History of Bristol Airport

Bristol airport started life as a flying club based at Filton, which was later became famous for Concorde. In 1929 local businessman raised £6000 by Public subscription, which at the time was a colossal sum and the club enjoyed immediate success and led to further farmland being purchased at Whitchurch. Bristol airport was officially opened in 1930 by HRH Prince George.

Up until the 2nd World War the airport developed slowly with annual passenger numbers only increasing to 4000 by 1939, which is less than an hour's take offs at Heathrow airport.

During the war the air ministry took over the running of the airport and after the war a question mark hung over the viability of the airport as a commercial operation. The runway could not be extended and passenger numbers were considered insufficient.

The city of Bristol fought a 10-year campaign to have a local airport and finally in 1955 RAF Fairfield was purchased in by Bristol Corporation.

In 1957, the Duchess of Kent the wife of the Prince who had died in the war fittingly opened the airport.

Passenger numbers quickly grew to 33000 and the sixties saw improvements to the terminal, cargo sheds and the runway lengthened.

The package holiday in the late sixties quickly increased numbers but the collapse of Court Line in 1973 had a dramatic effect. The 1970's were a difficult time for the airport and numbers only increased gradually.

In 1984 a new International departure lounge, arrivals area and increased short and long stay car parking, modern check in desks and a refurbished duty free area. A year later £13.5 million was spent on the airfield apron and a new fire station.

In 1987 Bristol Airport plc took over the operation of the airport. Whilst in essence the council still owned the airport, the body responsible had to be a plc.

1988 saw over 100,000 passengers passing through the airport for the month of August.

Brymon airways increased internal UK traffic to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Aberdeen. Sabena also introduced a flight to Brussels.

The early nineties saw the recession take a hold and passenger numbers remained static at just below the 1 million mark.

In 1993, Brymon airways were taken over by British airways and Aer Lingus introduced a flight to New York via Dublin.

In 1998 the council sold 51% to Firstgroup retaining 49%. The council recognised that funding for the airport was outside their scope in terms of cash flow with long term investment required. Firstgroup invested some £32 million on a new terminal building capable of serving 3.5 million passengers a year and the airport was renamed Bristol International airport.

In 2000 the airport terminal was completed and the airport was now seeing passenger numbers climb to over 2 million.

2001 was a pivotal year for Bristol airport with Macquarie and Cintra purchasing the airport for 198 million. Go announced that it would make Bristol its second UK base which straight away had a profound affect on passenger numbers making it the fastest growing airport in the UK for 2002 with an increase of a staggering 44% with 3 million passengers of which Go was 750,000.

which straight away had a profound affect on passenger numbers making it the fastest growing airport in the UK for 2002 with an increase of a staggering 44% with 3 million passengers of which Go was 750,000.

Passenger numbers continued to climb and Easyjet came on board in 2003 with routes to Newcastle, Bilboa, Berlin and Copenhagen.

The government white paper in 2004 estimates that by 2030 the airport will carry over 12 million passengers.

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