Bristol Airport

Travelling to Malaga and then returning a week later. Arrived at Silver car park checked in and boarded bus all within 10 mins. Arrived at luggage drop of bags checked in with in 5 minutes. Arrived at security and went through without hitch. Had a drink and a snack and boarded the plane easily. I'm so used to walking miles at Bristol but my gate ws 3 minutes at most one of the new ones. Arrived back on time and was at the silver car park within 30 minutes. That's walking to security, security, baggage collection and bus to car park. Bristol Airport exceeded my expectations, well done. All the staff were very friendly and approachable. Why not 10 because I still feel annoyed when I have to pay for short time pick up when collecting or dropping off friends and relatives. Stop that and charging for trolleys and you would be 10.

2 hour flight from Palma and nearly an hour for baggage to arrive at Bristol airport and that is the second time in 3 months. We were told our baggage would be on belt 3, then it change to belt 2. Another flight had arrived and their baggage was on the same belt so about 400 passengers were trying to get baggage from the same belt with 2 unused belts empty. No problem going out taking your money at duty free but a shambles coming back. This must be why they're building accommodation at the airport so you can book a room while you wait for your bags.

I dropped off my son in law and his friend at the express drop off point at Bristol Airport - £1 just to stop the car. Didn't have change so went to change machine near exit to be told it was out of order and had to go to Moneycorp inside terminal to get change. Got back within the 10 minutes allowed and proceeded to exit only to get stuck at the barrier for more than 15 mins trying to get out. Paid my £1 but the barrier would not raise. Called numerous times for assistance with no answer so got the meet and greet guy to call them. They were unhelpful and by then my patience was running out. They didn't care at all clearly they were either away from there duty or just bloody minded and didn't want to answer or help - there attitude to the situation was a disgrace.

Having requested 'passenger assistance' I went (with my wife) to the assistance desk where the woman in charge asked me to wait in a wheelchair. After about 15 minutes and nothing happening we were getting worried about missing last check-in time so the woman (complaining about lack of staff) wheeled me to the check-in and left us. We did check-in/passports and were directed (with 2 hold cases and maximum weight hand baggage) to the baggage drop desk about 100 yds. away - only with the kind assistance of another waiting passenger did we do this. My wife went to complain and a strapping young employee said he would direct us through security to the wheelchair waiting area but was not allowed to push a wheelchair. Only then did things improve with a cheerful older man (complaining about modern youth) pushing me to the 'lift' and on to the aircraft where the Ryanair cabin crew were very helpful - making sure we were settled before allowing other passengers on board and helping with luggage. At Faro, what a difference, crew assisted us to the front door for the 'lift' and wished us a good onward journey. The Faro ground crew were first class, wheeling me through immigration, collecting our cases from the belt and pushing me out to the waiting transport.

Bristol needs to sort out it's departure system. At no time were any announcements made in reference to the delay to our flight - it just appeared on the departure board. The only change from flight delayed sign was when the "Final Call" announcement was called, it still showed flight delayed on the departure board. As a result everybody was rushing to the gate only to find that the plane had not even landed so we waited another 20 minutes for it to arrive. On return 2 days later our Airbus 319 landed, taxied 5 minutes to the far end of the airport past many empty bridges necessitating a bus ride to the terminal. 1 bus arrived to cover passenger numbers needing 2 so we ended up waiting 10 minutes to be collected. Not good.

Bristol is an awful airport. The parking situation is appalling. The complete gouging of customers trying to pick up passengers by charging an extortionate rate for something that should be free. I don't care how they do it, but holding us hostage with parking charges for pick up is awful. The airport is impossible to get to. I come from the south. The A38 is a nest of speed traps and village stop lights. It's a despicable journey, completely inconvenient. Can't we have a bypass to the airport from the M5? I drive an hour and 20 minutes for a journey that should honestly take 45-50 minutes if we had any semblance of a modern nation. Yes, I know it is nice to have fields and cows, but can't we make an accommodation once in a while to the people who live here?

At Bristol Airport there was no loo paper or soap in the ladies toilets on the ground floor departure area - this was around 6.30am at a very busy time. Many women and children inconvenienced - why? Couldn't find any airport staff to report this situation - not acceptable.

Having read many of the other scathing reviews of Bristol Airport, I can only say that I am sorry to see that our experience seems to be a common one. My complaint concerns the arrival back at Bristol. After queueing and being herded through to passport control, which was seriously undermanned, we arrived in the baggage hall. 40 minutes after our arrival, luggage had still not arrived. When we eventually found somebody to ask, we were told that the baggage handlers were just starting to offload the aircraft. Our bags eventually arrived 55 minutes after our arrival. I have never come across a delay like this at any airport, and for this to happen at a small regional airport with the aircraft no more than 200 metres from the baggage hall? It would have been easier to off load the bags ourselves and carry them through. Unfortunately we have already booked another holiday from Bristol for January, but in future we will be taking the longer journey from Devon to Gatwick. This airport has serious need of professional management. If it was a company that relied on customer service for it's survival, it would have disappeared long ago.

We flew out to Turkey from Bristol for a weeks holiday - departure was fine with no problems. On our return the baggage handling really needs looking at. We arrived just after another flight went through passport control - it was very slow but OK. Then into baggage reclaim and waited, the flight before ours was just finishing collecting their bags. From leaving the aircraft to the bags starting to come through was 45 minutes - this really is not good enough.

Departed 18/08/2016. Arrived 05/09/2016. Our experience was really positive. Silver Zone parking arrangements were excellent. Dropped off right outside of departures by courtesy bus. Despite many early morning departures, Easyjet bag drop queue was short and manned by pleasant staff. Breezed through security with no queues. Again, pleasant security staff (I had to go through the body scanner). Plenty of seating post security, loads of places to eat and drink. Toilets clean and plentiful. Short bus ride to remote stand (no air bridges at Bristol that I saw). On return, aircraft on stand just outside terminal building. Very short walk to get inside. 6 out of 7 UK border check points were manned. The ePassport gates at the UK border were also operational but painfully slow (I think that it would have been quicker to join the queue for the manned checkpoints than to queue for the ePassport readers). Bags waiting on carousel after border checks. Courtesy bus waiting outside arrivals for trip back to Silver Zone parking. Picked up keys. On our way. So why haven't I given an overall rating of 10 out of 10? Well, access to the airport if you are travelling to/from the east along the M4 is not good. The satnav took us through Bristol on both occasions which is OK at 03.30 when there's not much other traffic on the road but in the middle of the day Bristol city centre with its heavy traffic and abundant roadworks is not a pleasant experience. I'd happily use Bristol airport again (and look for alternative routes there and back via the M4).