Special assistance at Bristol Airport is free, and the key step is booking it through your airline at least 48 hours before you travel, not through the airport itself. Around 15,000 passengers with reduced mobility use Bristol Airport every month, and the airport's assistance provider, ABM, will meet you at a dedicated desk once you arrive.
How to book special assistance at Bristol Airport
Special assistance has to be arranged with your airline, or through your travel agent if you booked that way, rather than directly with Bristol Airport. Under the rules that cover assistance for passengers with reduced mobility across the UK and EU, your airline is responsible for arranging help both before your flight and while you are on board, while the airport arranges help for the time you spend inside the terminal.
Contact your airline as soon as you book, or at least 48 hours before you fly. If you request assistance later than this, or on the day of travel, Bristol Airport warns that you may face delays getting the help you need, since staff and equipment are scheduled in advance based on booked requests.
If you plan to travel with your own wheelchair or mobility scooter, tell your airline this when you book, including details of the equipment and how to isolate its power if it is battery powered, since this affects how it is handled at check-in and loaded onto the aircraft.
The PRM Assist app
As well as booking through your airline, you can pre-book assistance specifically for your time at Bristol Airport using the PRM Assist mobile app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. This booking is passed to ABM, the airport's on-site assistance provider, and is a useful backup alongside the assistance you arrange with your airline, though it does not replace the airline booking, which remains the primary route.
What happens when you arrive at the airport
Once you are in the terminal, head to the Passenger Assistance desk, located opposite check-in desk 32. This should be staffed by ABM throughout opening hours; if nobody is there when you arrive, there will be a phone number displayed for you to call. A member of the team can help with check-in and bag drop if you need it.
At security, there is a dedicated assistance lane, Lane 1, staffed by team members trained to support customers with additional needs. If you checked in at the Passenger Assistance desk, an ABM team member will accompany you through this process.
Bristol Airport also has a Changing Places facility in the Arrivals concourse, offering more space and equipment than a standard accessible toilet for passengers who need it, and a Sensory Room in the departure lounge, an interactive space designed for travellers who benefit from a quieter, low-stimulation environment before their flight.
Parking and drop-off for Blue Badge holders
If you hold a Blue Badge, dedicated accessible parking bays are clearly signposted in Bristol Airport's car parks, positioned either close to the terminal or next to the reception building in Silver Zone. All of the airport's shuttle buses are fitted with wheelchair ramps and are certified to carry one wheelchair, with a ramp request button on the outside of each bus.
For a short stop, Blue Badge holders get a reduced rate of £8.50 for up to 40 minutes in the Drop Off & Pick Up car park, simply by scanning the barcode on the reverse of the badge at the exit barrier. This reduced rate also applies to family or friends dropping off or collecting a Blue Badge holder, even if the badge holder is taking the badge away with them on their trip. A help point at the Drop Off & Pick Up car park entrance lets the Assisted Travel team know you have arrived, and help buttons on the exit barriers are staffed 24 hours a day if you run into any issue leaving the car park.
Help points and further information
Help and call points are located both inside and outside the terminal building for anyone who needs to communicate their arrival or request assistance without having pre-booked. Bristol Airport publishes a full PRM Service Standards document, prepared to meet EC Regulation 1107/2006 on the rights of disabled persons travelling by air, which sets out the level of service you can expect at every stage of your journey, from check-in through to reaching your seat and, on the way home, from your seat back to baggage reclaim.
Bristol Airport also publishes AccessAble access guides covering the physical layout of the terminal in detail, useful if you want to plan your route through the airport before you travel, and its own performance data on how well it is meeting its assistance standards.
Planning ahead
The single most useful thing you can do is book early. Bristol Airport is explicit that late or on-the-day requests risk delays, simply because extra staff and equipment need to be scheduled in. If your travel dates change after you have booked assistance, update your airline as soon as possible so the airport has accurate numbers for the day you actually travel.