Bristol airport is urging travellers to be prepared as it gears up for the busy August bank holiday after admitting to facing “challenges” this summer.
‘Surge teams’ have been deployed at peak periods and non-operational staff called in when needed in addition to a recruitment drive.
The busiest days this month will be August 25 and 26 when an estimated 32,000 passengers a day will fly in and out of the airport before the long weekend.
More than 900,000 passengers are expected to use the west country airport this month with the top destinations being Palma, Alicante and Dublin.
Ahead of the bank holiday rush, the airport advised passengers to “prepare and plan ahead” by checking-in online, arriving two hours before flight departure and also to check bags in the night before when flying with Jet2, Tui and EasyJet.
Chief operating officer Graeme Gamble said: “We have already seen a strong increase in passenger numbers over the past few months and we are rapidly approaching pre-pandemic passenger levels.
“With Bristol airport seeing the fastest recovery of any UK airport, the strong demand for travel demonstrates the continued customer confidence in travelling abroad.
“Whilst the airport has seen some challenges over the past few months, the Bristol airport team and business partners have been working hard to ensure customers have as smooth and easy a journey through our terminal as possible.
“This includes recruiting hundreds of people and we have held a series of jobs fairs.”
He added that “non-operational colleagues” have been drafted in to work shifts to support frontline teams.
“We’ve put in place surge teams so that additional resource can be deployed where it’s needed at short notice. We also work very closely with our airlines to ensure all our business partners are up to date with the latest schedules.
“We continue to advise all customers to arrive at check-in at least a minimum of two hours prior to their scheduled departure time and to be prepared before arriving at security.”