US connecting flights proving popular at Bristol Airport

Bristol Airport has announced that its passengers are making use of Continental Airlines flights to New York as a way of accessing connecting services to destinations in the USA.

The airport revealed that the top five final destinations for business travellers in 2008 were Houston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Cleveland.

Orlando was the most popular onward destination with leisure passengers travelling from Bristol Airport, followed by Las Vegas, Boston, San Francisco and Tampa.

Shaun Browne, Bristol Airport's aviation director, said that the Continental Airlines service to New York represented a major boost in accessibility to the Americas for UK travellers.

"Continental's service doesn't just make New York accessible, it puts destinations across North and South America within reach of south-west passengers, without the hassle of flying from airports outside the region," he commented.

The Continental flight, which celebrated its third anniversary in May last year, has carried more than 250,000 people across the Atlantic since its launch.

Around 50 per cent of travellers boarding at Bristol Airport have had a final destination beyond New York and have made use of Continental's extensive network throughout the US, Canada and Latin America.

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