2

12th Dec 2012, 14:01

there may still be some tweeking to be done regarding the 2013 ryanair timetable for brs , but there will only be 2 based a/c (down from 5) from the end of march & regarding bmi lets hope so, just what bristol needs

MerchantVenturer

13th Dec 2012, 13:40

New charter destination for summer 2013

Announced today that Corsican Holidays will operate a Sunday flight to Bastia in Corsica from 23 June for 13 weeks, using bmi regional ERJ 145 aircraft.

easyJet served Bastia from BRS in the summers of 2009 and 2010 and before that there were weekly summer charters to Bastia on behalf of Corsican Places and Holiday Options, with the last one operating in 2007.

MerchantVenturer

14th Dec 2012, 13:50

On 11 December in the Ryanair thread FR@STN posted the complete Ryanair BRS summer 2013 timetable as it then stood. Compared with summer 2012 Budapest was missing and Warsaw Modlin (commenced this winter) did not appear.

A check today shows Modlin now bookable 3 x weekly in summer 13 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and Budapest is bookable 2 x weekly on Tuesdays and Sundays.

Timings suggest that Modlin will be operated by BRS-based aircraft and Budapest by non-BRS-based aircraft.

All the destinations operated in summer 12 are now currently bookable plus Modlin. However, Dublin is now 16 x weekly instead of the 21 x weekly in summer 12 and Treviso has dropped from 3 x weekly to 2 x weekly. The addition of Modlin gives a net loss of three weekly rotations (currently 105 weekly rotations in total).

From timings 38 of the rotations appear to be operated by BRS-based aircraft with 67 from other bases. In summer 2012 only 14 of the 108 weekly rotations were operated by non-based aircraft.

As previously stated by ub2 the current timetable appears to require only two BRS-based aircraft and even then there are gaps with only four rotations by 'local' aircraft on Saturdays and five on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

There may be one or two additional weekly flights in peak summer as there were in the peak periods of summers 11 and 12.

In recent summers five BRS-based aircraft have been fully utilised from the airport (with the odd gap). It seems inconceivable that a host of new routes will be announced to fully occupy all of the three aircraft currently not required in the summer 13 timetable so, unless there is a major re-writing of the timetable, it appears that some or all of these aircraft may be destined for other work next summer.

Or will they?

FRatSTN

14th Dec 2012, 20:42

I think there will be some time changes and a few new routes as two aircraft still don't seem quite fully utilised. I doubt there would be an expansion so big for the need of three more aircraft to serve on top of the current two and all those flights operated by non-based aircraft.

I wouldn't be surpised to see an expansion of something like 300,000 passengers, you know, the usual type of expansion size with a series of 5 or 6 new routes (probably most likely including Greece I would imagine) and perhaps a 3rd aircraft, maybe four after a bit of schedule changing, but I really doubt there will be five.

I think the most likely reason, like I said in the Ryanair forum, is that because more aircraft are going to East Midlands and Manchester, they are taking some out of Bristol so that they are not adding any "new" aircraft and jobs to the UK market since it doesn't really support their claims of how damaging APD is the the UK.

G3jetman

15th Dec 2012, 12:04

Rumours are a plenty at BRS about EZY, RYR and BMIr for next year.....Talk to of exceeding 6 million next year...watch this space!! :)

bobsyerunlce

15th Dec 2012, 12:53

Why don't you spill the beans on the rumours you have heard? Whether you are ight or wrong, rumour-mongering is good fun!

WATABENCH

15th Dec 2012, 21:32

I'm going for BMI - FRA, HAM, MUC, MAN. and EZY - SSH or HRG.

All guess work, but then rumours are what this sites about :}

bobsyerunlce

15th Dec 2012, 21:40

Sounds reasonable. Whilst it is impossible to guess where FR may go next (who would have thought BRS to Kaunas), German routes seem a safe bet. FRA would be a welcome return and MUC would be a nice addition.

MerchantVenturer

17th Dec 2012, 19:06

2012 is turning out to be a decent year for BRS with only January seeing a small percentage fall in passenger numbers. All other months have seen percentage gains with November the best at 10.8%.

However, this is due in part to the later half-term holiday this autumn which stretched into November (unlike 2011) and, looking at CAA stats, it seems to have benefited a number of airports.

The 10.8% increase in November meant that 346,876 passengers were handled bringing the rolling year to 5,917,170 which is 3.1% better than a year ago.

This will be the third consecutive year that the airport has enjoyed small percentage gains so breaking through the 6 mppa barrier in 2013 (for only the second year in its history) may well be a realistic target.

As for rumours, I've heard a few some of which are contradictory, especially in regard to Ryanair.

CheekyVisual

18th Dec 2012, 16:45

The future of the FR base at BRS depends entirely on the new deal currently under negotiation. The timetable has been written assuming FR will not get the deal they want, part of the standard take our toys away, bargaining tool, see also bring more toys if you make us happy bargaining position.

The secondary issue is that now FR have received their last delivery there is no more expansion available. New bases and expansions will have to have aircraft sourced from current bases.

That explains the contradictory rumours. As always deal will be taken to the wire. No one really knows except the airport directors and those of FR.

MerchantVenturer

19th Dec 2012, 20:44

BRS is one of ten new routes to be served by the new Chania base next summer.

Ryanair Announces New Chania (Greece) Base (No 55) (http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-announces-new-chania-greece-base-no-55)

Addendum

Bristol-Chania showing as 2 x weekly summer 13 on Tues and Sats.

CV,

Thank you for your post. The content makes sense of course.

Ryanair is still adding to its BRS network as Chania today illustrates (it was a route strongly rumoured for summer 2012 with a number of others).

Assuming that BRS and FR reach an accord, it will interesting to see if some of the other new ones thought to have been in the frame for summer 2012 appear for s 13, though several would have been to non-bases and would have required a sixth aircraft at BRS.

If Ryanair and the airport cannot agree terms then all sorts of intriguing possibilities come into play.

I'd be surprised though if that happens.

2J&D

21st Dec 2012, 12:34

Nice to see on the BRS website, info on the new HAM and FRA flights to start next year with BMI Regional!

bravoromeosierra

21st Dec 2012, 12:35

Paging passengers for BMI Regional's new service to Hamburg and Frankfurt.

bmi regional to expand its network – Bristol Airport (http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-centre/news-releases/2012/12/bmi-regional.aspx)

bobsyerunlce

21st Dec 2012, 15:29

This quote in one of the press releases sounds promising too....

"We are also reviewing other opportunities with the team at Bristol Airport and hope to announce additional routes in the new year."

WATABENCH

21st Dec 2012, 19:32

Hamburg makes sense as its linked with Airbus facilities I believe so sits well alongside BMI's airbus contract to TLS, FRA has been a long awaited return, will intresting to see if there is a code share set up put in place with LH for connecting onward.
Great work BMI, still think MAN could be a possibility as BMI regional have a set up there and always seemed popular with WOW although i have no figures to back that up, I'm sure MV may be able to dig some figures on the old WOW route.

MerchantVenturer

21st Dec 2012, 21:11

Hello WATABENCH

The MAN figures were 32,000 in 2007, 29,000 in 2008, 22,000 in 2009, 17,000 in 2010 and just under 5,000 in 2011 when the route was pulled.

Part of the decline was due to fewer daily rotations and to the recession but I can't help feeling that the improved rail connection between Bristol and Manchester also played a significant part.

When Virgin operated the north-south route travelling between the two cities was fiddly with train changes being required most of the time in the Midlands. DB Arriva CrossCountry, when awarded the north-south contract a few years ago, decided to operate Bristol-Manchester direct at, I seem to remember, hourly intervals.

For that reason I wonder whether bmir would think MAN worth a look.

It's excellent news to get FRA and HAM back with the real expectation of more bmir routes to come, judging by the airline's comment.

As has been said, HAM is partly on the back of the Airbus connection between the two cities so I wonder whether Seville (dropped this year by Ryanair) might be looked at by bmir for the same reason, but would there be enough punters in winter to augment any aviation industry travellers? FR was summer-only.

FR was carrying loads in excess of 80% most of the time on BRS/SVQ - not good enough for them it seems - but bmir have far fewer seats to fill, albeit they are not as well known a brand as Ryanair.

SWBKCB

22nd Dec 2012, 05:45

Given the very specific statement of support from Imperial Tobacco and Airbus quoted in the press release, I think it's safe to assume the HAM route can expect strong corporate support from these two, which gives it a great start.

WATABENCH

22nd Dec 2012, 07:37

4 new routes in a week for BRS then, HAM, FRA, CHQ & BIA, not a bad end to the year route wise.

MerchantVenturer

22nd Dec 2012, 14:33

And there is more scheduled route capacity with some of the smaller airlines compared with summer 12.

In addition to larger aircraft on SN to BRU and Blue Islands to JER, the E190 that currently operates the winter mid-morning KLM rotation (1049/1050) from/to AMS will be retained in summer 13 to operate the late afternoon rotation (1053/54). The other three daily rotations remain as F70 work.

Aer Lingus Regional will go 3 x daily to DUB next summer on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays (the third rotation will be mid/late morning) with the other four days all remaining double-daily. They are no doubt taking advantage of Ryanair cutting back to 2 x daily.

Skipness One Echo

22nd Dec 2012, 15:51

The easyJet that was up against BA on BRS-Scotland was not quite the business of today. In my experience, easyJet have raised their game and the market sees them as a serious player on business routes.
Given the choice between an ERJ-145 / 135 and an A319, I think only a masochist would go for the Jungle Jet, and one with deep pcokets as they'd be paying more for relatively less.

crewmeal

26th Dec 2012, 07:01

RIP Filton. Thanks for providing aviation with the skills and technology that moved it into the 21st century.

Looks like comments have been transferred to:

http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/448867-filton-close.html

Bristol_Traveller

31st Dec 2012, 09:17

Airline Routes is reporting that bmi Regional is to start flights to HAM and FRA

bmi Regional in 2013 is introducing new services from Bristol to Germany. Starting 11FEB13, bmi Regional introduces Bristol – Hamburg operation, where it’ll operate the route on weekdays only with Embraer ERJ135 aircraft, followed by Bristol – Frankfurt 6 weekly ERJ135/145 service from 07APR13. Reservation for these routes will begin shortly after New Year.

Bristol – Hamburg
BM1831 BRS0700 – 0935HAM ER3 1
BM1837 BRS1650 – 1925HAM ER3 x167

BM1832 HAM1005 – 1045BRS ER3 1
BM1838 HAM1955 – 2035BRS ER3 x167

From 02APR13, service operates 6 weekly with following schedule.
BM1837 BRS1650 – 1925HAM ER3 x6
BM1838 HAM1955 – 2035BRS ER3 x6

Bristol – Frankfurt
BM1825 BRS1205 – 1435FRA ER3 7
BM1825 BRS1205 – 1435FRA ER4 x67

BM1826 FRA1520 – 1600BRS ER3 7
BM1826 FRA1520 – 1600BRS ER4 x67

HAM looks like the Airbus Staff Shuttle going public since FZO closed, and the ABZ aircraft going to FRA.

Pretty good news. If they can sort out codeshare/interlining with LH, it'll be even better. The FRA timings aren't *ideal* (too late for a Europe trip, a bit too early for the Asia departures around 2200) but hey, take what we've been offered.

Happy New Year :)

bravoromeosierra

31st Dec 2012, 10:57

Do BMI Regional have a crew base at Bristol, or do they just rotate from other bases?

MerchantVenturer

31st Dec 2012, 14:02

Good to hear from you again B_T. Happy New Year to you too.

In the airport/airline blurb that announced these routes it was stated that the HAM route would increase to 12 per week from 8 April - not sure whether that's 12 return flights (which I had assumed) or 12 sectors, ie six return flights.

From January the Airbus Corporate shuttle to Toulouse will commence from BRS operated by bmi regional, and the aforementioned blurb also contained a comment from bmi regional's CEO that the airline hopes to announce 'additional routes' from the airport in the new year.

FRatSTN

31st Dec 2012, 14:13

Does BMI Regional still have plans to expand at East Midlands? Last I heard they were considering it but still nothing.

stuart hammond

31st Dec 2012, 14:36

Was stated that a extra number of flights to new airports may be added in the new year but no date or start date was quoted,
may be has it is the H.Q now it may fit in for extra services.

Stuart

MerchantVenturer

4th Jan 2013, 20:58

With the Airbus Shuttle plus the pubic routes operating/announced, BMI Regional is going to be much in evidence at BRS. It will be almost like the BA franchise days with the small Embraer jets in and out.

Looking at next week's Mayfly which shows the Airbus Shuttle rotations operated by Bmi Regional on weekdays together with the existing BMR Aberdeen rotations, there will be a need for four separate aircraft using the airport at times from next month when the initial Hamburg service comes into operation.

