Bristol Airport
commercial airport serving the city of Bristol, England
Bristol Airport (IATA: BRS, ICAO: EGGD) is an international airport serving the city of Bristol, England, and the surrounding area. Located at Lulsgate Bottom, on the northern slopes of the Mendip Hills, in North Somerset, it is 8 miles (13 kilometres) southwest of Bristol city centre. Built on the site of a former RAF airfield, it opened in 1957 as Bristol (Lulsgate) Airport, replacing Bristol (Whitchurch) Airport as Bristol's municipal airport. From 1997 to 2010, it was known as Bristol International Airport. In 1997, a majority shareholding in the airport was sold to FirstGroup, and then in 2001 the airport was sold to a joint venture of Macquarie Bank and others. In September 2014, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan bought out Macquarie to become the sole owner. In November 2025, Macquarie Asset Management purchased 55% of the shares, with the remainder held by Australia's New South Wales Treasury Corporation ("TCorp"), the Australian Retirement Trust (“ART”) and StepStone
In 2019, it was ranked the eighth busiest airport in the United Kingdom, handling over 8.9 million passengers, a 3% increase compared with 2018. In 2025, while maintaining its eighth position, it served 10.83 million passengers, accounting for 3.6% of all UK airport passengers.
A passenger survey carried out in 2015 found that 32.5% of journeys using the airport started or ended in the city of Bristol, 9.6% in Gloucestershire, 24.5% in Somerset, 16.9% in Devon and 8.2% in Wiltshire.
Airlines with operating bases at the airport include easyJet and Ryanair.
The public source identifies “Bristol Airport” as commercial airport serving the city of Bristol, England. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bristol, Airport and commercial.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Bristol Airport”, the useful work is to connect “commercial airport serving the city of Bristol, England” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8725. VIAF identifies the subject as 125753477. The Library of Congress control number is nb2010006850. Authority coordinates are 51.383, -2.719. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 1997, 2010 and 2001.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bristol Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bristol Airport primary sources, Bristol Airport archive and Bristol research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bristol Airport”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bristol Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.