Bristol Airport is celebrating the success of its efforts to get more passengers and staff to use its bus links – with the number soaring past 100,000 in a month for the first time.
Last month nearly 110,000 people travelled on the A1 Airport Flyer, which links the airport with Bristol city centre and Temple Meads railway station, along with the A3 Weston Flyer, which serves with Weston-super-Mare and other communities. The total is up by a fifth compared to the same time last year.
A record 20,000-plus Bristol Airport staff journeys were also made last month. The airport introduced free travel on the two Flyer routes, both operated by First West of England, just under two years as part of its efforts to reduce employee car journeys and cut emissions.
Bristol Airport transport development manager Ed Condon described the figures as fantastic.
“We’re committed to growing the number of people accessing the airport by public transport, whether passengers or staff,” he said.
“These latest figures are hugely encouraging, but we’ve got even higher ambitions and will continue to look for opportunities to improve services across the region we serve.”
The A1 Airport Flyer operates around the clock, running every 12 minutes during peak times.
The A3 Weston Flyer connects the airport with Weston-super-Mare and Worle railway stations, providing convenient onward links to passengers living further into the South West, along with Congresbury and Cleeve.
Worle railway station also sits on the National Cycle Network 33, giving users more sustainable transport options.
Last year Bristol was named among the most sustainable airports in the world at the Airport Honour Awards, run by International Airport Review, in recognition of its ambitious plan to achieve net zero on its operations by 2030 – a target partly based on encouraging better use of public transport to and from the site.
Airport bosses expect the number of passengers taking public transport to increase further when its new £60m public transport interchange and improved internal road system, currently under development, opens next summer.
The interchange, which will be on the top level of a new multi-storey car park, will increase the number of bus/coach bays at the airport from six to 16 – making it one of the region’s largest public transport hubs.
The car park and interchange scheme is the biggest development on the airport site since the current terminal opened in 2000, when annual passenger numbers were just 2m.
Two months ago the airport hit the 10m passengers-a-year mark for the first time in its history.
The work forms part of the airport’s overall multi million-pound transformational development plan to increase capacity to 12m passengers a year.
Photo by First West of England
