New roles at Bristol Airport to prepare for busy summer

To prepare for the increase in travellers, more local people have been employed to meet demand for air travel.

New employees have joined the Airport this summer working in a variety of job roles, from engineering to marketing and firefighting to finance, as well as chefs, baristas and ground transport staff - around 5,800 people work at the Airport.

Airport staff benefit from free bus travel using the A1 Flyer from Bristol Temple Meads, the A3 Flyer from Weston-super-Mare, the A4 Flyer from Bath and discounted fares on the A2 via Portishead, Clevedon, Nailsea and Backwell, helping to reduce the number of cars on the road and encouraging sustainable travel to work. Bristol Airport is the only airport to offer free bus travel to staff.

Meanwhile, thousands of customers have already taken advantage of the new A2 bus service which launched in April, connecting local residents to the Airport every hour, offering an around the clock service. Adult fares are only £5 single, £7 return. This April also saw the introduction of new group tickets on all four Flyer bus services, which are proving very popular with customers looking to take advantage of discounts of up to 60% for groups of up to 5 people of any age (compared to purchasing return tickets individually).

New destinations provide more passenger choice

This year Bristol Airport has welcomed more destinations including Seville, Reus (Spain), Bari (Italy), Cape Verde and Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece.

One of the busiest weekends for departures is expected to be the start of the school holidays in the South West with around 80,000 people anticipated to use the airport between Saturday 26 July and Wednesday 28 July. Between Friday 21 August and Monday 24 August, which is one of the final weeks before schools return, around 160,000 passengers are expected to pass through the terminal. The busy summer will see tourists coming to explore our region – boosting the local economy and supporting hotels and the wider hospitality sector.

Top destinations include Palma, Alicante, Malaga and Faro for beach holidays as well as familiar favourites Tenerife, Antalya, Ibiza and Rhodes. The most popular cities are still Dublin, Amsterdam and Edinburgh with Barcelona, Glasgow, Belfast and Paris also proving popular.

In the departure lounge, customers will notice hoarding in place as the next phase of the Airport’s £400 million transformation plan is well under way. Customers should expect some construction noise, but it will be kept to a minimum where possible. Restaurants are open including Alembic, a new world tapas pop up restaurant, and Escape, a new executive lounge, which can be pre-booked.

The Airport is investing more than £60 million to improve the customer experience in the departures and arrivals areas. There will be more space and almost double the number of shops and restaurants, with 17 additional units being incorporated into the design, including some premium retail brands and dining options as well as a hidden speakeasy bar. There will also be space for island retail units and more seating, designed with comfort in mind.

The assisted travel lounge has relocated but remains close to the exit of World Duty Free. As part of the transformation, the assisted travel lounge will double the size and include tables, so that customers are able to sit, eat and work comfortably. It will be in the heart of the departure lounge and include accessible toilets and changing places facility, which is a much larger washroom with equipment including a hoist, height adjustable changing bench suitable for adults, grab rails, shower and curtain, with plenty of room for carers and wheelchair users.

As part of the upgrade, there will be a baby feeding room and more toilets, all being designed with input from the Airport’s Accessibility Forum that meets regularly throughout the year and also offered valuable input into the Public Transport Interchange that opened last summer.

The arrivals hall is benefitting from a new domestic arrivals reclaim area with an additional baggage carousel. Capacity will increase by 20%. Accessibility in immigration will also be improved with new lifts and stairs.

Ensure you are airport ready

• Customers should prepare and plan ahead, checking in online, arriving on time before their flight departure to complete check-in, bag drop, security checks and boarding processes. Please check with your airline directly to confirm the precise check-in opening times.
• Additional helpful advice for customers:
  You can now carry up to 2 litres of liquid in hand luggage through security, however, metal water bottles must be carried through empty. There are free water filling stations in the departure lounge.
• Sunglasses should be placed in hand luggage and pockets should be empty.
  All electronics (laptops, tablets and mobile phones) should remain inside bags while passing through security screening.
• Power banks and vapes should be kept in the cabin with you and not packed with checked luggage.
• Hats and belts should be placed in the tray provided with a hand luggage bag on top. Customers may still be asked to take off shoes.
• It is recommended to only travel with essential items in your hand baggage and pushchairs to enable easy transit through security.
• Pushchairs and car seats that have not been checked in, along with wheelchairs and walking aids will be searched, so customers should allow more time for this.
• Any customer travelling with a medical condition or disability including hidden disabilities should mention this to a member of staff just before screening.
• Sunflower lanyards are available from our assisted travel desk in the check in hall. And customers can also request a private search if this makes them feel more comfortable.
• A sensory room is available, which is pre bookable and anyone looking to take a quieter route to the departure lounge, should follow the sunflowers on the floor from security.
• Some airlines offer Twilight bag drop the day before, for customers departing on early morning flights, with free car parking in the Short Stay car park.