Bristol: Passenger Reviews, Q&A, and Travel Advice

[kraktoa]

Hi everyone,
Apologies if this question has already been asked. Does anyone know what the options are for connecting flights at Bristol? I know that no airline offers protected transfers, but I would consider connecting to another easyjet flight at my own risk (hand luggage only).
Can transfer passengers remain airside or would you have to go through security all over again?
Thanks

There is no airside flight connections or transfer at Bristol. You have to go landside and check in again.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

kraktoa.

I don't know if you were at BRS when Air Southwest operated. If you were you would know that one DH-8-300 would come from Newquay and one from Plymouth in the morning. One would go on to Manchester and the other to Leeds-Bradford. I can't now remember which ones went where but I think the NQY went to MAN and the PLH to LBA.

Anyway, the two aircraft would park side by side so that anyone from PLH wanting to go to MAN could switch aircraft and vice versa. This then happened three more times during the day as the two aircraft flew two complete return journeys.

I always assumed that passengers transferring would literally walk from one aircraft to the other and any bags would be transferred with them. I suppose that problems occurred when one of the aircraft was running significantly late.

Do you know if my assumption was correct or did the passengers have to go landside to transfer? If so they must have done it pretty sharpish because the timetable never gave the aircraft that much time on the ground at BRS.

 

[tpm]

Is that true even if you only have hand luggage? Aren't there "Connections" signs when you arrive? Not that I ever checked where they led to, but I assumed they'd take you back into the terminal building airside.

 

[kraktoa]

Hi everyone,
Apologies if this question has already been asked. Does anyone know what the options are for connecting flights at Bristol? I know that no airline offers protected transfers, but I would consider connecting to another easyjet flight at my own risk (hand luggage only).
Can transfer passengers remain airside or would you have to go through security all over again?
Thanks

There is no airside flight connections or transfer at Bristol. You have to go landside and check in again.

kraktoa.

I don't know if you were at BRS when Air Southwest operated. If you were you would know that one DH-8-300 would come from Newquay and one from Plymouth in the morning. One would go on to Manchester and the other to Leeds-Bradford. I can't now remember which ones went where but I think the NQY went to MAN and the PLH to LBA.

Anyway, the two aircraft would park side by side so that anyone from PLH wanting to go to MAN could switch aircraft and vice versa. This then happened three more times during the day as the two aircraft flew two complete return journeys.

I always assumed that passengers transferring would literally walk from one aircraft to the other and any bags would be transferred with them. I suppose that problems occurred when one of the aircraft was running significantly late.

Do you know if my assumption was correct or did the passengers have to go landside to transfer? If so they must have done it pretty sharpish because the timetable never gave the aircraft that much time on the ground at BRS.

I have been here since 2004. Recall airsouthwest but dont remember this arrangement. Would be highly iregular now.

 

[ljm104]

Thanks for the replies.

I guess the volume of connecting traffic is so vanishingly small at BRS that it's not often an issue.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

You wouldn't necessarily have a 'connection' through BRS. You would have 2 separate flights which you have created and timed well. There's no connection facility. You would need to clear the baggage hall and go back through security. EDI is a good example however as you arrive and go into the departure lounge, so it is possible to stay airside at some airports. You wouldn't be able to do this if arriving from outside of the UK due to security checks needing to be of UK standard and immigration checks. Hence European 'transit' flights always having to clear customs and go back through security.

 

[Aviador]

I believe you have KLM as an option from BRS with their extensive Skyteam network. If you were to use EasyJet, in most cases you would need to exit through the baggage reclaim and re-clear security. If you are taking checked luggage you would need to re-check-in as your baggage tags will only be tagged for the first part of your journey.

Hope that helps.

 

[superking]

we did that at ams. straight off the brs aircraft and straight on to the Memphis aircraft. no going through security or customs. they changed bags over for us as well.the brs was klm and Memphis was northwest.

 

[kraktoa]

It is possible arrange this in the future. All they need is a flight connection centre that needs to be manned by the respective airlines or their handling agents. They will direct the passenger to the departures door after verifying onward ticketing. Next issue is for the arrivals passenger wishng to transit into the departures area having a place to do it. Ie a link from arrivals to departures. This is indeed possible. The overflow arrivals hall, the small one, has a door leading into the departures hall. This area has been considered as a possible future flight connection centre and access to departures.

 

[BRSregular]

Flew in to BRS today from DBV. It took me less than 10 minutes from plane to car. Absolutely brilliant.

 

[Severn]

Came back from FAO last week and the new border gates/extended arrivals area is as impressive as it is efficient!
The 10 new passport e-gates plus many manual border control booths easily handled the 5 or so simultaneous arrivals. There were still some unfinished areas by the looks of it, however from what I could see whilst walking through the new arrivals extension there are now plenty of baggage belts (with some larger ones for the 787 flights I assume).
From there you walk through the customs declaration area and past the "last minute" duty free area before heading into the landside arrivals area which is now much bigger and more welcoming. It also features a WH Smith, 24hr M&S, and Caffè Ritazza. There are also plenty of screens showing the BRS arrivals plus others showing times for the onward connections (the many busses and trains from Bristol Temple Meads).
Really impressed, and similar to BRSregular said it was no more than a few minutes from arriving in the terminal (bussed from the western apron) to getting on the silver zone bus.

 

[CraigW92]

After a quite hectic first part of the month, I returned from Lisbon on Friday after a lovely few days away for the third year running using both Bristol and Easyjet.

