Bristol Airport plans to stretch its wings in ambitious upgrade
Bristol Airport is considering a number of expansion plans, which include adding an extra terminal to the site.
The airport is currently the ninth busiest airport in the UK, and the fifth largest outside London, and it forecasts demand of up to 20 million passengers a year by the 2040s.
The company is looking to carry out a multi-million-pound upgrade to modernise the facility for the next generation of passengers and planes.
It has now asking for members of the public to voice their opinion on different scenarios that include the possibility of a new terminal, more car parks, more hotels and an “employment zone” for businesses.
Approximately 1.2m people travel across the border from Wales to fly from Bristol Airport.
Bristol Airport’s planning and sustainability director, Simon Earles, said: “We are in the heart of a very exciting time for the region as the four councils [Bristol, North Somerset, Bath & North-East Somerset and South Gloucestershire] develop a joint spatial plan and joint transport plan, and we too want to be a part of that development and improvement.
“We estimate that our passenger numbers will continue to increase by 10% a year and we also want to attract some of the 7.5m passengers from the west of England who use airports in the South-East. It is important for us that people understand the future and ambition of the airport, which is why we want to engage the public at this very early stage.”
The plans seem to indicate they are focusing on the short-haul market, which plays well with Cardiff Airport’s plans. Bristol has no proposals to lengthen the existing runway or add a second runway.
“We are primarily a short-haul and European destination airport and the size of the aircraft that use the airport can cope very well on the existing 2,000m runway,” said Mr Earles.
Cardiff Airport, which is whollyowned by the Welsh Government, currently handles around 1.4 million passengers a year. Its chairman Roger Lewis is confident that passengers can reach three million by 2025 — at which stage a new larger terminal building, potentially costing £100m, would be needed.
Design, planning and engineering consultancy Arup has been appointed to draw up a long-term masterplan for the airport, including a new terminal, by next April. Arup will also look at the land around the airport and the wider enterprise zone, that also covers St Athan, for potential aviation-related developments, including freight.
A new daily Qatar Airways service from Cardiff to Doha, which launches next spring, opens up the prospect for increasing freight traffic from the Rhoose-based airport.
Earlier this month First Minister Carwyn Jones said North America is a target for a scheduled long-haul route, but it was a case of where.
He said: “There is talk of New York, but in reality you need to fly to a hub airport. Doha is a hub and you can fly on to India or China, but New York doesn’t have a hub... Bristol had a daily service to New York and it didn’t work for them. I think you need to fly to an airport where there are options to fly to somewhere else too.”