The Bristol Airport problem

[The exile]

Nothing to do with politicians, competent or otherwise. It is simple market forces in action.

In the late 90s/early 00s, Bristol and Cardiff Airports both had similar number of passengers. Bristol had competent management and expanded rapidly. Cardiff did not, and did not.

Ironically, it was Cardiff which was 100% privately owned after it was privatised in the mid-90s. Bristol was a 51% private/49% council partnership until the mid-2000s, when both the council and FirstGroup sold their stakes. So the airport where local politicians kept their influence did better than the airport where they didn't.

Cardiff is now in public ownership but, to be quite honest, they're 20-odd years too late. That ship has long since sailed. I think the Welsh Assembly are probably right to try and keep it going- Manchester and Liverpool can co-exist- but Bristol Airport is always going to be bigger and busier.

I suspect it does also have to do with politicians - but those involved in the endless saga of the "New airport for London". That whole saga was unlikely to inspire any politician to attempt something similar in the West. With the lack of a single voice for the Greater Bristol Area at the relevant time it would have required a national politician with "clout" to have taken that on!

 

[Tetchytyke]

With the lack of a single voice for the Greater Bristol Area at the relevant time it would have required a national politician with "clout" to have taken that on!

A complete new-build airport would have been (and still is!) completely out of the question. Maybe in a different timeline Bristol Council would have bought RAF Filton as the main civil aviation airport for Bristol, but to revisit that you'd be going all the way back to the 1960s.

We are where we are now because Bristol ran their airport better than Cardiff did.

 

[takno]

Yes, there is the train service to Rhoose but it is only hourly and the linking bus (Adventure 905) takes only 10 minutes to get from Rhoose station to the Airport terminal. I note that the number of flights is increasing at Cardiff Airport including from Saturday 23 May the 4 times a week Westjet services from/to Toronto. The Canadian arrivals are less likely to have friends picking them up and more likely to rely on public transport than the locals going on flights to the Med. Wonder what they will make of the small bus to Rhoose and then being rammed on a 2 coach sprinter or the grand tour on the 304 bus to Cardiff?

I just went on the TFW site to make a comment/complaint about the pathetic hourly service on the VOG line with 2 coach old sprinters. However, even the TFW complaint form does not work properly as you can only type 1 line before reaching limit - so they can't even get that right and I had to give up.

Anyway, there is always the hourly First Bus 304 from Cardiff Airport which takes 1 hour 35 minutes to reach the city centre via a circuitous route.

So, Bristol Airport for transportation is not so bad after all. It is just a shame that these 2 airports were allowed to develop from war time airfields and that one more central location by the main railways and motorways was not chosen for a new airport. The politicians just did not get it that this is what the airlines wanted.

Seems odd to assume that the Westjet flight will be full of Canadians wanting to visit Cardiff, rather than the other way around.

Ultimately Bristol Airport is serving a wide area, and from the usage figures just as much of it is south of Bristol as from Wales. I'm not at all convinced you are right about the distribution of airports in the area now, so expecting politicians 70 years ago to be of the same mind is perhaps a bit optimistic.

 

[Envoy]

Seems odd to assume that the Westjet flight will be full of Canadians wanting to visit Cardiff, rather than the other way around.

It’s not just about Cardiff but also opens up a link to/from Toronto and south-west Britain that avoids the London airports. With frequent direct trains between Cardiff and Bristol / Bath as well as the south-west and up to Gloucester & Cheltenham (for Cotswolds). Then there are also direct trains from Cardiff going up the Marches Line to Abergavenny, Hereford, Ludlow etc.. (North Wales is best served by Manchester & Liverpool Airports whilst Shrewsbury and mid Wales are best served from Birmingham Airport). The trains at Rhoose (Cardiff Airport) also go to Bridgend for connections to mainline trains heading to Swansea & west Wales thus avoiding Cardiff.

I had heard that earlier bookings were 60% Canadian / 40% Brits.

 

[Kilopylae]

If you mean there's no flyer bus from Cardiff to Cardiff Airport, there is a train service.

I was talking about the lack of a dedicated public transport link from Cardiff to Bristol Airport!

 

[John R]

I was talking about the lack of a dedicated public transport link from Cardiff to Bristol Airport!

There are 10 direct National Express coaches including ones arriving at 4am and 5.45am. That doesn’t seem too bad.

 

[WelshBluebird]

For the ones who never enter the pick up / drop off then that would be true. But for those who are just waiting to enter then a flat £10 would be fine.

I know the airport need to make money, but if the flat fee for a few hours was only a little more than the current short time fee then there would not be too much loss. The council should be able to tell the airport to do so as part of planning permissions for expansion.

The impact airports have on the surrounding roads with these 15 minute fees should be looked at urgently.