This is on the assumptioon that next week's Shuttle programme is replicated each week. Of course, it may change from week to week. I don't know.

On some days the Shuttle seems to need two aircraft to operate parts of its programme, yet Friday's last arrival is at 0800 with no departures after that. Even then there appear to be some unbalanced rotations at certain times in the week so perhaps Mayfly is not entirely accurate about it all.

The Shuttle aircraft are shown on Mayfly as E145s which is the type used on the ABZ service. The Hamburg and Frankfurt routes (the latter starts in April) seem to be E135 routes.

For what it's worth the timetable would be as follows from February assuming the Shuttle programme remains as next week.

Monday
0630 dep Toulouse
0700 dep Aberdeen
0700 dep Hamburg
0715 arr Chester
0745 dep Toulouse
1020 arr Aberdeen
1045 arr Hamburg
1100 arr Toulouse
1540 dep Chester
1640 dep Aberdeen
1740 arr Chester
1810 dep Toulouse
2000 arr Aberdeen

Tuesday
0630 dep Toulouse
0700 dep Aberdeen
0800 arr Toulouse
1020 arr Aberdeen
0830 dep Chester
1030 arr Chester
1540 dep Chester
1640 dep Aberdeen
1650 dep Hamburg
1740 arr Chester
1810 dep Toulouse
2000 arr Aberdeen
2035 arr Hamburg

Wednesday
0630 dep Toulouse
0700 dep Aberdeen
0800 arr Toulouse
0830 dep Chester
1020 arr Aberdeen
1030 arr Chester
1540 dep Chester
1640 dep Aberdeen
1650 dep Hamburg
1740 arr Chester
1810 dep Toulouse
1830 dep Chester
2000 arr Aberdeen
2035 arr Hamburg

Thursday
0700 dep Aberdeen
0715 arr Chester
0745 dep Toulouse
0800 arr Toulouse
0830 dep Chester
1020 arr Aberdeen
1030 arr Chester
1540 dep Chester
1640 dep Aberdeen
1650 dep Hamburg
1740 arr Chester
1810 dep Toulouse
1830 dep Chester
2000 arr Aberdeen
2035 arr Hamburg

Friday
0700 dep Aberdeen
0715 arr Chester
0745 dep Toulouse
0800 arr Toulouse
1020 arr Aberdeen
1640 dep Aberdeen
1650 dep Hamburg
2000 arr Aberseen
2035 arr Hamburg

Saturday
No scheduled work though some aircraft used for charters, especially football/rugby teams plus a Bastia IT charter from BRS for 13 weeks in peak summer.

Sunday
1640 dep Aberdeen
2000 arr Aberdeen

From April Hamburg will operate Mon-Friday 2 x daily departing at 0700 and 1650 and returning at 1045 and 2035, plus the later rotation on Sundays. Frankfurt will operate Mon-Friday departing 1205 and returning at 1600.

yeo valley

5th Jan 2013, 07:28

had to smile at the pubic route bit mv. time of posting you might have been tired. any case it brought a smile with pubic route.
happy new year mv.

MerchantVenturer

5th Jan 2013, 13:03

Can't even put it down to the subconscious either - far too old for those sorts of dreams.

Sounds as though it's some sort of advert for the Mile High Club.......all those Barbie jets too.

Incidentally, I hear that some are calling the Bristol Flying Centre terminal 2 now that it's home to the Airbus Corporate Shuttle.

Happy New Year to you, yeo valley.

MerchantVenturer

8th Jan 2013, 21:05

Firms land £150m Bristol Airport revamp framework Ι Construction Enquirer (http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2013/01/08/firms-land-150m-bristol-airport-revamp-framework/)

The latest preparatory step has been taken along the road to the major expansion with 13 companies selected to bid for work on the various schemes in due course.

andrew1968

8th Jan 2013, 22:26

From April 2013

bmi regional BRS to HAM is twice daily Monday to Fridays and once on Sunday's

Hence the 12x Weekly suggestion.

MerchantVenturer

10th Jan 2013, 17:45

Further to my #2109, an airport spokesman was interviewed on the local BBC radio station this morning regarding the appointment of a pool of contractors in a 'framework' (created in order to avoid the tiresome EU procurement rules) to undertake the various parts of the infrastructure expansion.

The spokesman said that the next piece of work will be a central walkway which will be equipped with air bridges. The airport has not previously featured air bridges.

He gave no timescale for the work but rumours have been circulating for a while that the work would commence during the current winter.

Work on the onsite airport hotel is also expected to begin soon according to the BBC.

BBC News - Bristol Airport expansion: Pool of contractors appointed (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-20971470)

WATABENCH

10th Jan 2013, 20:20

The central walkway will cover the area from stand 2 past 3, 5 and up to stand 4, basically replacing the so called rat run.
It will then connect opposite stand 2 with the western walkway and lead in to international arrivals, the design apparently looks very good with proper seating areas at stands 4 and 5, not sure of the gate set up for stands 2 & 3, I believe they may expand and enclose the areas just beyond the gate and make them similar to the gate holding areas in the current western walkway.
From what I'm led to believe an airbridge will serve stand 5, not sure about stand 4 as the stand runs alongside the airside road and only a few meters from the apron/taxiway boundary so I think an airbridge on stand 4 may impead on space by the road. I stand to be corrected however. Be great to see this starting to come in to place finally, and the long awaited hotel is well overdue at BRS. :ok:

nivsy

11th Jan 2013, 13:53

Why is the long term car park still not tarmac to an acceptable standard? Lots of loose stones in the parking areas I noticed the other day and no improvement since I last used the long term car park there...although the car park space distance from the driving "lanes" appear narrower - but maybe that is just me!

Also big wave to the misreable security chap working who was loadly rude to the lady in front of me who asked a simple and reasonable question especially when security rules at different airports apply.....

"should I take my boots off as well"...(letting him see what kind of boots she was wearing)

answer - "well what do you think since everyone else is doing so"......

Ah Bristol - changed days indeed and they say bigger is better,,,,,,

WATABENCH

13th Jan 2013, 18:09

Direct bus link coming from Swansea via Cardiff and Newport to Bristol Airport.

Great news for BRS and Welsh travellers, one hell of a sucker punch for CWL

BBC News - Cardiff Airport: Direct South Wales coach route to rival Bristol Airport (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-21004266)

MerchantVenturer

15th Jan 2013, 21:18

Interesting stats for December.

Whoever compiled them seems to have had plenty of liquid accompaniment to a good lunch before addressing the figures.

Apparently atms were down 36.5%, there were 0 passengers in December, yet the percentage change on December 2011 was 0%. December 2011 saw over 340,000 passengers.

The rolling 12-month total is shown as 5.576 million, down 3.3% on a year ago when only a month before (November 2012) the 12-month rolling total was 5.917 million, up 3.1% on the same period a year ago..

Do people actually get paid for publishing such nonsensical gobbledygook? Doesn't anyone ever check it?

planenut321

15th Jan 2013, 21:45

It is only the provisional stats. They often release incomplete sets of data to keep to schedule. The full Bristol stats and any other missing data will be added in the coming days :ok:

MerchantVenturer

16th Jan 2013, 11:20

I realise that the CAA releases its monthly provisional stats in batches with not all airports included in the first batch, but that is not my point.

As you know, the monthly provisional stats are in three sections: domestic route analysis; international route analysis; airport statistics.

No problem with the domestic and international lists this time: all the BRS routes are shown as 0 in those as is normal because BRS is one of the airports not in the first batch of figures to be released.

When this happens such airports are not included at all in the provisional airport stats list (the headline one that seems to interest most people). For example, Norwich Airport is yet to be included for December.

I've seen mistakes before in the provisional list such as figures being transposed but never such nonsense as that appearing against the BRS entry.

The entry is more than incomplete, it's simply inaccurate.

There hasn't been a reduction of over a third of the flights compared with December 2011; the 12-month rolling total is not 5,576,501 - it's close to November's 12-month total which was 5,917,170.

andrew1968

16th Jan 2013, 20:27

Bristol Airport have published their own stats for December and 2012, which are as follows:

December 2012

Pax: 338,035 Up 0.36%

Atms: 3,756 Down 8.30%

Annual 2012:

Pax: 5,887,526 Up 2.84%

Atms: 61,477 Down 7.26%

Will be interesting to see what the CAA stats show when they are finally published as they tend to differ from the Airports own stats.

Figures courtesy of Bristol Airport website.

MerchantVenturer

16th Jan 2013, 20:30

Ryanair thread is reporting BRS-Szczecin commencing from 30 April. Szczecin is now shown in the Ryanair web timetable and booking engine but not yet bookable.

This route was operated by Ryanair in 2008-2009.

If all the routes operate that are currently shown for summer 2013 there will be nine Polish routes from BRS:

Ryanair

Gdansk
Katowice
Lodz
Poznan
Rzeszow
Szczecin
Warsaw Modlin
Wroclaw

easyJet

Krakow

ub2

16th Jan 2013, 20:46

far to many imo, they need some diffrent destinations to diffrent countries that polish destination was a disaster last time, so im baffled as to why they are bringing it back, lets hope oporto, seville, marrakesh, rimini, calgari returns. they all had good load factors

GayFriendly

17th Jan 2013, 07:50

they all had good load factors

If their ops at BHX are anything to go by, high load factors alone are not enough for FR to keep a route going. It seems that a myriad of things can see FR terminate a route, most notably their relationship with the destination airport, yield (info which I am not party to, maybe other on this forum do have) and pax spend on board. BHX-OPO and BHX-BUD amongst others had average load factors between 85-90% and were canned, never to be seen again....if other airlines adopted this approach BHX (and probably BRS) would be left with many less routes than they have now :eek:

CheekyVisual

17th Jan 2013, 08:47

As I've said on this site many times. Load factor means absolutely nothing. Yield per passenger (not just ticket price) is what counts. The other problem is that "seasonal" has become the new dirty word. MOL is apparently fed up of parking up 100 aircraft a winter so commercial have been told to find bases and routes that are more year round in nature. The search for these year round airports and routes is on and brs is one of the "seasonal" places that is not part of the new plan at the moment especially as the new deal makes it more viable to fly into brs at off peak times from foreign bases rather than to base aircraft that must depart and arrive at peak times. Hence the reduction in based aircraft to 2 and the lack of any new experimental "seasonal" routes.

Bristol_Traveller

17th Jan 2013, 15:04

I've booked myself on to the first bmi Regional flight to FRA on 02APR. I wanted to come straight back, but without on-line check-in, it seemed a bit dangerous to do a complete loop of FRA in 15 minutes (from an apron position), so I'm flying back from HAM (on BM1838) the next evening.

Sale price of £98.32 return. I know it won't last like that though.

I shall try and bring some champagne with me. :)

FRatSTN

17th Jan 2013, 18:41

CheekyVisual

I would think that seasonality isn't really the issue but instead the deal which makes off-peak times more attractive. I'm sure it won't be co-incidence that up to 6 or 7 Ryanair flights leave between 8 and 9 in the evening from Bristol through 2013 with periods of 5 or so hours with nothing.It's clearly an off-peak period that's most attractive.

All I think is that Szczecin is a gap filler so that the Bristol based aircraft is doing something as I don't think Ryanair would want to put a very highly perfoming route at a peak time on a Bristol aircraft when they can do better flying it at an off-peak time from foreign aircraft and since most of Ryanair's destinations from Bristol are bases themselves, they have a lot of services they can do that with.

ub2

17th Jan 2013, 19:45

i wish they had chosen a diffrent destination if it is a gap filler, it was a disaster last time and only lasted a few months before it was axed, i heard a rumour the ryanair engineers were given redundancy notices earlier in the week and that there will be no based eng anymore after the end of march when it goes down to just the 2 based aircraft #sadtimes

CheekyVisual

17th Jan 2013, 20:43

Yes I totally agree. What I was trying to say, obviously not that well, was that by operating into BRS from other bases operating the same routes means Ryanair take advantage of the lower BRS rates at off peak times. The new polish route is definitely just a gap filler but it is a gap filler that can run the odd day a week for 12 months a year not like say svq, opo, egc, din, etc... I'm not suggesting it is a good idea just saying they always seem to default to Poland when they look for a year round route.

The seasonal issue is less one of routes but more about aircraft utilisation and crewing. As a company Ryanair are looking at ways of grounding less aircraft next winter and the winters beyond. They are simply looking to keep more aircraft and more crews in bases that can fly more profitable sectors for the whole of the year. At the moment there is a big movement of aircraft and crews between bases between the summer and winter schedule. That is what they are currently looking to change going forward. That doesn't mean not parking any up next year just less.

