Archive for February, 2008

I use Bristol Airport. EasyJet fly from there to Malaga for not much cash, which fits in perfectly with my needs. Higher Sites has an office near Malaga, and I live within 40 minutes of Bristol. It seems that huge amounts of money is being spent by Bristol Airport on extending their terminal, which is great, but it’s not really for the benefit of customers. The motivation for the expansion is so that the airport can make more money from the additional airlines and routes that the expansion will bring. They don’t seem to be investing in their infrastructure, and I have a few complaints.

1. They bus you from the terminal to the aircraft. This isn’t so bad in itself, but the drivers seem to take a perverse pleasure in squeezing people into the standing room only buses like cattle to the slaughter. There never seems to be any sense of urgency on the part of the drivers who are quite happy to leave customers waiting for long periods in what quickly becomes a sauna type environment. On one occasion my pregnant wife and I, along with our baby, were left on a packed bus for almost half an hour. A total disgrace.
2. This same lack of urgency comes to getting people off the aircraft too. We always seem to be left waiting for long periods of time while the buses and steps arrive. More than once I have heard announcements from the Captain blaming Bristol Airport for the delays and indicating that this happens on a regular basis.
3. Last night I got back from Malaga and had to stand in an immigration queue that stretched all the way to the terminal doors (of course we had already had an excessive wait to get off the plane and another long wait in a hot bus). When we finally got through immigration we found that the baggage had been taken off the carousel and lobbed into a corner of the claim room in a big heap.
4. A couple of months ago I went to collect a colleague from Bristol Airport, and parked my car in the usual car park. I didn’t have cash, so I just stuck my debit card in the machine on the way in and the way out. My colleague’s flight was delayed (not the Airport’s fault this time), so I had to park for about 3 hours. There was no seating in the terminal for me to wait at, so I sat on the floor. When I left the car park, the machine did not give me a receipt, so I didn’t know how much I’d been charged until I got my bank statement. More than £30…! For 3 hours’ car parking. Thieves!

Bristol Airport - what a joke! Anyone else endured similar experiences in the name of cheap travel?