Given there is a free waiting area, then you can head to the actual pick up area when the person you are picking up makes it through passport control, isn't that essentially a flat fee anyway? Theres no need to wait in the pick up place.

 

[Topological]

Given there is a free waiting area, then you can head to the actual pick up area when the person you are picking up makes it through passport control, isn't that essentially a flat fee anyway? Theres no need to wait in the pick up place.

Ah I see it now.

They cunningly put it away from the pick-up area so that you have to go further down the A38 to reach it. I will pay attention to see how well signed it is because normally I am just happy to finally be able to turn right into the airport when coming up the hill.

Even the waiting car park has a cap on it of 1 hour, but that would help for most people as you can stay at a supermarket, or similar, nearer Bristol if you are really early and then still have time to make the airport and the waiting car park.

 

[John R]

It’s pretty well signed as you enter the Silver zone area. It’s always pretty busy too when I’ve used it - if anything it needs to be expanded.

 

[AlastairFraser]

But at a time when there’s precious little else to clog up the road.

Single carriageway roads like the A38 aren't high capacity, especially with the quality of single carriageway between Bristol and the airport.

If a significant proportion moved over to underscaled public transport then that could fall apart very quickly. In Edinburgh (before the tram) early morning you might get multiple airport buses sail past you full at Haymarket. Having that on a half hourly service isn't going to get anybody out of their car.

Definitely, that's why I think Bristol Airport should be asked to pay for a feasibility study for an automated light metro link from Temple Meads via Hengrove to the airport.
Automated light metros like e.g. the REM in Montreal can have a capacity in the order of tens of thousands per hour if required, with less at quieter times.

 

[Dr Day]

Automated light metros like e.g. the REM in Montreal can have a capacity in the order of tens of thousands per hour if required, with less at quieter times.

Mass transit is only effective if you have lots of people making the same trip at the same time between the same two places (or at least two places on the same corridor).

The problem is still at the other end of people’s trips. Bristol has a very wide and dispersed primarily outbound catchment, a high proportion of which are unlikely to live within walking distance of a railway station.

If Bristol city centre was more of an international destination in its own right, like London or Edinburgh, then maybe a dedicated mass transit link from the airport might stack up.

 

[The exile]

Single carriageway roads like the A38 aren't high capacity, especially with the quality of single carriageway between Bristol and the airport.

Other than roadworks or an accident, I doubt travellers to Bristol Airport would test the capacity of the A38 at 4.30 in the morning.

 

[och aye]

Also fully agree. Filton was absolutely perfect and could even handle big planes if the airport ever grew.

Neither Cardiff, nor the present Bristol site, can support a proper regional airport so I fear that the South West and South Wales have locked in a highly suboptimal design.

For complete outlandishness: Build the Bristol to Cardiff High Speed tunnel and extend to Cardiff Airport. The tunnel has a strong case as it speeds up London to Cardiff and Cardiff to Bristol significantly. The extension from Cardiff to Cardiff Airport then allows Cardiff to take on the airport role. The journey time from central Bristol to Cardiff Airport would be similar to the current A1. The only issue is the road access so get the Newport bypass built and the stub from the M4 at Cardiff Airport. Exeter Airport can also handle a couple more flights to compensate those far South West of Bristol.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 May 2026 ==


I like this solution, bu worry that the airport itself is constrained and that you could not get the levels of traffic that are needed to justify such a big uptick in rail services.

Surely the obvious solution is to extend HS2 just south of Birmingham Interchange and bada bing, Birmingham Airport becomes the local airport for Cardiff and Bristol.

 

[crablab]

I wonder to what extent this issue is exacerbated by the poor public transport connectivity at Bristol?

Unauthorised car parks near Bristol Airport make villages 'unliveable,' say residents
Residents living near Bristol Airport say they are "suffering immeasurably” because of the rising problem of unauthorised car parks, problematic street parking and anti-social behaviour.

They say the surrounding villages and hamlets have become, at times, "unliveable" as people seek to avoid paying high drop off parking fees at the airport.

Bristol Airport wants to increase its annual passenger capacity to 15 million and expand its on-site parking by another 2000 spaces.

But residents say this will force even more traffic into their communities.

Simon Martin, who has lived in Winford for more than 30 years, said: "We’ve had five or six car parks springing up around recently. They cause a great issue because people are coming and going 24 hours a day."

He added: "People also dump their cars in the middle of the high street. All the local people are suffering immeasurably. It’s becoming unliveable."

Another resident living near an unauthorised car park in Barrow Gurney said: “It is disheartening to see hundreds of cars move from field to field for five to six months of the year.