The bottom line is that Ryanair can operate the same routes from the same airport with significantly lower costs over the whole year. Which is great for Ryanair and crap if you are one of the people being shown the door.

MerchantVenturer

23rd Jan 2013, 11:13

A new service to Bristol Airport from the centre of Bath will commence on 24 March this year.

It will be operated by the Bath Bus Company - it operates the hop-on and hop-off tour buses around that city - using 'traditional' green-painted double deckers and will route via Saltford, Keynsham and south Bristol.

Bristol Airport to Bath direct bus link announced | Bristol24-7 (http://www.bristol247.com/2013/01/23/bristol-airport-to-bath-direct-bus-link-announced-86898/)

Rougueg

23rd Jan 2013, 11:26

Wasnt there another few bus routes recently created routing to BRS?

Good feeders for airport traffic. Not sure what the "loads" on buses to BRS will be, but its good that these options are opening up.

Good luck to them.

MerchantVenturer

23rd Jan 2013, 11:56

Yes, an hourly coach service from South Wales to BRS was announced recently which will also serve north Bristol.

The Bath route will serve parts of south Bristol.

The Airport Flyer bus has been running for over a decade and operates 24 hours a day at 10-minute intervals for much of it, serving the central area hotels, country bus & coach station and Bristol's main central railway station (Temple Meads) as well as a different part of south Bristol to the new Bath service. The Flyer now carries over 600,000 passengers per year and has been steadily increasing its numbers.

There is also another bus service from central Bristol via the airport to Weston-super-Mare.

Given that BRS has no rail link and will almost certainly never have one the supplementary bus services are beginning to come together now to complement the core Flyer route.

Rougueg

23rd Jan 2013, 12:13

thanks for the info

Silvertop

23rd Jan 2013, 17:12

As it says in the title I would just like to say well done to all the ground troops who got Brs up and running this morning after a pretty substantial dump of snow last night! I think we we only delayed 50 mins in the end. Also the runway surface condition was excellent all things considered. ::D:ok:

G3jetman

24th Jan 2013, 09:58

PASSENGER NUMBERS GROW FOR THIRD YEAR RUNNING AT
BRISTOL AIRPORT

Passenger numbers at Bristol Airport have risen for the third successive year. The number of people passing through the terminal was up 2.8 per cent compared to the previous year, making Bristol the only airport in the UK’s top ten to see growth each year since the end of 2009.
A total of 5.9 million passengers used Bristol Airport over the course of the year,
including record monthly totals in June and July.

Very good considering !!

MerchantVenturer

24th Jan 2013, 19:33

Hello again G3jetman.

Interesting quote from the CEO, Robert Sinclair, who said, “These figures are a very positive signal that the South West economy is moving in the right direction. The resurgence in business travel has been particularly strong with several airlines, including KLM and Brussels Airlines, adding capacity on routes to major European hub airports. We expect this growth to continue throughout 2013, with further route announcements in the pipeline.”

BRS has been consistent in its passenger growth over many years.

Looking back at the CAA stats to 1968 there have been only six years since then when annual passenger figures fell against the previous year, viz, 1969, 1974, 1985, 1990, 1996 and 2009.

When it's considered that through much of the 1970s BRS was a loss-making airport that the city council didn't know what to do with - there were calls from some quarters for its closure as it was something of a drain on the city rates - its current situation is remarkable, even more so having regard to its less than desirable location, constricted site and awkward surface access.

Many people from Les Wilson's days onwards have worked very hard to turn the place into England's third busiest regional airport, eclipsed only by two airports serving far larger catchments.

The unanswerable question is: how big would Bristol's airport be now if it had been moved to a better site when Whitchurch was closed in the 1950s?

Was such a site available then?:ooh:

Anyway, we are where we are and Lulsgate is now the only game in town and ever likely to be - and it hasn't done at all badly.

yeo valley

25th Jan 2013, 12:38

i read in weston mercury dated 17 jan.
bristolairport north side felton.non material ammendment to outline application for major developement increasing passenger flight numbers including two extensions to terminal building. 2 two storey walkways and other facilities . for minor alterations.
any one know what this is all about. i thought all planning passed. or is this extra to what has been already passed.??

bristolflyer

25th Jan 2013, 13:37

They have outline planning permission which means that the council approves the scheme as a concept. As the scheme develops they will need to look at the detail. For example the type of materials used, glass, landscaping etc. The development has been approved and it general permission can't be re-examined.

MerchantVenturer

25th Jan 2013, 13:43

It's an amendment application to the original outline planning approval.

http://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/5918B6D6-54B8-4D2A-AD92-D275D03EC2E2/0/applications_20121224_applicationsregistered.pdf

http://wam.n-somerset.gov.uk/MULTIWAM/doc/Letter%20from%20Applicant/Agent-2273827.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=2273827&location=Volume4&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=4

The second link (applicant's letter) is interesting as it explains the reasons for the various proposed alterations.

Addendum

I note that three of the nearest parish councils have written to the local authority saying they have no objection to the proposed amendment.

bravoromeosierra

27th Jan 2013, 06:20

A question.. will Air France last long at one daily? Seems a strange arrangement.

MerchantVenturer

28th Jan 2013, 18:57

Certainly not ideal and no good for day trips.

The aircraft will be the larger E190 as opposed to the Airlinair ATR42 that currently operates.

The AF booking site shows several options to go to CDG via AMS but at between three and half hours and six hours journey time I doubt there will be many takers.

This summer two of the four daily KLM Cityhopper rotations will be E190-scheduled with the other two remaining with the F70. I don't know whether this is linked with the AF reduction.

Incidentally, it seems the AF regional services will be rebranded HOP! from this summer.

Air France unveils Hop regional branding - Business Traveller (http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/air-france-unveils-hop-regional-branding)

mathers_wales_uk

28th Jan 2013, 22:20

There is certainly a decent number of passengers that travel on KLM services to Amsterdam and connect to Paris CDG from there. Some of these also connect on to longhaul destinations from Paris too.

I'm sure that Air France / KLM know exactly what they are doing.

Bristol_Traveller

30th Jan 2013, 14:56

I'm sure that Air France / KLM know exactly what they are doing.

You might want to let KL/AF know that. :D

I've noticed more mentions about the new Aspire lounge. Does anyone know where that's going to go? I've got a hunch it's in the forward coaching lounge, which I can't think has been used since CO sadly departed. Honestly, I can't think of anywhere else in the terminal that hasn't got shops on it?

flyerboy

30th Jan 2013, 15:03

The Aspire business lounge will be situated near Dexters overlooking Soho that is landside

bravoromeosierra

30th Jan 2013, 15:34

Which leads to the question, what will happen to the current Servisair Lounge? It takes up a fair bit of terminal real estate.

An airbridge gate (wishful thinking or was it in the masterplan images?) or a brand new Costa Coffee?

Bristol_Traveller

31st Jan 2013, 06:48

The Aspire business lounge will be situated near Dexters overlooking Soho that is landside

Really? Is that the area that's currently a seating area used for Dexters? It doesn't seem big enough, but maybe I'm mis-remembering. I'll have a look next week. If it is, it'll be 'cosy'.

Which leads to the question, what will happen to the current Servisair Lounge? It takes up a fair bit of terminal real estate.

I thought Aspire was a new lounge in addition to the Servisair, to counter some of the differences between the pay-per-entry guests (usually flying with FR and EZY) and the entry-by-status guests (usually flying AF/KL/SN/BM/EI)?

G3jetman

31st Jan 2013, 06:50

The Servisair lounge will become additional seating for 180 pax until work commences on the Central Walkway, when the new Aspire Lounge opens in the Spring. The area currently being fitted out is supprisingly very large!!

Welshtraveller

2nd Feb 2013, 10:28

Has anyone heard of the new BMI Regional flight from Bristol to Verona in the Summer 2013 season? This is a new weekly charter service, exclusive to the tour operator Inghams. Flight operates on a Saturday.

Flight Times

Outward - BM999 BRS 13.50 - VRN 17.00.

Return - BM998 VRN 17.45 - BRS 19.05

Does anyone know the aircraft type, Embraer 135 or 145?

Where does the incoming aircraft arrive from for the 13.50 flight to Verona?

I checked the BMI website and there does not appear to be any flights on a Saturday from Aberdeen, Frankfurt or Hamburg. Does BMI fly to any additional destinations? Thought it might be the Bastia but this operates on a Sunday so it cannot be the case.

Thanks.

MerchantVenturer

2nd Feb 2013, 19:35

In previous summers Inghams have taken seats on the Saturday Verona flight operated by Tui.

In summer 2012 the Tui flight was operated by a non-BRS based TOM B 738. I understand that summer 2013 will see a B 733 of Air Mistral operating the Saturday Verona flight for Tui.

Maybe it's the smaller number of seats on a B 733 that has led to Inghams operating its own separate service.

I don't know whether the Bmi Regional aircraft on the Verona service will be an Embraer 145 or 135 but I assume it will be one of the aircraft that 'lives' at BRS.

The airline is already pretty busy at BRS with the Airbus corporate shuttle, the ABZ, the forthcoming HAM and FRA (and perhaps one or two others to be announced), as well as some weekend work operating rugby and football club charters.

Welshtraveller

3rd Feb 2013, 07:53

Thanks MerchantVenturer. TOM was initially flying to Verona but it sounds like they have changed airlines to Air Mistral. Do you have the revised flight timings for Air Mistral as the Thomson Lakes & Mountains website still shows the old TOM timings with a 14.55 Saturday departure?

I have a feeling the Air Mistral flight times will involve a early departure from Verona to Bristol. This is one of the reasons Inghams have changed to bmi as guests would have to leave some resorts as early as 3.30am. Gold star to Inghams for thinking about their guests and finding another route with better timings.

Thanks again.

MerchantVenturer

3rd Feb 2013, 17:53

I don't know the Air Mistral timings so can't help I'm afraid.

Welshtraveller

3rd Feb 2013, 18:51

No problem, perhaps we will see an announcement from Bristol airport soon as there is no information about the air Mistral or BMI regional flights on the net. All of the websites refer to the old TOM flights which appears to be incorrect. Have a good evening.

MerchantVenturer

7th Feb 2013, 21:39

Blue Islands have withdrawn their application to operate flights between Bristol and Guernsey.

They say there would not be enough time to launch the service within the required six months of approval.

Aurigny currently operates the route and says it welcomes the decision.

BBC News - Guernsey to Bristol air route application withdrawn (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-21370184)

MerchantVenturer

9th Feb 2013, 19:30

I've looked at the First Greyhound coach link to the airport from Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, UWE Frenchay campus and Bristol bus station that commences on 11 March and the operators seem to be giving it every chance.

There are 15 return journeys to/from Bristol Airport each day with nine of them starting and finishing at Swansea.

The other six return journeys commence and end at Cardiff. There are three in the early morning beginning at 0320 from Cardiff and calling at the above en route stops and three in the late evening/early hours.

These journeys at 85 minutes from/to Cardiff are speedier than the daytime ones and are obviously aimed at the concentration of early morning departures and the later evening arrivals.

It's almost a 24-hours service, like the Flyer (which is). Only time will tell whether it becomes anywhere near as successful.

andayxd

11th Feb 2013, 19:01

Hi
Arriving wednesday lunch time are 2 air nostrum flights:
12:25 ANE 2473 BCN (Barcelona)
12:30 ANE 2471 MAD (Madrid)
and both departing Thursday at 16:30.
any idea what the aircraft might be?
my hunch are CRJ 1000's?
could be wrong
cheers
Andy.

MerchantVenturer

11th Feb 2013, 19:52

A poster well connected to BRS mentioned this on another aviation website a week or so ago and said the aircraft would be CRJ 900s. However, no reason was given for the flights. I can't imagine they are other than charter flights for some organisation(s)or other.

bmi regional

The first Hamburg flight operated today. According to the BRS press release "thousands of bookings (have been) made since the route was announced earlier this year" . Doesn't indicate how many thousand but let's hope they and future bookings will generate a decent yield.

The bmi regional CEO is quoted in the press release: "...................we are currently reviewing other opportunities with the team at Bristol Airport and hope to announce additional routes in the months ahead".

Perhaps not quite so immediate as the remarks the airline's CEO made when the route (and FRA route) was announced in December when he said, “We are also reviewing other opportunities with the team at Bristol Airport and hope to announce additional routes in the new year.”

bmi regional takes off with new Bristol to Hamburg route – Bristol Airport (http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-centre/news-releases/2013/02/bmi-inaugral-flight.aspx)

Brussels Airlines

According to posts in the Newcastle Airport thread the SN NCL-BRU, currently operated by a Flybe DH-8-400 in SN livery as on the BRS-BRU route, will cease at the end of the current winter and is no longer bookable afterwards.

