Facilities worse than Third World

“Bristol Airport has its faults - which airport doesn't? I regularly travel through Dubai Airport, a very large airport and an ultra-modern one superficially, yet it's a hell-hole. Permanently clogged with people - like coming out of Wembley Stadium after the FA Cup Final - very poor signage, queues everywhere and probably ten times larger than Bristol in area which makes it a nightmare to negotiate especially for the inexperienced traveller.

I've used most of the UK's regional airports in recent years and in my experience Bristol is easily one of the better ones. The odd thing is - perhaps it's not so odd bearing in mind human nature - that a perusal of airport passenger experience websites invariably throws up the sort of criticism from locals about their own regional airport that the letter writer has visited on Bristol Airport.

I use Bristol quite often and find it a decent experience - no airport can be described as pleasurable unless a person is an aviation nut - and I certainly don't recognise much of the criticism in the letter, but it will always be subjective.

There is an escalator leading from the ground floor, so I don't know how the letter writer missed that, and I understand that a new pier with air bridges is to be built though I suspect that the likes of easyJet and Ryanair won't be using it regularly as apparently the budget airlines don't like air bridges as they tend to slow down the quick turn-arounds that their schedules often demand.

As for the long walk to the western end of the airport, it is necessary to ascend or descend some steps but they are hardly onerous and the covered walkway was built under general permitted development which did not allow the usual sorts of facilities. Now that's been superseded by the major planning application approval I read somewhere that the airport will be upgrading the facilities in that walkway, though my wife and I rather enjoy the walk from the aircraft after being stuck in an aircraft seat for an hour or two, and we are not in our first flush of youth either.

Airport food at most airports is bland and expensive at most places and show me an airport that doesn't have slow security queues at busy times. Bristol is no worse than many in those respects and better than many others, again in my experience.

But as I said earlier, it's all subjective. Some people tend to moan and whinge much more than others about all sorts of things in life. Someone once wrote in a passenger experience report that they wouldn't use Birmingham ever again simply because it had no drinking water fountain.”