Bristol Airport is often seen as the gateway for great adventures, but at Christmas time around 110,000 customers will arrive back home at Bristol Airport to re-unite with family and friends.
With flights arriving from Dublin, this means family and friends travelling in from Ireland, USA and Canada can spend Christmas together. And with flights also scheduled from Amsterdam, it enables people travelling from Europe, USA, Asia and even further afield to fly into Bristol and enjoy this festive season together.
The airport’s busiest period for arrivals is expected to be between Friday, December 20 and Monday, December 23 with flights landing from Lisbon, Barcelona, Krakow, Berlin, Prague, Paris, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast. With a peak of 15,000 customers arriving on the Monday in time for Christmas celebrations. 
Richard Thomasson, Head of Customer Operations at Bristol Airport, said: “People often think of Bristol Airport as the place holidays begin, but at Christmas time especially, we see huge numbers of customers flying into Bristol Airport to spend precious time with family and friends.
“It’s much more convenient for passengers to arrive here rather than into other UK Airports and travel back to the South West. We look forward to welcoming them home and wish all our customers a wonderful Christmas.”
This Christmas and New Year Bristol Airport is anticipating its busiest festive period ever between Monday, December 16 and Sunday, January 5, with around 450,000 customers passing through Bristol Airport. Last year during the same period the airport welcomed 430,000 passengers.
Not only will Bristol Airport reunite thousands of families and friends, but it also enables many people seeking winter sun, ski holidays and festive adventures to get away. The top destinations for winter sun are Tenerife, Alicante, Malaga, Lanzarote and Faro. The ski season officially kicked off this weekend (Saturday 14 December) with flights to France, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Bulgaria.
Festive trips for all the family to Ivalo, Kittila, Enontekio and Rovaniemi in Finland and Pajala in Sweden are underway, with Finland proving to be the most popular country to visit this Christmas time.
This Christmas will be first time we have the new easyJet flights to Tromso (Norway) and Istanbul (Turkey) operating. And additional flights have been scheduled in response to demand to destinations such as Bucharest (Romania), Budapest (Hungary), Krakow and Poznan (Poland), Kaunas (Lithuania) and Tenerife.
During the busy Christmas holiday period, passengers are advised to allow enough time for car parking and transiting to the terminal, so they arrive at check in, a minimum of two hours prior to scheduled departure time. If travelling with presents, customers are asked to keep them unwrapped and check with the airline if wanting to take Christmas crackers away, as many airlines refuse to carry crackers on board the aircraft.
Bristol Airport recommends anyone collecting or dropping off family and friends to use the car park for waiting, near the Silver Zone. It is free for the first hour and a courtesy bus runs from outside the terminal every 15 minutes, between 6am and midnight and on demand overnight, dropping off and collecting. Customers should visit the car parking section of the website for maps and directions.
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