Currently the BRS-BRU route is still bookable for the coming summer. However, it carried slightly fewer passengers in 2011 than its NCL counterpart and almost certainly did so again in 2012 so the obvious question arises. We don't know yields of course so that might be the key.

G3jetman

13th Feb 2013, 04:39

More good news expected today on new routes!!

G3jetman

13th Feb 2013, 06:20

It's been confirmed on ITV local news this morning that BMIr will operate new services to MUC, HAJ and MXP from May !! Great news :)

Severn

13th Feb 2013, 08:26

Looking at a few test bookings in June for a Monday:

FRA = 3 daily - 2x E135, 1x E145 (already announced 1 daily, *NEW* increase to 3 daily)
ABZ = 2 daily E145 (already started)
HAM = 2 daily E135 (already started 1 daily, announced to go 2 daily)
MUC = 1 daily E145 (*NEW*)
MXP = 1 daily E135 (*NEW*)
HAJ = 1 daily E135 (*NEW*)

Haven't looked into whether these frequencies differ over the week, but it will need at least 3 based aircraft and a 4th to do the MUC rotation which is in the middle of the day. Might this be done by one of the 2 E145's running the Airbus shuttles that sit around BRS during that period usually?

Bristol_Traveller

13th Feb 2013, 13:28

There's some inconsistency on the BM website at present, which makes me think they're sorting out the actual schedules. The new flights aren't in GDS yet either.

I have a warm feeling of familiarity about this. It's my bmi... :)

globetrotter79

13th Feb 2013, 15:00

Jamesc909

I think you'll find that the BRS-Frankfurt is just two per day; the middle of the day flight which starts in the Spring will disappear come May to be replaced by one morning and one evening return.

By my reckoning, that'll mean about 5 barbie jets based in Bristol:
2x E135 (one each doing the first morning FRA and HAM flights
3x E145 (one doing the first ABZ, one doing the first TLS, not sure if the other Airbus unit nightstops at the other end of the route in France..?)

bravoromeosierra

13th Feb 2013, 16:56

According to a brethren in the BMI thread, it was two E135s and one E145 at BRS, which is still more than any other base.

Let's hope they're here to stay!

MerchantVenturer

14th Feb 2013, 19:57

bmi regional has certainly come up trumps with BRS's previously stated aspirations for German routes. With easyJet to Berlin there will be five from May.

Perhaps Hannover is the surprising one. It is one of Bristol's twin cities and over the years calls have emanated from the Bristolian Great and Good (I don't think it's an oxymoron) for a HAJ route. Well, they now have it and it's up to those who have made the noises in the past to use it.

Taking two dates in May, the bmi regional booking engin shows these timings: times shown are departure and return at BRS.

0650-1030 Frankfurt
0700-1020 Aberdeen
0700-1045 Hamburg
1130-1610 Milan
1200-1540 Hannover
1215-1710 Munich
1640-2000 Aberdeen
1645-2045 Frankfurt
1650-2035 Hamburg

That clearly shows three aircraft though the inbound MUC aircraft obviously won't be able to operate any of the three late afternoon departures (to ABZ, FRA and HAM).

That suggests it will in some way link into the Airbus corporate shuttle network and the said network will provide one of the three late afternoon departures.

The snag is the shuttle timetable as currently constituted doesn't suggest a solution and, anyway, it varies slightly from day to day.

There are between eight and nine shuttle flights on most weekdays (to/from Toulouse and Hawarden) with a 0630 departure to Toulouse a constant and no inbound is shown before it departs.

This strongly suggests a base of at least four aircraft and possibly five.

Interesting commentary and analysis on BRS on the anna.aero website this week with Shaun Browne, the airport's aviation director, saying their forecasts suggest passenger numbers could return to the 2008 level which at 6.2 mppa is the only calendar year so far to exceed 6 mppa.

Bristol_Traveller

15th Feb 2013, 09:05

I was inbound yesterday, and I'm sure I spotted an IB ERJ-135/145 on the West Apron?! I was in the middle seat of an EZY A319 (no, I don't pay £3 for a chance to choose my seat), so couldn't see for sure.

ub2

15th Feb 2013, 09:29

there was indeed 2 iberia CRJ9 that arrived weds at 12,30 ish & departed thurs around 16.30, 1 went to madrid the other barcelona, it was a honda factory swindon jolly

Bristol_Traveller

15th Feb 2013, 13:21

I've just received an email from KLM increasing their race to the bottom by saying that there will be no free baggage allowance on European flights from 22APR onwards (excepting FB members).

KL/AF are certainly approaching reducing their costs with some vigour. Whether or not that reduces their losses is a different question.

MerchantVenturer

15th Feb 2013, 18:50

A CAA survey suggests that in 2012 1.1 million passengers using BRS began or ended their journey in Wales, which is more than used CWL last year.

Bristol's first elected mayor, an Independent businessman and architect with Green credentials, was against Bristol Airport's expansion before he was elected and suggested that a fast train link to LHR would be a better option.

It now seems he's worried that Wales might give 'special deals on taxation and what have you, and it won't be on a level playing field. So I think that's the fear of Bristol Airport'.

However, he believes that both BRS and CWL are 'unsatisfactory' airports and would like to see them combine in some way. He's not keen on a Boris Island type of airport though but doesn't go on to suggest what he is keen on.

Full report here:BBC News - Bristol Airport flies more Welsh passengers than Cardiff (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21473968)

I can't help thinking that Severnside aviation would be better served if the First Minister of Wales and the elected Mayor of Bristol kept their public utterances about the industry to an absolute minimum.

FRatSTN

21st Feb 2013, 20:10

Seems a few extra Ryanair flights have been put on sale for summer 2013:

Alicante - up from 5x weekly to daily
Barcelona Girona - up from 8x to 9x weekly
Faro - up from daily to 8x weekly
Malaga - up from 8x to 9x weekly
Milan-Bergamo - up from 3x to 4x weekly

Gdansk also increased from 2x to 3x weekly lot too long ago.

Still only 2 based a/c however still seems to be a few gaps in the timetable.

The extra Faro flight operates at the exact same times as the origional Wednesday service. 2 FR flights now arrive from Faro at 09:20 and both go back at 09:45!!!

bravoromeosierra

28th Feb 2013, 13:04

Looks like KLM are going all E190 for the three daily flights from this winter.

MerchantVenturer

2nd Mar 2013, 11:11

Next winters KLM booking website certainly shows all three daily rotations as E190-operated.

Currently one of the three daily rotations is E190-operated which increases to two out of the four daily in summer 2013.

With easyJet 10 x weekly as well the AMS route seems to be well catered for.

In 2011 AMS was the second most popular BRS route with 289,000 passengers behind DUB's 323,000. 2012 saw more passengers using the AMS route each month whilst DUB was down for much of the time following FR reductions in frequency, so when the 2012 annual stats are published AMS may well have just overtaken DUB as the most popular BRS route.

Edinburgh saw 287,000 passengers in 2011 and has had small rises in most months in 2012 so that route might be challenging for top spot in 2012 too.

andrew1968

2nd Mar 2013, 20:17

Looking at my collated figures for 2012 the top spots are as follows:-

1....Amsterdam____________310,095
2....Dublin________________302,790
3....Edinburgh_____________295,569
4.....Malaga_______________273,251
5.....Palma________________257,212
6....Alicante_______________243,938
7.....Glasgow______________239,666
8.....Faro_________________219,538
9....Belfast International_____217,199
10..Geneva_______________175,052

Hopefully when the Annual CAA stats are published I wont be too far out.

yeo valley

3rd Mar 2013, 07:04

suprised to see bfs at no 9. i thought ncl did better than bfs.
cph a fairly new route back. any ideas how that is doing on pax loadings.

MerchantVenturer

3rd Mar 2013, 13:05

Loads so-so though January very poor.

Looking at CAA stats and assuming all rotations operated (which may not have been the case with January because of snow), the full monthly passenger figures and average monthly loads since the route restarted at the end of September last year after an eight year absence are:

October 4584 127
November 3937 116
December 4412 123
January 2629 77

I've had a look back at CAA stats when the route was last operated by easyJet in 2003/2004 and the average monthly loads in peak summer were around the mid 120s with winter somewhat lower. The route was daily then as opposed to 4 x weekly now.

No doubt loads will improve this summer but fares for the next couple of months are not particularly high on average so the yields may not be brilliant.

I believe there are or have been offers in connection with this route for airport parking at BRS in March.

bobsyerunlce

3rd Mar 2013, 18:49

I hope CPH is a success this time round. It's an amazing place and is also a perfect airport to use for Malmo and the rest of southern Sweden. I was last there back in June (but had to use Stansted) and it only takes 20 mins to get to Malmo from Kastrup

andrew1968

3rd Mar 2013, 20:49

suprised to see bfs at no 9. i thought ncl did better than bfs.

Newcastle is placed 12th with 171,100 after Paris CDG in 11th with 173,823.

MerchantVenturer

12th Mar 2013, 22:05

Andrew

CAA annual stats for 2012 published today.

Your top 12 routes bang on the money and your passenger numbers absolutely correct for some of the routes and a 99.99% recurring degree of accuracy for the others.

planenut321

14th Mar 2013, 17:04

Anyone have any more information when the new lounge is set to open? All I can find date wise is "Spring 2013".

MerchantVenturer

14th Mar 2013, 18:10

In the Bristol Airport Consultative Committee minutes for the last meeting (30 January) the airport's chief executive officer told members that the new executive lounge would be open in 'early April'.

mathers_wales_uk

9th Apr 2013, 09:24

Eastern Airways to cease operating from Bristol as of 22nd April 2013 confirmed by Eastern Airways - Source - Wales Air Forum (http://walesairforum.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/eastern-airways-ceases-operating-out-of-bristol/)

bristolflyer

9th Apr 2013, 13:02

I can't say I'm surprised. As soon as BMI started a jet service to Aberdeen their product became hopelessly uncompetitive with the stop in Leeds. I'll miss them as I've used their and Air South West's Leeds service on a number of occasions in recent years and they were always pleasant flights.

yeo valley

9th Apr 2013, 17:02

question. does all news about anything and everything go through waf?? if it does then they late with the eastern news. as its been talked about the last couple of days.

AirGuru

9th Apr 2013, 17:08

The base is actually closing on the 19th, don't know where the 22nd has came from. A quick check of their booking system will prove this. Anyway, this loss is hardly anything to BRS, saddening to say the least, but will hardly affect the overall passenger throughput for the airport.

yeo valley

9th Apr 2013, 19:58

well air guru. looks like you caught out waf on dates. thought they knew every thing going on. seems not.

MerchantVenturer

9th Apr 2013, 21:07

Tomorrow (10 April) is the 40th anniversary of the air disaster in the Hochwald district of Switzerland involving an Invicta International Airways Vickers Vanguard, G-AXOP, operating a flight from Bristol Lulsgate Airport, as it was then known, to Basel-Mulhouse Airport.

The flight was organised as a shopping and sightseeing trip to Basel for people living in small towns and villages in north Somerset and was to return the same day.

It departed Lulsgate around 0830 on that fateful Tuesday carrying 139 passengers, mainly local women, and a crew of six.

The approach to Basel-Mulhouse took place in poor weather conditions and the two pilots became disorientated having made two approaches before the aircraft struck a wooded hillside. The aircraft was destroyed.

108 people perished - 104 passengers, the two pilots and two cabin crew members. The Swiss Federal Commission of Enquiry attributed the accident to a 'loss of orientation during two ILS approaches carried out under instrument flight conditions' but also listed a number of contributory factors.

The survivors were in the rear of the aircraft which broke away on impact.

Accident report is at this link: http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/11-1975%20G-AXOP.pdf

What made this disaster particularly poignant was the number of women who were killed leaving 55 children motherless.

At the time many people had never flown in an aircraft and it was likely that this was their first ever flight for many on board. There are groups of marked graves in a number of local village churchyards where those passengers who lost their lives are buried.

I was brought up in one of the affected villages (Wrington) in the immediate post war years and, although I was living in Bristol at the time of the disaster, I still remember the day as if it were yesterday. The devastation it brought to so many families is indescribable.

My thoughts will be with them tomorrow.

mathers_wales_uk

9th Apr 2013, 21:09

Dates came from Eastern Airwys themselves via e-mail today. It maybe that the aircraft would have left Bristol Airport at that date and that is the official closing date however that is the date they have provided.

planenut321

18th Apr 2013, 16:43

Looks like BRS is in for 3 more new routes with TOM for 2014. Flights to Kos, Thassos and Marrakech from BRS for next year on sale on the 25th.