"Our little lane gets used as an exit for vehicles; their alarms go off, and we hear swearing and shouting from their delivery collection people and the loud music from their cars. People show no consideration to those who live here."

https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2026-05-28/unauthorised-airport-car-parks-make-villages-unliveable-say-residents

 

[chipbury]

The connecting bus services are advertised on the rail network (or at least at Ashley Down where this poster is).
Excuse the poor quality due to the bright sunshine!

 

[takno]

The connecting bus services are advertised on the rail network (or at least at Ashley Down where this poster is).
Excuse the poor quality due to the bright sunshine!

The fact that you can buy through tickets should count as a bit of an advert as well. Now if they'd just sell though tickets at the advance prices, and time the buses to actually connect to trains at worle, they might actually have some passengers using them

 

[WelshBluebird]

The connecting bus services are advertised on the rail network (or at least at Ashley Down where this poster is).
Excuse the poor quality due to the bright sunshine!

Is there even a through ticket from Ashley down? GWRs site doesn't think so.

And remember the bristol flyer bus ticket also gives you a journey on a connecting bus service for free. So from Ashley down especially the 70 gives a good connection without you needing to pay any more.

 

[John R]

Mrs R caught the new X2 (Nailsea, Clevedon, Portishead) Airport Bus an hour ago, and there were a not too shabby 13 people on board leaving Nailsea. Not too shabby that is considering it only started in April. Now whilst some of those might have been local, non-airport traffic, any build up of passenger numbers that encourages the airport to keep running it must be a good thing.

Oh, and it saved me a round trip to the airport too and the £8.50 drop off charge!

 

[AlastairFraser]

Mass transit is only effective if you have lots of people making the same trip at the same time between the same two places (or at least two places on the same corridor).

The problem is still at the other end of people’s trips. Bristol has a very wide and dispersed primarily outbound catchment, a high proportion of which are unlikely to live within walking distance of a railway station.

If Bristol city centre was more of an international destination in its own right, like London or Edinburgh, then maybe a dedicated mass transit link from the airport might stack up.

That's exactly why I'd have intermediate stops in Windmill Hill, Knowle West, Hengrove, Hartcliffe and Bishopsworth on the way to the airport.
Similarly to the Edinburgh tram system, suburban to city centre demand can help support the business case for the line (plus Hengrove being close to the ring road means that you can easily operate feeder bus services from other outer suburbs to a metro interchange there).
With a light automated metro, the slightly indirect alignment and the inclusion of 5-10 station stops between Temple Meads and the airport wouldn't make the journey time unattractive.

Other than roadworks or an accident, I doubt travellers to Bristol Airport would test the capacity of the A38 at 4.30 in the morning.

You're entitled to your opinion, but you should also take into consideration the poor quality of the road after it leaves the Bristol urban area and the sheer volume of seats on sale during those first departures.
I do appreciate that some passengers will approach the airport from the M5/A370 direction as well, but Bristol Airport is planning further growth as part of their recent plans. The local road infrastructure has finite capacity until (if) further upgrades are completed, and I expect a lot of this growth will be from low-cost airlines who wish to use the same pattern of departures to ensure high aircraft utilisation as existing operators too.

 

[The exile]

You're entitled to your opinion, but you should also take into consideration the poor quality of the road after it leaves the Bristol urban area and the sheer volume of seats on sale during those first departures.
I do appreciate that some passengers will approach the airport from the M5/A370 direction as well, but Bristol Airport is planning further growth as part of their recent plans. The local road infrastructure has finite capacity until (if) further upgrades are completed, and I expect a lot of this growth will be from low-cost airlines who wish to use the same pattern of departures to ensure high aircraft utilisation as existing operators too.

I accept that my personal observations are entirely unscientific, but on none of the occasions I have travelled out from Bristol to the airport for a stupid o’clock flight (on the bus) has the road seemed anything like congested.

 

[Caaardiff]

I accept that my personal observations are entirely unscientific, but on none of the occasions I have travelled out from Bristol to the airport for a stupid o’clock flight (on the bus) has the road seemed anything like congested.

The point that has already been raised is those stupid o'clock outbound flight also has a return arrival around lunchtime and even as far as mid-late afternoon, e.g schools/rush hour.

 

[The exile]

The point that has already been raised is those stupid o'clock outbound flight also has a return arrival around lunchtime and even as far as mid-late afternoon, e.g schools/rush hour.

Ok - mine have usually been late evening, so can’t comment.

 

[contrex]

Is there even a through ticket from Ashley down? GWRs site doesn't think so.

And remember the bristol flyer bus ticket also gives you a journey on a connecting bus service for free. So from Ashley down especially the 70 gives a good connection without you needing to pay any more.

Oddly enough I get them from Stapleton Road (no ticket machine, so no penalty fares) in person either on the train or failing that at the little kiosk by the gateline at Temple Meads. I don't know if I'd want to drag all our luggage on a First Bus, and as I have an elderly person's pass I travel locally free anyway.

