Bristol Airport access

[Tomos y Tanc]

Yeah in my experience there isn't a huge difference between Cardiff and Bristol airport and the London airports amazingly.

Can take 2 hours in traffic driving to Bristol airport from Cardiff, unless you are doing it very late at night or early morning. Train to paddington then to Gatwick/Heathrow/Luton is not a huge amount more than 2 hours.

True enough, if cost isn't a factor.

Trains are expensive and since Heathrow mainly caters for full-service carriers, you need to get to Luton, Gatwick or (heaven forefend) Stanstead to access low-cost options.

Personally, for holiday travel, I just tend to see what's available from Cardiff and book accordingly. The real problem comes with business or short-break travel where there are no good options from south Wales.

 

[Topological]

True enough, if cost isn't a factor.

Trains are expensive and since Heathrow mainly caters for full-service carriers, you need to get to Luton, Gatwick or (heaven forefend) Stanstead to access low-cost options.

Personally, for holiday travel, I just tend to see what's available from Cardiff and book accordingly. The real problem comes with business or short-break travel where there are no good options from south Wales.

It really depends where you are going. Most of my destinations need long haul so aside from KLM at Cardiff, or KLM and Air France at Bristol, I am always looking at Birmingham/Manchester or Heathrow. Heathrow then becomes my most common choice. Gatwick does have some good options for America as well.

I got some good advances to Stansted and then the actual journey by rail is smooth enough thanks to the Elizabeth Line. Likewise, Gatwick with a change at Farringdon, or with a change at Reading is doable. Luton also has the Farringdon option.

For most the relevant comparisons involve driving and parking. The M4 makes Heathrow by car easy. Though the M25 is not great, Luton and Gatwick come within sensible drives as well. Stansted is the wrong side of London, but is doable. Combining driving the M4 to West London and then Elizabeth Line / Underground options brings all the airports with lower cost options into reach too.

 

[Smwrff]

I think that Cardiff could do with an 'airbridge' to Stansted. 2 or 3 regular daily flights run by Ryanair to connect to thrir European network there.

 

[The exile]

I think that Cardiff could do with an 'airbridge' to Stansted. 2 or 3 regular daily flights run by Ryanair to connect to thrir European network there.

All such short hop flights should be banned on environmental grounds (other than island hoppers).

 

[Cross City]

I think that Cardiff could do with an 'airbridge' to Stansted. 2 or 3 regular daily flights run by Ryanair to connect to thrir European network there.

Ryanair don't offer connecting tickets, never have and likely never will. So even if this did happen having bookings on separate tickets means that if something goes wrong on one flight then you're left high and dry should you miss onward connections.

 

[edwin_m]

Ryanair don't offer connecting tickets, never have and likely never will. So even if this did happen having bookings on separate tickets means that if something goes wrong on one flight then you're left high and dry should you miss onward connections.

Ryanair wouldn't mind.

 

[mrmartin]

True enough, if cost isn't a factor.

Trains are expensive and since Heathrow mainly caters for full-service carriers, you need to get to Luton, Gatwick or (heaven forefend) Stanstead to access low-cost options.

Personally, for holiday travel, I just tend to see what's available from Cardiff and book accordingly. The real problem comes with business or short-break travel where there are no good options from south Wales.

Gatwick and Luton aren't bad to access - 1 change at farringdon with full step free access.

Also, Gatwick and Luton are often cheaper for popular destinations than Bristol in my experience, which makes it a bit of a toss up in terms of cost. You can usually get cheap advances at least on the way there as you tend to book flights far out. Plus there are usually way more flight time options, meaning you don't have to get up at 4am.