TUITravel Media Centre - News - Thomson's summer 2014 launch includes exclusive island hotel and new Sensatori - TUITravel Media Centre (http://communicationcentre.thomson.co.uk/News/Thomson-s-summer-2014-launch-includes-exclusive-island-hotel-and-new-Sensatori-14f.aspx)

caaardiff

25th Apr 2013, 10:59

Looks like Thomson is to become a 3 a/c base next summer!:ok:

WATABENCH

25th Apr 2013, 13:30

Possibly move from 2 x 757 to 3 x 737 as the 757's are being slowly phased out, just a guess though.
No SFB or CUN currently showing.

bobsyerunlce

25th Apr 2013, 19:17

From today's Evening Post...

More passengers fly from Bristol to Scotland than from any other UK airport outside London, according to Civil Aviation Authority data.

The CAA’s analysis of domestic scheduled flights shows that nearly 630,000 journeys were made between Bristol Airport and Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness in 2012 – a 4.5 per cent increase over the previous

Bristol Airport’s biggest carrier, easyJet, operates 22 flights per week from Bristol to Edinburgh, 19 per week to Glasgow, and a daily flight to Inverness. Just under 300,000 passengers used the Bristol-Edinburgh service alone last year, benefiting from a schedule which includes four flights per day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Glasgow is also served by four flights on a Friday, with three per day on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.

The Aberdeen service operates twice daily with a direct jet service by bmi regional using an Embraer 145.

Shaun Browne, Aviation Director at Bristol Airport, said:

“While the majority of passengers using Bristol Airport are flying overseas, domestic routes to more distant parts of the UK remain important in keeping the South West connected. These flights provide important connections for many companies, particularly in the defence, financial services and oil/marine engineering sectors.

“We expect further growth on these routes in 2013, and are actively exploring ways to strengthen links with Scotland with our airline partners to support these important business and leisure markets.”

oceanhawk

25th Apr 2013, 19:24

Bristol to be a 737 base for summer 2014. I think it was 2 aircraft still. Cardiff to be all 737 as well.

ub2

25th Apr 2013, 19:37

i heard that bristol will have 3 x 737 next summer, and some new destinations and increased freq on others but there will be no long haul after this year

oceanhawk

25th Apr 2013, 19:55

No mention of 3 aircraft at Bristol next summer. The fleet size is not planned to grow either. So, it would mean moving an aircraft from another base or a lease from another airline for the summer. Only time will tell!

IrishFlyer2013

25th Apr 2013, 20:50

I had a quick look at the Thomson Brochure and it does look like there are going to be 3 aircraft based in BRS for Summer 2014. There seems to be a gap on a Saturday morning but Thomson Lakes & Mountains have yet to release there S14 schedule so a BRS-VRN rotation will more than likely fill that gap.

There are new routes to Kos, Marrakech, Bourgas & Kavala. There are increases in flights as well compared to Bristol's S13 schedule.

The schedule for BRS for S14 is as follows:

Sunday

06:25 Malaga
06:30 Enfidha
06:35 Kavala
13:55 Sharm El Sheikh
15:15 Lanzarote
15:55 Larnaca

Monday

06:00 Mahon
06:15 Bourgas
07:00 Naples
13:00 Dalaman
15:15 Bodrum
16:05 Corfu
16:10 Marrakesh

Tuesday

06:00 Palma de Mallorca
07:00 Kos
07:00 Alicante
13:30 Antalya
14:25 Zakinthos
17:50 Tenerife South

Wednesday

07:00 Paphos
07:00 Rhodes
07:30 Fuerteventura
17:45 Enfidha
18:15 Palma de Mallorca
19:10 Ibiza

Thursday

06:00 Palma de Mallorca
06:15 Kefalonia
07:00 Ibiza
13:15 Heraklion
14:55 Lanzarote
15:55 Dalaman

Friday

07:00 Tenerife South
07:30 Zakinthos
08:00 Mahon
15:00 Corfu
16:55 Naples
17:35 Antalya
23:40 Palma de Mallorca

Saturday

06:00 Reus
08:05 Palma de Mallorca
13:15 Ibiza
13:45 Dalaman
15:35 Gran Canaria
20:30 Palma de Mallorca

(Source: Thomson Holidays - Brochures (http://www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/features/brochures.html))

MerchantVenturer

27th Apr 2013, 11:25

The cancellation of their summer long-haul flights from BRS to Sanford and Cancun from summer 2014 has been confirmed by Thomson, reportedly 'due to reasons, including a change in fleet'. The report added that a spokesperson for Bristol Airport said the action was taken by the operator 'in order to add new destinations from other UK airports'.

Thomson axes long-haul services from Bristol (http://www.traveldailymedia.com/152747/thomson-axes-long-haul-services-from-bristol)

The change in fleet reference is interesting. The B787 has been long held as the saviour for long-haul from BRS's short runway. In the early draft of the BRS master plan the airport said that Boeing had told them the 787 would have a range in excess of 9,000 kilometres from the BRS runway. Even allowing for perhaps manufacturers' natural optimism when talking about new products it seems to have been felt that the type likely to be used by First Choice (as was the case at the time of the draft master plan), now Thomson, really would put destinations in reach of BRS never previously contemplated.

When the 787 turned up at Farnborough in 2010, Chris Browne, the Thomson MD, included BRS in the list of airports she said would be operating the 787, with press speculation that destinations beyond Florida and the Caribbean would feature in non-stop flights.

However, last winter the airport submitted a series of non-material amendments to the local authority in respect of the outline planning permissions for the major infrastructure already approved. One of the amendments related to B787 operations:

The planning application envisaged that the Boeing 787 or Airbus A350 would become the future first choice mid-sized aircraft for airlines operating medium to long haul routes out of Bristol Airport. When the planning application was prepared the Boeing 787 was still in the early stages of design and advice from Boeing at the time indicated that aircraft likely to use Bristol Airport would be configured to accommodate up to around 260 passengers. The gate lounges were therefore sized on this basis. However the design of the aircraft has developed since then and the aircraft being delivered to airlines likely to operate from Bristol Airport are now expected to be configured to accommodate between 290 and 310 passengers. The additional seating capacity has been achieved within the same airframe by increasing the number seats abreast the aircraft. Pending completion of the Eastern Walkway it is proposed that stand 5 will be made available for Boeing 787 use. A small increase in the width of the Central Gate Lounge is therefore proposed so that the increased aircraft load can be accommodated without jeopardising passenger service and comfort standards.

So could it be that the apparently larger, and presumably heavier, 787s than those originally anticipated will make the operation of such aircraft from the BRS runway unviable?

The draft master plan also recognised that an aircraft of the size of the 787 could not use the full length parallel taxiway as its wings would overhand the boundary fence. It would need to backtrack the runway with turning circles built to aid the manoeuvre, though consideration might have to be given in the future to moving the public lane that runs alongside the taxiway (it would be an expensive and controversial move - my italics).

I have no technical expertise so cannot comment on the 787's performance but if the BRS runway remains a limiting factor for long-haul, even with the new design of aircraft, it will presumably have to re-focus on what it is very good at, namely short and medium haul routes.

Of course, the decision may have no relation to operational capabilities and might simply be a commercial one in repect of the two particular routes that are to be axed.

I would welcome views from those with more technical knowledge than I possess.

TSR2

27th Apr 2013, 12:00

Could this possibly mean a move of long haul Thomson flights from Bristol to Cardiff ?

With the new set-up at Cardiff and possibly reduced or no APD .... just a thought. Thoughts anyone.

mathers_wales_uk

27th Apr 2013, 12:25

At present the devolvement of Air Passenger Duty to the Welsh Government is nowhere near completion if it does happen therefore any opportunity for Thomson Airways to move their longhaul from Bristol to Cardiff will simply have to boil down to negotiation of prices.

FRatSTN

27th Apr 2013, 12:51

It might not be just because of the runway length although it certainly is tight even for the 767. By the way, Bristol's runway is actually a metre narrower at 45m wide rather than 46m at most other UK airports, but I doubt that will be a restriction.

The apron area is quite small and parking is little cramped at most areas, perhaps the wingspan of 197ft on the 787-8 compared to only 156ft 1in on the 767-300ER is the problem??

CheekyVisual

28th Apr 2013, 18:34

The only stand available to the 767 at BRS is 26 and that is right at the end of the western pier. Not really suitable for premier operations at present. Not sure if the extra wing span would fit on 26 but not too much trouble to create a rarely used stand for a large aircraft that simply integrates several stands in to one. Lots of airports do that.I remember Bhx used to do it when the air India 777 came in. They just used a standard stand but had to close the stand either side. As it would be a rare visitor I doubt no solution could be found.

More than likely with the changes in weights, specs, perf, etc... The 787 has undergone whilst under painful development it has reached a point where the promised short field performance has not been possible. BRS has done commercially very very well given it's runway limitations but you do reach a point where you have to accept it just isn't long enough. I suspect that point has just been reached

ub2

28th Apr 2013, 20:51

my understanding is that stand 4 and 5 were to be altered and to include an airbridge on stand 5 with a walkway coming out from the end of the terminal to it to fit a 767/787 on it, this work was due to start in november, if it still goes ahead we will wait to see

MerchantVenturer

28th Apr 2013, 21:02

Many thanks for that, CV. I appreciate your opinion as an airline pilot who I believe has considerable experience of operating in and out of BRS.

The airport, from its planning application amendment, was apparently going to use stand 5 for the 787 until the eastern walkway is extended as part of the overall infrastructure expansion, which will involve demolishing the old terminal first to make space available. The first link below shows a picture of the expansion proposals - the eastern walkway is at the bottom right of the picture for those unfamiliar with BRS.

http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/about-us/~/media/files/brs-airport/content/image-3.ashx

There seems little doubt that Thomson originally intended using the 787 at BRS as illustrated by the comment of their MD, Chris Browne, in 2010 - see second link below. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the BRS management still believed its airport would host the type or it would not have sought a planning approval amendment as recently as last winter to facilitate the aircraft's use.

Thomson will use 787 to offer new destinations - www.travelweekly.co.uk (http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/2010/07/19/34268/thomson-will-use-787-to-offer-new-destinations.html)

BRS has been realistic in its master plan about the limited scope for long-haul from its catchment. Whilst recognising opportunities for charter routes it believes that only four scheduled routes are likely to be viable in the future, ie in the period up to 2030 (three in the USA plus Dubai), and disagrees with a York Aviation report for North Somerset Council that discussed the prospects for a number of other long-haul routes, mainly in North America and Asia.

So in terms of overall passenger numbers the lack of long-haul would have a negligible effect and would, in itself, be unlikely to prevent the airport continuing its passenger growth in the years ahead up to the 10 mppa limit currently set by its planning consents. Probably the major drawback would be the inability to access the likes of Dubai with its huge provision for onward travel.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Thomson's decision to remove the routes to Mexico and Florida is influenced by commercial considerations rather than operational ones and the 787 may yet be seen at BRS at some point.

Out of interest, can anyone confirm a post elsewhere in this thread that the BRS runway is 45 metres wide? A number of websites I've checked show it as 2011 metres long by the (more usual) 46 metres wide.

Wee Weasley Welshman

29th Apr 2013, 06:03

It's 45m wide. Just another of its endearing quirks.

http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadbasic/pamslight-B988E88FD94A3B47434BEEB650CFF880/7FE5QZZF3FXUS/EN/Charts/AD/AIRAC/EG_AD_2_EGGD_2-1_en_2013-02-07.pdf

I doubt the Dreamliner will make much of a difference to BRS network long term. Far more important will be the extra range and performance that's coming with the introduction of the A320 NEO and B737 MAX aircraft. A 15% bigger circle puts some interesting places within range.

WWW

bristolflyer

29th Apr 2013, 13:55

Interesting report. It demonstrates what we all know that the airport is in completely the wrong location. It is quite vocal about not only the length, but the lack of visibility on the approach to 09 and undulating topography. It demonstrates the lack of foresight 20 - 30 years ago when it should have moved to Filton. BRS has achieved an amazing route network within it's limited space, but the A300 came unstuck in the 80's when an Iberia flight overshot and ended up over the hill, they've tried the 767 and it doesn't really fit and the 787 appears to be too heavy. There is a limited market from BRS to specific destinations for long haul, but sadly I can't see it moving forward with current aircraft types. There is no natural successor to the 757, which is ideal for thin long routes. We might get Istanbul with Turkish as some point, they're reinventing themselves based on an Emirates hub and spoke approach and could serve the route with an A320. Foresight now would be a Boris Island in the Severn with terminals on each side, but then there is no money or will for such a scheme.

Wee Weasley Welshman

29th Apr 2013, 17:30

Long haul from the regions is a waste of time and the reason Bristol is so vibrant and busy and profitable is because it hasn't been distracted by pipe dreams about long haul. Are you listening Birmingham?

WWW

MerchantVenturer

29th Apr 2013, 19:23

It's 45m wide. Just another of its endearing quirks.

