News / Transport
Bristol Airport serves 7 million in 12 months
For the first time ever, more than seven million passengers have flown via Bristol Airport over a 12-month period. The airport is now the ninth busiest in the UK and the fifth largest outside London.
To celebrate, passengers and staff licked free local ice cream from Gloucestershire-based Marshfield Farms.
“It is amazing to think that when commercial flights commenced on our current site in 1957 just 33,000 passengers used the Airport in the entire first year,” says Bristol Airport CEO Robert Sinclair. “We now see a similar number pass through the terminal on a busy summer day!”
is needed now More than ever
The airport has been growing consistently for the last six years and reached 6.75 million passengers in 2015.
Bristol Airport grew thanks to scheduled and charter airlines increasing the number of available destinations to 116, including 16 capital cities.
The airport now notably features Wizz Air flights to Katowice in Poland, Kosice in Slovakia and Sofia in Bulgaria. It is also one of two UK airports from which low cost Icelandic airline WOW air departs, with flights that reach North America after a stopover in Reykjavik.
This coming April, Thomson Airways will make weekly flights to Orlando and Cancun from Bristol Airport via Boeing 787 Dreamliner – another first.
Bristol Aiport meets this increased demand with a £24 million west terminal extension and an enlarged baggage reclaim area, customs facilities and meet and greet area, as well as a 201-room Hampton by Hilton hotel.
The facilities are designed to handle 10 million passengers each year.
“Increased demand for air travel is a positive sign that our region’s economy continues to thrive,” says Sinclair. “Given the growth in our route network and continued improvement in facilities and services, passengers are increasingly turning to Bristol as the premier gateway airport serving the South West and South Wales.”
Bristol has ‘congestion issues’, what can be done to help alleviate these? Post all your ideas here:
Read more: Bristol Airport to get first hotel
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