Flying home through Bristol Airport from outside the UK, you can bring in up to 42 litres of beer, 18 litres of still wine, 200 cigarettes, and other goods worth up to £390 without paying UK tax or duty. Go over any of these personal allowances and you pay tax and duty on the whole category, not just the amount above the limit. Checked September 2026.
How much alcohol you can bring back through Bristol Airport
The alcohol allowance depends on the type of drink, and you can mix and match within limits. You can bring in both a wine allowance and a beer allowance in full, plus either the "other drinks" allowance or the spirits allowance (or a split of the two).
| Category | Allowance |
|---|---|
| Beer | 42 litres |
| Still wine | 18 litres |
| Other alcoholic drinks up to 22% (sparkling wine, fortified wine, cider) | 9 litres |
| Spirits and other liquors over 22% | 4 litres |
You can split the last two categories between them. For example, 2 litres of spirits and 4.5 litres of fortified wine uses exactly half of each allowance. If you bring back 19 litres of wine, HMRC's rule is that you pay duty and tax on all 19 litres, not just the one litre over the 18 litre limit.
What changed for cider and sparkling wine in 2026
From September 2026, under the Travellers' Allowances (Amendment) Order 2026, HMRC simplified how these categories work. Cider now sits in the same 42-litre category as beer, rather than sharing the smaller 9-litre "other drinks" allowance, and sparkling wine has moved into the 18-litre wine category alongside still wine. In practice this means travellers bringing back cider or sparkling wine through Bristol Airport can now carry more of it duty-free than under the older rules, since the overall beer and wine allowance limits themselves have not changed.
Tobacco allowance
You can bring in one of the following (or a proportional split across more than one):
- 200 cigarettes
- 100 cigarillos
- 50 cigars
- 250g of tobacco
- 200 sticks for electronic heated tobacco devices
As with alcohol, splitting works proportionally. Bringing 100 cigarettes and 25 cigars uses half of each allowance. There is no personal allowance for tobacco or alcohol at all if you are under 17, though you can still bring some for your own use as long as you declare it. If you are stocking up airside before you fly, see the guide to Bristol Airport's duty-free shop for what is actually on sale.
Other goods: the £390 limit
Beyond alcohol and tobacco, you can bring in other goods, gifts and souvenirs worth up to £390 in total without paying tax or duty. That drops to £270 if you are arriving by private plane or boat rather than a scheduled flight, which covers most but not all traffic through Bristol. If the total value of your goods goes over the limit, you pay tax and duty on the full value, not just the amount above £390, and you may also owe import VAT at the current UK rate.
Does this apply if you are only flying within the UK or from the EU
The personal allowance rules apply whenever you arrive in Great Britain (England, Scotland or Wales) from outside the UK, which since Brexit includes flights from EU countries as well as long-haul destinations. If your Bristol Airport trip is a domestic UK-only round trip, these allowances simply do not come into play, since you are not crossing the UK border. Anyone flying back into Bristol from Spain, France, Ireland or further afield is covered by the same rules described here, and does not need a UK ETA as a British or Irish citizen, though other nationalities may need one to travel in the first place.
How to declare if you go over your allowance
Once you have your passport and travel documents ready for Bristol Airport arrivals, Bristol Airport, like other UK airports, uses the standard green and red channel system (or the "nothing to declare" and "goods to declare" routes at the exit from baggage reclaim). If you are within your allowances, you can walk through the green channel. If you are over on anything, alcohol, tobacco or other goods, you need to use the red channel and declare it, which you can also do online in advance of arriving. Goods can be seized, and you may be fined or prosecuted, if you break the declaration rules, so it is worth checking your totals before you land, especially after a multi-stop trip where duty-free purchases can add up.
You can declare goods online from up to 5 days (120 hours) before you are due to arrive in the UK, which can save time at the airport if you already know you are over on something. HMRC also treats goods bought duty-free in an EU country slightly differently for customs duty, though the tax and duty rules on your personal allowance itself work the same way regardless of where in the world you bought the goods.
What counts towards the £390 "other goods" limit
The other goods allowance covers items such as electronics, clothing, jewellery and souvenirs bought abroad, whether from a duty-free shop airside or an ordinary high-street shop at your destination. It does not include your personal belongings that you took with you and are simply bringing home, only things you acquired on the trip. Keep receipts where practical, since a Border Force officer can ask you to show evidence of value if your bags suggest you may be close to or over the limit.
This is separate from carrying large amounts of cash, which has its own £10,000 declaration threshold; see the guide to bringing cash through Bristol Airport if that applies to your trip. If you also plan to check current security liquid limits or your passport requirements before flying, those are covered separately.
The takeaway
The core numbers to remember flying into Bristol Airport are 42 litres of beer, 18 litres of wine, 200 cigarettes, and £390 of other goods, with cider and sparkling wine now folded into the larger beer and wine categories as of the September 2026 rule change. These are personal allowances per traveller, and they cannot be pooled with a partner or family member even if you are travelling together, though a family group can combine allowances for cash declarations under the separate cash rules. When in doubt about a specific purchase, the safest approach is to declare it.