Many thanks WWW - and FRatSTN. Entirely apposite for an airport that serves the city in which the Great Western Railway was born - another successful organisation with delightful idiosyncrasies.

Interesting report. It demonstrates what we all know that the airport is in completely the wrong location. It is quite vocal about not only the length, but the lack of visibility on the approach to 09 and undulating topography. It demonstrates the lack of foresight 20 - 30 years ago when it should have moved to Filton.

In terms of long-haul I wonder how much difference it would really have made had Filton been Bristol's airport. There would probably have been some regular holiday charter flights but the catchment size would not have been greatly increased, even taking into account the more convenient surface access, and the built-up areas particularly to the east now contain many more nimbys than the villages around Lulsgate and they've made enough fuss.

Long haul from the regions is a waste of time and the reason Bristol is so vibrant and busy and profitable is because it hasn't been distracted by pipe dreams about long haul. Are you listening Birmingham?

I can see where you are coming from in terms of airports of Bristol's size, and regional airports, even those as big as MAN, are unlikely ever to have a long-haul scheduled network anywhere near approaching that at LHR. Incidentally, Wales's First Minister seems pretty keen on turning his newly-acquired airport into some sort of intercontinental hub.

I believe that BRS has done extremely well to build up its route network to numerous important European business cities (I hope the local business community is supporting the new BMI Regional German and Italian routes) and it does provide some options for inter-continental travel via hubs such as AMS, BRU, DUB and CDG, though with only one daily rotation to the last-named now.

It also has a wide-ranging leisure network to Europe and North Africa.

LHR is not a million miles away with its world-wide route network.

All this means that both the business and leisure travellers of the Bristol city region are probably more fortunate than those in many other areas of the country.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I believe the important omission in all this is a Middle East hub and it might be possible to rectify that in the future even if wide-bodied aircraft are unacceptable operationally..............if they are because we don't know with any certainty that TOM has decided that they won't be used at BRS after this summer as a matter of policy.

North West

29th Apr 2013, 22:15

I see from the charts that they have still managed to get away without a displaced threshold on 09. Is the undershoot there still as dramatic or have they re-profiled the land ? It's a while since I've been !

SWBKCB

30th Apr 2013, 06:41

Long haul from the regions is a waste of time

tell that to Emirates...

bristolflyer

30th Apr 2013, 09:17

MV, I didn't mean it to sound like the usual..."wow, if only it had been moved to Filton we'd have shiny jumbo jets to spot" post. The report comments that the runway does not conform to current best practice because of its undulating appearance, which causes problems with the ILS below 200ft. It recognises that the use of the 767 at Bristol on a regular basis is questionable, especially as there have been an unusually high incidence of hard landings. This has been directly linked to the runway. The point about Filton is that there was an opportunity before Bradley Stoke and the Mall were built, because you had land to expand, plus very good connections by road and rail. I think there would be 7m plus passengers a year at a Filton based airport, because you would have drawn more people from the M4 corridor and Gloucester north who use Birmingham now with the better road connections at Filton. I agree there wouldn't have been much more long haul, although we might have seen Emirates by now!

MerchantVenturer

30th Apr 2013, 11:16

Hello bristolflyer.

I will certainly say that if the city council had relocated its airport to Filton in 1957 when they closed Whitchurch because it had become too small for the aircraft even of that era Bristol might have a busier airport now in terms of passenger numbers and atms. We have the benefit of hindsight which suggests the decision of the city councillors of the 1950s appears deeply flawed as they were storing up the same problems for future generations as those that had led them to close Whitchurch.

But would it have been that simple?

The council bought Lulsgate and gradually developed it although they eventually and reluctantly accepted that for it to really grow only the private sector could provide the means. Had the airport remained in the council's hands there is little doubt that the new terminal building would not have been built, nor the A38 diverted, nor the new control tower constructed, nor would most of the other £100 million developments of the past 15 years have occurred. Neither would we be looking at a further infrastructure expansion that could cost up to £150 million.

There is a story that circulates from time to time (it might be as mythical as the one the local news media love to perpetuate that Filton has one of the longest runways in the country, or did have until it was closed) that the Bristol Aeroplane Company (BAC) that owned and operated Filton in the 1950s had invited the city council and its airport to become tenants for a peppercorn rent.

Had the council become tenants we can't know how things might have developed over the ensuing decades, not least because the airfield owners themselves changed on several occasions through mergers and takeovers.

As with Lulsgate the city council would have reached a stage where they could not inject the cash needed to develop a Bristol Filton Airport further - this might have become apparent at an earlier stage than at Lulsgate because Filton might have grown quicker as an airport but there was serious political opposition within the council to privatisation which remained well into the 1990s leading to only part privatisation initially in 1997.

At whatever stage a Filton Airport had been placed into private hands there remains the question of whether the owners would have wanted to operate it (and inject considerable sums of money to build an aiport infrastructure) or whether they would have engaged a separate operator in some form of partnership at whatever financial and other arrangements were agreed.

By the 1990s, BAE who by then owned Filton, applied to turn it into a city airport so they obviously had their eye on the sector. The local opposition was immense and a public enquiry was held following which the secretary of state rejected the application.

Although Filton is within the contiguous built-up area of Greater Bristol it lies within the jurisdiction of South Gloucestershire unitary authority. They might not have been as accommodating towards major expansion planning applications as their counterparts at North Somerset unitary authority were for Lulsgate.

These are just some of the imponderables that lie in the way of a definitive answer that Filton would have been an improvement on Lulsgate.

If all things were equal few people would deny that Filton would have been a far better bet.

But we are where we are and Lulsgate is the only game in Bristol Town so the city region has to make the most of it and I believe, as do others, that it's done extremely well and punches above its weight.

bristolflyer

30th Apr 2013, 17:59

MV, I agree hindsight is a wonderful thing! If you asked an infrastructure planner in the fifties to predict the future he probably won't have foreseen mass air travel. It was only the arrival of GO that saw a real increase in traffic at BRS. The LCC's have really made the airport. BAe were shrewd when they made their application to turn Filton into an airport. I remember at the time they said that there would only be scheduled operations, at a time when charter movements far outstripped scheduled at Lulsgate and no LoCo's existed. Perhaps they saw the potential for LCC's? I agree whole heartedly that BRS has punched well above it's weight and long may that continue!

crackling jet

1st May 2013, 06:50

it's a shame to loose the l/h series, wonder if anyone else could step in, Monarch,TCX etc with suitable equipment as Thomson/First Choice have proved the market is here to support the operation over the last seven or eight years.

It's about time the airport got its act together and prepared for the future, it's alright having big announcements in the media saying they are starting this and that project ie the hotel,walkways etc then they do nothing, what do they say, you have to speculate to accumulate the facilities should be in place for potential new airlines and tour operators, not promise if they will come they will do the work, as the film said "build it and they will come"

TSR2

1st May 2013, 11:40

It's about time the airport got its act together and prepared for the future

Seems a bit of an unfair comment when you look at the growth over the past 20 years.

1992 ... 1,068,604

2002 ... 3,445,945

2012 ... 5,921,530

MerchantVenturer

1st May 2013, 20:38

There has been a lot of development in recent years. The recession has slowed things down at BRS as it has everywhere else of course, though BRS has weathered the downturn of the past five years better than many airports. Whenever I go to the airport there seems to be something being built or altered.

The progress, lack of progress more accurately, of the hotel is the most mysterious aspect of the infrastructure development.

In October 2009 the local press was reporting that the airport had signed an agreement with Pederson Airport Hotels for a 250-room on site hotel. Pederson was expected to select an internationally recognised brand over the next few months to run it. At that time Pederson owned three hotels in Bristol (they may still do so, I'm not sure).

This might have been somewhat premature because planning permission was not granted for another 12 months at which time it was reported that work would begin in 2011 with an anticipated completion date of winter 2012/2013.

I can find no mention of the hotel in the airport consultative committee minutes since April 2012 when the CEO, in answer to a question, said the project was ongoing but there were no new developments to report.

As regards the expansion generally, the airport has always said it would be done incrementally as traffic dictated.

Three new aircraft stands were finished last year as part of the expansion and a number of other projects have been completed in the past year including including an extension to the security search area and a new immigration channel. The new lounge opened last month too.

Last year it was reported that a contractor had been appointed to carry out initial preparatory work on the first phase of the terminal building extension, and a few months ago a 'framework' of contractors (a device created to avoid the potentially cumbersome EU procurement rules) was named in the trade press who would carry out the various expansion tasks as they came on stream.

Earlier this year I heard an airport spokesman tell a local radio interviewer that the central walkway would be the next work to be carried out but no date was given. It actually formed part of the non-material amendments submitted to the local authority planners last January so that would have delayed things a bit anyway.

Perhaps they are now waiting until after the busy summer period before commencing this work.

Wee Weasley Welshman

1st May 2013, 21:09

Bristol is unique in my experience in that the professional based pilots there actually think the airport management are pretty good at their job. There's not much money wasted on fancy offices and what is spent seems to go on the necessary but unglamorous stuff you actually need.

As an exercise in focusing on becoming the leading regional UK airport it stands comparison well. I contend that it's technical limitation to long haul product is actually key to its focus and its success in achieving its suprisingly comprehensive and sustained network map. It's better to be busy and vibrant and not do longhaul than it is to be something like the ghost town at Birmingham with its handful of marginal longhaul routes and otherwise uninspiring smattering of short and medium haul options.

WWW

GayFriendly

2nd May 2013, 08:01

It's better to be busy and vibrant and not do longhaul than it is to be something like the ghost town at Birmingham with its handful of marginal
longhaul routes and otherwise uninspiring smattering of short and medium haul options

Ghost town? With 9 million pax per year? And multiple daily mainline ops by SK, AF, LH, SN, LX?

I wouldn't call Venice, Marrakech, Rome, Krakow, Lyon, Dubrovnik and Stockholm (all served from BHX) uninspiring unless you think frying yourself on the beach and larging it up in an Irish bar is what you call inspiration

Double daily DXB, daily (in summer) EWR and 4 x weekly ISB marginal long haul?

Admittedly there are glaring gaps in the short haul network at BHX. Yes, BRS has done a fantastic job in short haul route development with a quite a number of routes flown that BHX doesn't have and huge pax growth in recent years because of that (I have flown from there on a number of occasions when there was not a suitable option fron BHX). But get your facts right before you make such a sweeping statement about another airport that is also going (albeit not very spectacularly) from strength to strength. Unlike CWL.

bristolflyer

2nd May 2013, 10:33

Don't knock CWL's extensive network....they have two daily rotations to Anglesey.

CheekyVisual

2nd May 2013, 15:21

A little bird told me today that brs are going to adapt stands to take the dreamliner. It will be seeing it at some point It just won't be long hauling for the moment.

MerchantVenturer

2nd May 2013, 19:45

A poster on another aviation forum who is usually worth listening to re BRS matters said much the same thing today, CV.

He also said there will be three B 738s based at BRS in summer 2014 operating for TOM, replacing the two B 757s, though there was no confirmation that they would necessarily all be TOM's own aircraft.

crackling jet

6th May 2013, 17:15

TSR2,

Don't get me wrong, Bristol has done an amazing job with what it has, but they do keep saying promising new developments, ie the hotel that was supposed to be open next year and going back many years (20 years)they had planning granted for hotel, conferrence center and swimming pool in what is the original car park at the old terminal, together with other non proceeding projects seems to let Bristol down and in the past has led to services initially destined for bristol have gone elsewhere- Blukan Bulgarian for instance in the late seventies/early eighties with the TU 154 eventualy went to CWL along with Toronto amongst others etc. that seemed to usher in the change of fortune that saw CWL almost wipe BRS out untill Les Wilson arrived on the scene and clawed business into Bristol, though that should not happen again we could still loose out, it is often quoted 'Emirates' to middle east, now they will not go any where on a promise of having facilites when they start.

More recently it was mentioned when the Dreamliner was coming they were saying that the roadway next to the golf course would have to be moved further away and two large turning bumbells added at each end of runway to allow it to turn around backtrack the runway to holding point Charlie so it could taxi straight upto Stand 5, this was due to the wing overhang, this is what i was getting at, not the management.

gilesdavies

6th May 2013, 19:01

Hey Guys

Was just browsing the forums and read the last few pages... Some nice and educated comments by all!

Shame not to see the 787 coming to BRS, I remember the airport also mentioning in historical planning documents the runway would not need to be extended as the new generation of long haul aircraft could fly from what they already have.

With Luton been my local airport and having a reasonably short runway too, I also had hopes the 787 might operate from there, as I think a non-stop 767 to Florida is pushing it a bit off a 7000ft runway! But that really is just a pipe dream and as long as Gatwick remains, Thomson will almost definately keep Long Haul ops based there.

