Bristol Airport is facing online criticism after unveiling a new multi faith facility some are dubbing as “bus shelter.”
The airport faced ridicule after posting images of a grey four-walled structure located off the Silver Zone roundabouts, one mile from the terminal.
The airport said it was intended to provide “customers with a private space to reflect and pray whilst waiting to collect friends, family or loved ones.”
They added that it was introduced after they "experienced an increase in customers requiring a multi-faith area in this location."
The structure, which many on social media likened to a “bus shelter” and a "smoking area," has an illustration of someone kneeling in prayer to indicate that it is a multi-faith room.
This week, we have opened a new multi-faith area in the free waiting zone.
— Bristol Airport (@BristolAirport) November 23, 2023
Located just off the Silver Zone roundabout, the new area provides customers with a private space to reflect and pray whilst waiting to collect friends, family or loved ones. pic.twitter.com/tgIusF1tIJ
The post attracted 12 million views and several thousand commenters mocking the airport’s attempt, with one person asking “is this a parody account” and others sarcastically comparing it to iconic religious architectures around the world like the Hagia Sophia in Turkey and Sagrada Família in Barcelona.
One person commented that religion has created some of the most “awe inspiring architecture” throughout history and “it’s lovely to see Bristol Airport continuing that legacy.”
The prayer space was described as "awful and insulting to people of faith" by Father Mark Elliot Smith, a Catholic priest and rector of Warwick Street in London.
Create Streets, a London-based master-planning and design company wrote: “We are still reeling at how soul-sapping my bad this is. Faith, hope, divinity, beauty all reduced to a bus shelter. And a bad bus shelter at that.”
The director of public affairs at the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Daniel Sugarman, wrote: “In a way, this tweet has indeed been a multi-faith experience in that it has brought people of all faiths together to note how very strange this is.”
Responding to the criticism, Bristol Airport said: “The new multi-faith area was created after we consulted widely, listened to feedback and to provide shelter and dignity prior to the winter.”
They also noted that the airport has another multi-faith area in the Departure Lounge, between the Central Walkway and Gates 32-34 that passengers can use.
