Bristol Airport Fiasco - What a Shambles!

So there we were, all 25 of us exhausted after the busy Xmas and New Years slog, all booked for a company weekend away to the fabulous and glamourous Italian city of Rimini. We sell a lot of hen and stag weekends there and know a lot of the hotels, clubs and bars having met them over the years (since 2002 when we started the company over there)

Loads of build up to the weekend and we had even supplanted our customary xmas gifts to each other in lieu of this weekend away together. Our itinerary was a heady mix of luxury style hotel (the uber stylish DuoMo), clubbing (Pascia) and a bit of work to make it all a bit worthwhile.

But bungling Bristol airport had other ideas. As I dodged the large pile of weekend bags and suitcases blocking our reception area, I was told that EasyJet had cancelled all morning flights to and from Bristol Airport.

As Bristol Airport is only about 15 mins from the office I drove up there to witness plenty of chaos. The information desk was just fielding enquiry after enquiry, "we dont know, ask EasyJet, they aren't telling us. Our airport is safe, CAA says so" or words to that effect. Then I bumped into a BBC journalist who told me recently 3 planes had skidded badly on the runway and EasyJet's pilots were refusing to land there.

Then as the morning progressed (no-one could do any work at all) it transpired that all flights had been cancelled for the day - then the whole weekend. Much amusement as Bristol Airport became the lead item on first the local, then regional then national news bulletins.

We know EasyJet pretty well as we are their group travel partners. They take safety as their highest priority. After some frustration with them, this eased when they held up their hands said sorry and gave our money back. So I don't really have much of a beef with them

However Bristol Airport - WAKEY WAKEY! You know you are already having local PR issues as you want to double in size and cut large access motorways across rolling somerset fields to help your expansion. I live in one of the neighbouring villages suffering from airport traffic and noise but being in travel business am broadly supportive of a well connected regional airport. However this was a terrible terrible error. You might say your airport is safe, and CAA gives you a bill of health, but how could you get into a situation where your air carriers refuse to land with you!

I would love to be a fly on the wall at the next meeting between Andrew Skipp and the Australian owners of Bristol International Airport!! I wonder if there will actually be more than one of those!!

Anyhow we are already booking our replacement trip away together, but guess what, it won't be via Bristol Airport!!

Happy New Year!!

Urgh! We're all a little jaded from our New Years Eve parties. I got to bed about 4am, but the after-party party was still going strong in the lobby bar of Londons Riverside Park Plaza Hotel.
It was really brilliant to be able to just pop outside to watch £1m of fireworks courtesy of the Mayor of London! Then pop back in and carry on partying.

In the end, more than 1000 people came to our 2 parties. An amazing turnout from everyone, it's so nice to see everyone all dressed up and having such a great time. Thanks to all who have sent us congratulations and such positive feedback.

From my point of view it was a great night, although its always difficult to relax and enjoy things when so much has gone in to the organisation. I did eventually enjoy it all, but there was a bit of a bar crush as everyone arrived at the same time (even though we warned the hotel about how much Brilliant Weekends' customers can drink!) so that was a negative but just a view across the dancefloor from 11pm till 2am it was easy to see that it didnt impact eveyones fun too much!

We should have some photos of the night available soon, so we will e-mail all who came about that. For those of you who didnt make it, check out the pics and hope we will see you among them all next year!

Keep an eye out at www.brilliantweekends.co.uk/newyearseve/ or http://www.new-years-eve.co.uk

thanks!

Richard