I was just curious on other peoples thoughts... I notice Exeter has had a long standing route to Toronto with Canadian Affair/Air Transat, which I think operates via another UK airport on the outward journey (Glasgow or Birmingham I think), in a similar manner to the Thomson LH flights.

It has always surprised me this route has not been switched to Bristol where is could potentially attract a far bigger market. Is this a route the airport has on its radar or tried to attract in the past? If they were to operate the A310 on the route and fill it up, it is debatable if the route could operate non-stop to Toronto as this type has a very similar performance to the 757.

GayFriendly

6th May 2013, 19:16

Gilesdavies - you are right but that routing as axed last year or even the year before. It used to be YYZ-EXT-BHX-YYZ. Canadian Affair have over the past 2 years consolidated the majority of their UK operations into GLA, MAN and LGW, with BHX also retaining a weekly non stop flight to YYZ, this was on the A330 but this year goes down to an A310.

Having pulled out of ABZ, EDI, NCL, LBA, CWL and EXT over the years I doubt you will see Air Transat at BRS, the demand for flights to YYZ from UK regional airports seems to have died off along with the vast majority of the market that traditionally used these flights. At one time BHX boasted twice weekly Wardair 747's and Air Canada Tristars to YYZ!

Whether or not Air Canada Rouge will look at other UK airports to add to EDI where they will operate from this summer remains to be seen but I would think MAN, LGW and possibly BHX would be served ahead of BRS?

MerchantVenturer

6th May 2013, 19:23

Bristol has had a Toronto service in the past at various times but never non-stop so far as I can recall.

For example, around 1990 Odyssey International operated from BRS via NCL with a B 757.

In summer 2000 Royal Air did so via Glasgow with an A310. The airline was then absorbed by Canada 3000 who operated the route in summer 2001 with a B 757, again via GLA, only to go out of business later that year.

The last attempt was in summer 2008 when Globespan operated from BRS via Dublin to its version of Toronto at Hamilton. It was not a success and wasn't brought back for 2009 though Globespan went out of business soon after.

I believe the Exeter route to Toronto is not operating this summer.

Incidentally, the TOM B 767s do fly from BRS to Sanford non-stop nearly all the time, possibly all of the time. Cancun though requires an outbound fuel stop at Manchester.

gilesdavies

6th May 2013, 23:10

I believe the Exeter route to Toronto is not operating this summer.

I just checked Cheap Flights to Canada, Toronto & Vancouver from London & major UK Cities | Air Transat (http://www.airtransat.co.uk) and it does appear to be operating this year and goes via Glasgow operating on a Wednesday...

However at £489 each way, Im not sure I would want to be on a 9 abreast A310 for 8 hours, when I could fly with a scheduled carrier for less and in more comfort!

However saying that, I have flown with them before when I got a bargain return ticket for £250 from Manchester and was very impressed. Very professional, good leg room and the A310 was a pleasant experience, if a little cramped.

I just think its a shame Air Transat didn't think of switching to Bristol as could make a real go of it, with the larger catchment area. Operating to Toronto from Exeter has always seemed a bit of an odd ball to me, but there must be demand I am missing.

Incidentally, the TOM B 767s do fly from BRS to Sanford non-stop nearly all the time, possibly all of the time. Cancun though requires an outbound fuel stop at Manchester.

Nearly fell out of my chair when I read that the Florida service operated non-stop. I bet the tail of that 767 is scraping the end of the runway to get airbourne! :\

Do they limit the loads on this flight or does it fly out full?

Saying that Monarch did operate their A330 from Luton to Orlando in the early 2000's on behalf of Airtours and they operated non-stop, so anything is possible!

MerchantVenturer

7th May 2013, 19:08

I believe they use the former First Choice B 767s with 258 seats and the CAA stats suggest that the passenger load is not limited to less than this.

Continental's Boeing 757-200s operated for five and half years between BRS and EWR, admittedly configured for 175 seats which I believe was their standard for this type of operation, and so far as I know the outbound flights never had to call in somewhere en route for a fuel stop.

As for Exeter and Toronto there seems to be no aircraft operating into EXT this summer from/to Canada - the airport's own website doesn't show Canada or Toronto as a destination either.

Canadian Affair will sell seats between Exeter and Toronto (I did a dummy booking on their website), either via Glasgow or Manchester. However, they seem to utilise Flybe on the EXT-MAN/GLA sectors.

Bristol_Traveller

13th May 2013, 20:23

bmi regional launched its new routes to MXP, HAJ and MUC today.

There was a great German market laid out in the departures hall, with representatives from each destination (I think Milan just joined in the fun). Various foods and drinks to be enjoyed.

BM have a dedicated departure lounge in the Forward Coaching Lounge (which I last used when it was Secondary Screening for the CO flight to EWR), where it looks like they'll be using the three gates there to service their almost simultaneous three departures three times each day.

There were bubbles, coffee and croissants in the lounge for passengers this morning. MXP went out with about 30 passengers, HAJ looked like about 25 (?), and MUC went out with 36 ish. (I was on MUC, so was counting on the bus to the aircraft). BM Chairman Ian Woodley did a brief speech before boarding the MUC flight.

It's a great set of routes to add into the portfolio, along with FRA going double-daily. If rumours of a codeshare with LH come off, it'll be really great to be properly re-connected to the Star network out of FRA (and MUC? and BRU :-| ).

bravoromeosierra

15th May 2013, 18:14

I flew on the first (early) Frankfurt flight on Monday, travelled across Germany and made it for the first MUC-BRS flight. The loads on the FRA flight were probably not even 20 people, and the MUC-BRS was much busier (full of Germans, would you believe..) with a total load probably around the 80-90% mark.

BMI are offering a good product.. they have put a lot of effort into marketing the new services around Bristol with many buses, taxis and the local press carrying advertisements.

I notice that I'm able to book and fly BRS-FRA-NRT-MUC-BRS (for examples sake) on one ticket. Another good idea.. I assume there is some sort of agreement with Lufthansa already in place?

Incidentally the morning ABZ on Monday seemed somewhat full, judging by the bus load that were boarding within eyeshot of the FRA flight.

2J&D

16th May 2013, 13:32

I was on the first HAJ flight. From memory (have slept since then!) there was 19 on the outbound and 27 on the first Inbound from HAJ, which included the Mayor of Hannover. We had a water cannon salute on arrival in HAJ! Returned the following day after a great night (thanks to HAJ airport!) and there was I think 17.

I was very impressed with BMI Regional, the service was fantastic and it had been a while since I have flown on the ERJ and I find them to be very comfortable. Especially with a flying time of 1hr10.

The 'Lounge' they have set up made it feel a little more exclusive and I have to say the new Aspire lounge is light years ahead on the one it replaced.

Bristol_Traveller

16th May 2013, 15:08

I notice that I'm able to book and fly BRS-FRA-NRT-MUC-BRS (for examples sake) on one ticket. Another good idea.. I assume there is some sort of agreement with Lufthansa already in place?

I'm not sure if it's by accident or by design. The fare engines may be holding onto the fact that the BRS-FRA route had a BD codeshare when operated by LH, so the BRS-BM/LH-FRA component may actually have been an autoconvert from BRS-BD/LH-FRA. The fares were never deleted when LH pulled the route, and a whole bunch of them can be used still as BRS-SN/LH-BRU- routings. It only seems to apply for fares to destinations EAST of Europe - you can't use it to book BRS-FRA-NYC, for instance.

Certainly a few bmi regional people I've mentioned it to were surprised.

You can't book on lufthansa.com because the BM flights don't have an LH codeshare, and I'm not sure if there's a baggage interlining agreement in place or not? Opodo, Expedia et.al. do seem to pick it up.

Hopefully with some LH codeshare numbers on the FRA/MUC/HAJ/HAM routes, it'll make it very much more discoverable than relying on bmi regional (http://www.bmiregional.com) alone.

AirGuru

16th May 2013, 15:25

The LH booking engine is only showing these due to BRS-BRU SN operated flights.

MerchantVenturer

16th May 2013, 20:56

Always good to have some complimentary nosh and liquid, B_T.

Let's hope the local business community supports these routes. HAM and MUC should both see some nailed-on business traffic with the EADS links and with the Imperial Tobacco to HAM this will be something to build on.

It seems that the HAM and HAJ will be operated by the 135 with FRA, MUC, MXP and ABZ by the 145.

Still awaiting CAA stats for April which seem to be a couple of days late but the airport has published its own figures that always vary slightly each month from the CAA figures but not by so much as to create a serious conflict.

The airport says overall passenger numbers for April at just over 483,000 were 0.6% down on its figures for April 2012. Charter passengers saw the biggest fall at around 8,000 fewer with scheduled domestic down around 3,000. Scheduled international was up about 8,000. Slightly disappointing perhaps but the split Easter (end of March/beginning of April) probably had a part to play. Passenger numbers for the first four months of this year are nearly one half of a per cent higher than the same period in 2012.

The summer looks promising in terms of flights. The eleventh based easyJet aircraft appears to be arriving on Friday week (24th) according to Mayfly (a couple of weeks later than in 2012) and will be an A 320, giving 3 x 320s and 8 x 319s, a complement that did not appear in 2012 until July - last year the late spring/early summer saw 2 x 320s and 9 x 319s.

Mayfly shows 98 airline departures on Friday 24th May which is a few more than on Fridays in August last year.

There will be a couple of new charter visitors this summer with Mistral Air operating a B 734 for Tui to Verona on Saturdays (last summer it was a non-based TOM B 738) - there will be a second Verona on Saturdays with bmi regional flying on behalf of Inghams - and JetairFly flying a Palma for Tui on Sundays with a B 738.

Finally, Aer Lingus Regional is showing only a single daily rotation (early morning) on its DUB-BRS service for next winter.

Hangar6

16th May 2013, 20:59

Just loaded the brs USA link rest to follow when the other twenty EIR Dub rotations are finalized revert end June ta

Bristol_Traveller

17th May 2013, 16:41

The LH booking engine is only showing these due to BRS-BRU SN operated flights.

That's true, but the published fare between BRS and NRT on LH clearly shows that BRS-BM-FRA is allowed on the fare component.

/BETWEEN AREAS 2 AND 3 VIA SIBERIA WITH NONSTOP BETWEEN EUROPE
AND JAPAN OR KOREA/
1. BRS-BM/LH-DUS/FRA/HAJ/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR-LH/OS/SN-BRU/DUS/
FRA/MUC/VIE/ZRH-LH/NH/OS/SN-NGO/OSA/TYO-LH/LX/NH/OS-TYO
2. BRS-BM/LH-DUS/FRA/HAJ/HAM/MUC/NUE/STR-LH/OS/SN-BRU/DUS/
FRA/MUC/VIE/ZRH-LH/NH/OS/SN-TYO
3. BRS-BM/LH/SN-BRU/VIE-LH/OS/SN-DUS/FRA/MUC/ZRH-LH/NH/OS/SN-
NGO/OSA/TYO-LH/LX/NH/OS-TYO
4. BRS-BM/LH/SN-BRU/VIE-LH/OS/SN-DUS/FRA/MUC/ZRH-LH/NH/OS/SN-
TYO

You can see from this that there are routings that are impossible, but I'm pretty darn near certain the only change between this routing list and the original 2008-2009 one is references to BD have become BM.

Welshtraveller

25th May 2013, 07:10

Which aircraft operates today’s BMI regional flight to Verona at 14.05?
Embraer 135 or 145 perhaps?

Is the aircraft based in Bristol or does it fly in from somewhere else? Cannot see any BMI regional arrivals today with the exception of Verona.

Thanks.

yeo valley

25th May 2013, 08:13

welsh traveler its should be an em145 today. its a brs based plane. dont no reg as 4 or 5 based in brs. hope that helps a little.

Welshtraveller

25th May 2013, 12:20

Thank You:)

yeo valley

25th May 2013, 15:55

yr welcome welshtraveller. sorry i missed an l out from yr user name. it was very early morning here. must have been tired.

WOWBOY

26th May 2013, 13:41

What flights tend to depart from the western apron. I really wanna explore it, it's new to me haven't been to bristol in ages. Flying to Tenerife with ryanair.

yeo valley

26th May 2013, 21:46

wowboy its what is parked on which ever apron and also how long aircrafts are on the ground. ryanair mostly depart from the eastern apron cus they not on ground very long. if they use the western apron and aircraft from another base then usualy stand 22 is used. hope that helps you.

WATABENCH

26th May 2013, 22:11

WOWBOY - Your not missing a great deal, however just book a flight wherever you want, check in early then when you get in departure lounge go for a stroll down to gate 16 and back, nothing stopping you walking down there. :ok:

ericlday

31st May 2013, 15:34

Bristol Airport is trying to find the owner of an antique teddy bear left in a carrier bag in the departure lounge more than a year ago. BBC News.

