Bristol Airport is considering bringing back long-haul flights to destinations in the Middle East and the US after 14 long years away.
The airport’s last permanent long-haul route was a daily service to New York (JFK) provided by Continental Airlines, which ended in April 2010 after the global financial crisis.
Now, as part of its master plan for 2040, the airport is aiming to increase its annual passenger allowance by enhancing its facilities and offering a more diverse range of flight options.
While TUI has operated long-haul routes from Bristol Airport to destinations including Cancun and Orlando since 2017, the airline removed its long-haul operations for the summers of 2024 and 2025.
It currently relies on connections via European hubs, like Amsterdam, Dublin, and Frankfurt to reach more far-flung destinations.
The airport’s proposals include a larger terminal building, improved onsite facilities, including retail and catering, a new hotel, a bigger runway for long-haul aircraft, more parking and improved transport capacity on the A38.
Around 10 million passengers use Bristol Airport every year, with the airport currently capped at 12 million passengers. It hopes to expand its service to 15 million passengers by around 2036.
The increase in passengers will see aircraft movements rise from 85,990 to 100,000 a year in the longer term, which would result in 35 extra aircraft movements on a particularly busy day.
While night flying restrictions would remain, the airport is proposing to increase night flights by 1,000 – an average of four per night on a busy night in peak period.
The future development is forecast to support more than 37,000 jobs in the South West and South Wales, including an additional 1,000 jobs at the airport.
A planning application is set to be lodged with North Somerset Council next year.
Chief executive Dave Lees said: ‘We constantly look at trends in air travel and we’ve been pleasantly surprised that people want to continue to travel by air.
‘We’ve seen since the pandemic a real resurgence in terms of people wanting to connect with friends and family across Europe and the world and that will inform our plans as we go forward over the coming years.
‘The masterplan will look at what further development might be required to meet this growing demand for air travel and we’d welcome input from people to help shape our plans.’
More than £400 million is currently being invested in improving customer experience and reducing the airport’s carbon emissions.
Mr Lees added: ‘We recognise there will be concerns about carbon emissions resulting from Airport growth and the implications for climate change.
‘So we are bringing forward proposals for what we consider to be responsible growth, growth that is both within the current UK carbon budgets required to meet net zero for all emissions by 2050, and with measures to achieve net zero airport operations by 2030.
‘Meanwhile, we are also committed to working with partners in our region on aviation decarbonisation.’
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