 

[The exile]

I don't know if I'd want to drag all our luggage on a First Bus,

You don’t have much option between TM and the Airport (though OK, they are a bit better equipped for it, but the lugging element is the same.)

 

[contrex]

You don’t have much option between TM and the Airport (though OK, they are a bit better equipped for it, but the lugging element is the same.)

Yes, you're right, much more luggage space on the airport buses, but, of course, we'd have to heave our suitcases on and off a train somewhere.

 

[AlastairFraser]

I accept that my personal observations are entirely unscientific, but on none of the occasions I have travelled out from Bristol to the airport for a stupid o’clock flight (on the bus) has the road seemed anything like congested.

Fair enough

 

[brad465]

There's a proposal to build a 3,000 home development on the western edge of Bristol that is on mostly a golf course at the moment. Looking at its location, I think if this were to go ahead, a new parkway station should be built just to the north (next to Long Ashton), and then this could function as both serving the development and being a P&R for the airport. There's still a bit of a journey to the airport, but buses from it would not have to deal with the hustle and bustle of Bristol City Centre, providing the development has a decent link road through it suitable for buses.

Developers to unveil plans for new town on south edge of Bristol

A 'new North Somerset community' will include three new schools

www.bristolpost.co.uk

Plans for what will effectively be a new town built on the south western edge of Bristol are going on show next week, ahead of developers starting the process of getting planning permission.

Taylor Wimpey says it wants permission to build a ‘new North Somerset community’ right on the edge of Bristol, with almost 3,000 new homes built either side of the A38 road to Bristol Airport on the edge of the city.

Just over half the land being earmarked for development is currently the Woodspring Golf Club, with the other half on the south east side of the A38 between that main road, the South Bristol Link Road and the Bristol suburb of Highridge and Withywood.

(Image of proposed development outlined in red)

If such a station were served by 2tph stopping services and an hourly Paddington-Weston-super-Mare service (that only called here as an intermediate stop), that would serve it sufficiently I think.

 

[Mike Machin]

If train services have any hope of serving Bristol Airport, they need a complete rethink. Remember check-in times are a couple of hours (at best) before departure, so we're talking about arrivals at the airport around 4/5am.

I'm another who can recommend that free drop-off/pick-up south of the airport. It's almost right by the free shuttle bus to the terminal.

That’s absolutely correct, for any form of public transport to be of any use to departing passengers at virtually any airport it needs to be up and running with the ability to start dropping off passengers at the airport by around 3.30am.

It also needs to offer frequent and reliable outbound return transport for the inbound late arriving flights, so again bus and rail services need to offer frequent and reliable departures from the airport up to around 1am. There’s nothing more stressful than not feeling there’s sufficient time to make the early check-in or worrying that the last bus or train has gone if you’re returning on a late-night arrival.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 May 2026 ==

When proposing any future public transport to Bristol Airport it’s worth mentioning that only around 30% of passengers start their journeys to the airport from the Bristol area. The bulk of the departing passengers are drawn from a wide area including Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall, Gloucestershire and South Wales.

With many departing passengers needing to be at the airport by around 3.30 - 4.00 am, none of them could be expected to make their way to the centre of Bristol to connect to a service to the airport unless connecting services can operate from the regions I have mentioned can run through the night.

The way forward has to be major road improvements to the airport allowing for more frequent buses from the busy centres of Bristol, Cardiff and Bath and better car access from the more outlying areas.

 

[AlastairFraser]

There's a proposal to build a 3,000 home development on the western edge of Bristol that is on mostly a golf course at the moment. Looking at its location, I think if this were to go ahead, a new parkway station should be built just to the north (next to Long Ashton), and then this could function as both serving the development and being a P&R for the airport. There's still a bit of a journey to the airport, but buses from it would not have to deal with the hustle and bustle of Bristol City Centre, providing the development has a decent link road through it suitable for buses.

Developers to unveil plans for new town on south edge of Bristol

A 'new North Somerset community' will include three new schools

www.bristolpost.co.uk

If such a station were served by 2tph stopping services and an hourly Paddington-Weston-super-Mare service (that only called here as an intermediate stop), that would serve it sufficiently I think.

Perhaps this with a grade separated junction on the A370 to serve the new development and the parkway station would be wise too.
The Community Infrastructure Levy (formerly Section 106) on a 3,000 home development must be significant enough to build lots of public transport infrastructure, and maybe the developer/Bristol airport could fund a dedicated link road from the station with bus lanes to the airport area.

 

[Envoy]

3000 new homes 0n the SW side of Bristol will just make the roads to the airport even more overloaded / clogged up.