MerchantVenturer

4th Jun 2013, 21:21

The minutes for the last airport consultative committee meeeting (1 May this year) have been published with nothing startling mentioned, good or bad.

Robert Sinclair, airport CEO, did talk about the proposed central enclosed walkway saying that plans for it are being developed but that its construction would require board level approval.

The minutes also state that there is no further update on the airport hotel which seems to mean that there is no definite news about its construction despite planning approval and comments by the airport in the past suggesting that we might have expected it to be built and open by now.

Curious Pax

5th Jun 2013, 08:38

Doing BRS-FRA as a daytrip next month, driving down overnight from MAN. Odd routing I know, but £120 for the trip from BRS instead of £300+ on LH from MAN made it worthwhile - BE pulling off that route made quite a difference to the LH fares!

Practical question - does the BRS terminal close overnight, or will I be able to get my head down for a couple of hours before bmi regional check in opens (and what time would that be)?

Thanks.

G3jetman

5th Jun 2013, 09:01

The airport is open 24 hours and limited seating is available but Ritazza Cafe is open all night and Subway. Comfortable seating is at Subway and the Soho Coffee shop (closed at night but seating available). Hope this helps you and enjoy your trip!! Check-in is usually an hour and a half before and should be check-in desk 23ish!!

Pandy

24th Jun 2013, 08:04

Looking at the provisional CAA Stats for May 13, have roughly calculated the following for the new BMI Regional routes out of BRS

MXP 672 pax; 20 pax per sector
MUC 766; 22
HAJ 458 ; 11

For the existing routes (additional frequencies)

FRA 1573; 19
HAM 1407; 17

As before
ABZ 2988; 29

Appreciated that its not necessarily the number of Pax but yield that is the most important factor; also they are all new routes within the last 6 months but is this sustainable? (especially HAJ)

MerchantVenturer

24th Jun 2013, 10:24

I believe your figures are in the right sort of area although I made HAJ slightly better, or perhaps less worse, than you suggest and HAM not as good. HAJ was a surprising choice as a route, albeit Hannover is one of Bristol's twin cities.

My alter ego posted this on another website last week:

CAA stats now out for the month in which all six bmi regional routes from BRS operated, albeit some did not start until 13 May. I've taken it that all advertised rotations operated.

Hannover and Hamburg are on 37-seat E135, remainder on 50-seat E145.

Frankfurt 1573 passengers, ave load 19.2, load factor 38.4%

Hamburg 1407 passengers, ave load 14.7, load factor 39.7%

Hannover 458 passengers, ave load 13.5, load factor 36.4%

Munich 766 passengers, ave load 22.5, load factor 45%

Milan Malpensa 672 passengers, ave load 19.8, load factor 39.6%

Aberdeen 2926 passengers, ave load 30.5, load factor 61%

Nothing very satisfying about these figures although Hannover, Munich and Milan only commenced on 13 May so can't be properly judged yet.

Hamburg is the most disappointing on the face of things. It's been running for over three months, albeit single daily to begin with, now double daily on weekdays.

In February its average load was 18.6 and in March 17.6. To have dropped to 14.7 especially in late spring is a cause for pondering.

May was the first month in which bmi regional had the Aberdeen route to itself.

This led to a discussion on the history of German routes at BRS and my alter ego posted this (slightly edited to remove 'domestic' references within that other forum), with particular reference to comparative passenger figures in previous months of May:

In the 13 months that LH (in the form of Eurowings) operated BRS-Frankfurt until the end of April 2009 at initially 3 x daily (21 weekly) with a 100 seat Bae 146-300, just under 100,000 passengers were carried. In May 2008 the route saw 9,441 passengers.

The last full year of BACon to Germany from BRS was 2006.

In that year BACon operated to Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf, with FRA and DUS at 6 x weekly (no Sats) and MUC daily.

MUC and DUS went out at late morning and returned mid afternoon whist FRA left mid afternoon and returned mid evening. FRA and MUC had been operated by the BA franchisee since the late 1990s and FRA had been double daily for a while.

BACon operated the ERJ 145 on these routes and a comparison with the current bmi regional passenger figures is easily accomplished.

In 2006 the FRA route carried 21,315 passengers, the MUC 19,331 and the DUS 9,993 but the last-mentioned route only commenced on 1 June that year.

In May 2006 FRA saw 1,874 passengers (average load 34.7, load factor 69.4%) and MUC 1815 (average load 29.2, load factor 58.4%). Because DUS didn't commence until 1 June I've set down the passenger numbers for that month which were 1,156 (average load 21.4, load factor 42.8%) By August DUS was carrying 1,785 (average load 33, load factor 66%).

I can't remember what, if any, connection availability there was at these airports through BA, certainly nothing like those with LH especially at FRA so the BA and bmi regional comparisons are perhaps more realistic, albeit BA was and is a better known airline name than regional.

I realise I've been talking about passenger numbers and not the yields which are the important factors but it does paint something of a picture of BRS and Germany in the past decade.

The profile of an airline is important. easyJet carries around 80,000 to Berlin most years and in 2012 165,000 to Geneva (there were another 10,000 ski charter airline passengers to GVA as well) whereas the lesser-known Helvetic, although steadily improving its BRS performance still struggles to get to 50% load factor after 18 months of operation between BRS and Zurich with 9,000 passengers in 2012.

When the bmi routes were announced there were a number of comments about the lack of partners/connectivity and how this might impact on attracting passengers as bmi regional is currently a point-to-point airline out of BRS.

The early passenger numbers certainly aren't a cause for celebration on the part of the airline or airport but, ABZ and HAM apart (and even these aren't long standing routes by bmi regional) the others are new, with less than three weeks' figures to sample in the case of three which really have to be put to one side until a much more meaningful sample is available in the coming months.

Incidentally, I've shown the BA and bmi regional E145s as 50-seaters, whereas Mayfly shows them as 49. If Mayfly is right then the load factors will be slightly better than my figures.

insuindi

24th Jun 2013, 10:49

Flew BRS-HAJ in early June. Load 13/37. Probably the most near-private jet experience possible on a commercial flight for me in a good while - particularly as there were 2 cabin crew (one in training as it appeared) so pax/staff ratio was fairly impressive.

Bristol_Traveller

25th Jun 2013, 21:58

The ERJ-145 is 49 seats. (16 rows of 3 + 1. The 135 is 37 - 12 rows of 3 +1)

Load factors in those ranges are probably not sustainable in the long-term, but for a first month of operation, they're probably not indicative either.

bmi-r has run a successful operation for many years, operating that same fleet, but out of different airports and on different destinations. They're new arrivals to BRS, so will take time to establish themselves, and I would hope they've factored that into their plans. As EZY have shown, with the right prices and routes, SXF and GVA have done very well for them.

The Helvetic flight is a vexing one for me. At three days a week, it's not that great for my typical '24 hours in ZRH' visits, and without connections with LX, you can't use ZRH as a hub (which it's an excellent airport for, and LX have very good intra-European fares).

The BACon flight also used to suffer from FRA and MUC being terminating points. I'm still a bit bemused that LH publish sensible long-haul fares from BRS that allow use of the FRA/MUC routes, but make them pretty difficult to *find*. That connecting traffic would give those routes so much more value.

I was on BRS-MUC on Monday with 32 pax out and (apparently) about 30 pax back. I'm on MUC-BRS tomorrow, so I'll look at the numbers then. 75% LF is a much brighter story to tell.

BleadonHell

26th Jun 2013, 09:02

Speaking of Zurich, CAA provisional stats for May suggest 1335 passengers used the service compared to 707 the previous May, quiet impressive when you consider that it wasn't that long ago when the aircraft went onto CWL that the combined totals were only around the 700 passenger number mark.

BH

Bristol_Traveller

27th Jun 2013, 07:16

I was on MUC-BRS last night, which had 34 pax. It looked like a mix of leisure and business, and a few people maybe heading to Glastonbury.

The hold on the 145 was full to bursting with bags, and two bicycles.

MerchantVenturer

29th Jun 2013, 20:51

Thanks B_T for clarification re seating capacity of bmi regional E145s.

The Helvetic route to ZRH is 4 x weekly this summer (M, W, F and Su) but, as you point out, the lack of connectivity is frustrating.

I was scanning the travel press and came across this reported comment from Flybe's MD in an article about the change of owership at Exeter Airport: Given the recent fare increases at Bristol Airport, Exeter should be able to capitalise on its position as the premier airport in the South West and the next few years at the airport look set to be an exciting period.’

See this link for full report Optimism over Exeter Airport sale | Travel News (http://www.travel-news.co.uk/8511/2013/06/optimism-over-exeter-airport-sale/)

What fare increases are these? Flybe's? All airlines using BRS? Are they across the board? Can't say I've noticed a general increase in fares recently.

Or is he actually talking about airline charges at the airport, rather than fares, something rumoured to be behind Ryanair's decision to reduce its base size at BRS this summer?

Welshtraveller

30th Jun 2013, 12:22

Travelled on BMI regional flight Bristol to Verona on Sat 22/06/13, returned yesterday Sat 30/06/13. Both flights on a E145.

Both flights were very smooth with excellent punctuality both ways. Only a few spare seats on the outgoing flight, return flight was full. Very impressed with bmi regional, well done! :)

Bristol_Traveller

1st Jul 2013, 22:02

I think I'd noticed the passenger fees at Bristol had increased. I'm sure they used to be about GBP16, but the since 1st March 2013 they seem to be closer to GBP20. (SN show it as GBP17.90 and KL as about GBP20.87).

That has an effect on the final price charged to passengers, but I suspect there's very wide latitude for negotiation on those fees. I would imagine FR didn't get the 'negotiation outcome' they wanted.

I think the BM flight to VRN on Saturday is a charter, so whilst they will have got paid for operating the flight, they weren't selling the tickets.

MerchantVenturer

2nd Jul 2013, 15:48

Thanks again B_T.

I hadn't noticed. My wife and I flew to Glasgow in March with easyJet for around £45 each 'return' (we are able to book weeks in advance which usually helps) which I think is incredible value considering the pre-low cost airline days at BRS meant a return to Scotland cost over £200 (which would be more these days having regard to inflation in the intervening years). The first time I used a low cost airline from BRS was in 2002 to EDI with Go at £40 there and back - couldn't believe it at the time!

We used EI Regional to Cork and back last week and the return fare was over £100 each so if this included an extra three or four quid in increased passenger charges it didn't really signify and, anyway, I always look at the total fare and rarely bother looking at the breakdown. There seemed to be no empty seats on the ATR 72 on the return to BRS on Saturday and only a handful on the Tuesday outbound to ORK.

Thus far there seems to be no adverse effect on passenger numbers. BRU passenger numbers are up 13%, 38% and 26% respectively in March, April and May, and AMS is up 3%, 7% and 10% in the same period. In the first five months of this year overall passenger numbers at the airport are up 2.48% using CAA stats.

So it doesn't look as though there is currently a rush down the M5 for cheaper flights.

Verona is a charter operated by bmi regional on behalf of Inghams. In recent years they took seats on the TUI service to Verona which operates for that group this year by a Mistral Air B 737-400 giving two Saturday flights to VRN.

regional also operates a Sunday service to Bastia for Corsican Places. In addition to its Airbus corporate shuttle work I've noticed that regional crops up operating presumably one-off ad hoc rotations from/to BRS to various destination over and above its football/rugby weekend charter work in the season.

I've heard very good reports of its product with Welshtraveller's remarks another confirmation. Must try to persuade Mrs MV that we should sample it ourselves.

MerchantVenturer

9th Jul 2013, 18:11

BRS has issued a press release, reproduced in part below, saying that this year saw the busiest ever June.

Bristol Airport recorded its busiest ever June last month, with over 625,000 passengers travelling through the terminal. This surpassed the previous record, set back in 2008, by 15,000 and represented a 3.4 per cent increase on the same month last year - despite the 2012 figure being boosted by a late Whitsun Bank Holiday and the Queen’s Jubilee.

Growth was recorded across all airline sectors, with bmi regional’s new services to Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg performing particularly well. KLM’s four-times daily service to Amsterdam also carried 12 per cent more passengers than in the previous year, benefiting from the introduction of a larger Embraer 190 aircraft on the route.

Full press release at: Record June at Bristol Airport ? Bristol Airport (http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/media-centre/news-releases/2013/07/record-june.aspx)

It must be gratifying that some of the bmi regional routes are beginning to do well although individual route statistics won't be available until the CAA reports later this month.

It seems as though 2013 will be the fourth consecutive year to see an annual passenger rise and at present the airport is well on course to exceed 6 mppa for the second time in its history after the 6.228 mppa in 2008.