easyJet celebrates 80 million passenger milestone at Bristol Airport

• The milestone comes following the arrival of the airline’s 19^th Bristol-based aircraft in June
• easyJet started operations at Bristol Airport 24 years ago, flying its first customers from the city in May 2001 and opened its base at the airport in August 2002

easyJet, Bristol’s largest airline, has celebrated carrying over 80 million passengers to and from Bristol Airport.

To mark the occasion, easyJet surprised two lucky travellers from Cardiff, Kate Sibbald and Alex Coomber, who were flying from Bristol to Geneva, with a pair of return flights to anywhere on easyJet’s network.

The airline launched operations at Bristol Airport in May 2001, flying its first customers from Bristol to Faro, Majorca and Nice.

Twenty-four years later, the addition of a new Airbus A320neo aircraft demonstrates the continuing strong demand from customers in the South West, enabling the airline to offer even greater connections to Europe and beyond.

New routes to Palermo and Almeria started in June and the airline also recently announced four new winter routes that are now on sale to Munich, Vienna, Zurich and Verona.

This means easyJet will connect customers in the South West across 85 routes throughout the UK, Europe and North Africa.

Mike Kane, Aviation Minister, said:

“It’s fantastic to see leading British airline easyJet reach this incredible milestone which means travel opportunities for passengers are continuing to grow at Bristol airport.

“The continued investment from easyJet and the airport in the South West is expanding trade and tourism in the region, boosting economic growth, and supporting jobs across the UK.”

Kevin Doyle, easyJet’s UK Country Manager, said:

“We are thrilled to celebrate carrying over 80 million passengers since we started flying to and from Bristol Airport in 2001. And the recent addition to our aircraft fleet supports many skilled jobs and connectivity and is a clear demonstration of our continued commitment to serving customers in the South West as well as supporting inbound travel for tourism.

“Through our unrivalled short-haul network and unique easyJet holidays offering, we continue to provide more choice and value for money, always aiming to make travel easy for the millions of customers we fly to and from Bristol each year”

Dave Lees, Bristol Airport CEO, said: 

“We are delighted to celebrate this incredible milestone of 80 million easyJet passengers travelling through Bristol Airport. It’s a fantastic achievement and a testament to the long-standing partnership we’ve built with easyJet over more than two decades. We’re proud to be one of easyJet’s biggest European bases with 19 aircraft based here, employing thousands of local people.

“Together we’ve offered customers a wide choice of destinations while continuing to welcome their quieter and more efficient Airbus aircraft, which contain many components designed right here in the West of England. We look forward to continuing to grow our network, deliver even more fantastic holidays, and enable millions more easyJet passengers in the years to come, to fly from their local airport.

“We would also like to thank all the dedicated teams at easyJet and Bristol Airport who make these journeys possible every day.”