Departure

Finding a parking spot was very simple and quick in the long stay car park, A brief 2-3min walk to the terminal and I was at security, I have to be honest I was very impressed with the new area, Lots of staff operating the security lanes, very polite and also very efficient, can't have taken more than 2 minutes to have queued and arrived at the duty free walk through, I arrived a fair bit of time before the EZY6253 departure of 14:05 so I decided to have a walk around, Very spacious seating areas with plenty of eating and shops available to kill off some time, I quite enjoyed sitting on the rooftop terrace and taking in some of the departing and arriving flights.

After a while Gate 28 was displayed on the board so I made my way to the boarding area, Speedy boarders first and of course then the rest of the passengers, A bit of delay getting away due to an air traffic control restriction, Flight eventually took off at 14:37, very pleasant flight and great friendly crew, Arrived a little late into Lisbon at 16:48


Returning on Friday: Lisbon airport T2 is quite frankly very poor, far too small for all the low cost flights departing, considering my departure was at 10:00 from LIS, the departure lounge was completely hectic, Flight took off at 10:30, 30 mins late and landed at BRS at 12:34, Fantastic crew again, very happy bunch and couldn't do enough for you, Will certainly contact Easyjet to pass on my thanks, Aircraft arrived onto stand 6 and shortly arrived inside the terminal building, On arrival we were held up in a corridor shortly before the staircase arriving into passport control, This apparently was due to the amount of passengers passing through and would be allowed through depending on flight arrival times, after a wait for about 30 minutes we were then allowed to proceed to border control in which the queue was about 10 or so minutes to get though, quick enough use of E-gates and I was then back in the car at 13:30 and back on the road to Cardiff.

Overall yet again very impressive, Easyjet have fast become my low cost travel option due to constantly good service and flexibility of flight options which are superb, Certainly improved again from my visit last year and along with the polite staff and a pleasant terminal to go through made for a great experience.

From a trip point of view indeed it was my 3rd visit to Lisbon and I can't recommend the place enough, lots of things to explore and see and if anyone is thinking of visiting and wants any tips or anything don't hesitate to get into contact 🙂

21 June -EZY6253 G-EZDZ A319 - Full
23 June- EZY6254 G-EZTK A320 - Full

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[TheLocalYokel]

Many thanks for that report Craig and great pictures.

We visited Lisbon several years ago and also found it a delightful place. We got around on local trains and trams and used the airport bus to Lisbon centre and a local bus back to the airport for the experience. It stopped near, not at, the airport but I like to 'go native' when I can on these city visits (my wife is not so keen and can get a bit anxious) and the locals, who were intrigued to see us on the local bus (I think they thought we'd got on the wrong bus by mistake), could not have been more helpful and almost vied with themselves to put us off at the correct stop.

It certainly does bear a return visit and, who knows, we might just do that although Porto is our next Portuguese destination we think.

 

[Jerry]

That brings back memories! Lisbon was our last port of call before Southampton on my med cruise a couple of years ago. Lovely little city with polite people though it wasn't as sunny as that! I do remember standing on the deck in the morning as the ship sailed under that bridge in the photo with not much clearance for it's mast. Would be one of the places i'd go back to. Glad you enjoyed your trip and great photos.

 

[tpm]

On arrival we were held up in a corridor shortly before the staircase arriving into passport control, This apparently was due to the amount of passengers passing through and would be allowed through depending on flight arrival times, after a wait for about 30 minutes we were then allowed to proceed to border control in which the queue was about 10 or so minutes to get though, quick enough use of E-gates and I was then back in the car at 13:30 and back on the road to Cardiff.

Surprised to hear this is still happening even after the refurbishment of the passport control area, I had hope that was only temporary! Surely doesn't bode well going forward, here's hoping it will be limited to peak times in summer..

 

[superking]

Nice to hear you had a good time and the flkight and airport was good as both these can make or break a time away.I know they have issues at te airport with inbound pax but lets hope they try to sort that problem out. It was good to see youre praise about the airport as normally you only see bad comments which people seem to thrive on more so than good comments.

 

[aviatorconcorde]

I’ve shared some on the Cardiff thread so would like to share some videos from trips through Bristol on this thread if possible. I’ll also have a bmi regional flight into Bristol to share eventually!

Bristol - Geneva - Bristol

Bristol - Glasgow

Glasgow - Bristol

 

[aviatorconcorde]

Another one from me this today.

 

[Jerry]

My sister is using Bristol Airport for the first time in a very long time today. She was originally going to fly from to Madrid from Luton but was forced to change things around due to dog minding problems. So she choose to drive down from Leeds to Bristol meeting my parents on the way to drop off the dog. She was surprised at where Bristol was in it's location as i think she didn't expect it to south of the city as much as it is. She used the Silverzone parking i believe and was impressed at how easy it was to use and that there was a shuttle bus ready and waiting to take her to the terminal. Security was quick and quiet but she was surprised at how busy the terminal was inside and said that the airport was a good size but not huge with good amentities and that she was impressed. All in all she was quite positive about Bristol.

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[Severn]

Arrived into BRS this afternoon and as usual had an excellent excellent experience.
Aircraft landed at xx:00,
Aircraft pulled onto Stand 2 at xx:02 and disembarking started at xx:05
Straight through security (which given the amount of arriving flights was excellent),
bags arrived just after passing through security which was at xx:15, and although my suitcase wasn't the first out,
I was out of the terminal by xx:20 after landing!

Certainly beat arriving into LHR T5C last week.