But seriously why have all those destinations failed?
Southampton has a large and on the a whole wealthy catchment area that should surely support those destinations along with Madrid.
Those destinations are flown from many regional airports so why such a failure from Southampton, I put it down to the schedules that the quoted routes operated and they inevitably suffered because of it.
If another airline came to SOU an airline which was a household name maybe I am sure that the likes of BCN, MAD, MXP, NCE could work along with VCE.
These are the sort of destinations that we should be seeing from Southampton, it can't be the fact that no one in the airports catchment area don't fly to any of them and those travel to either LGW or LHR would surely use SOU if those destinations with well timed schedules were offered from SOU.
I know I would use such flights because the likes of Bergerac or Limoges lose their appeal once you have visited them at least once.
I hate having to drive past Southampton Airport on my way to LHR to fly to BCN something that I do approximately 6 times a year and I had such high hopes for Vueling when they started SOU to BCN a few years ago and was sad to see them leave.
I wonder if Vueling would ever attempt a return to SOU as they weren't under the ownership of IAG when they did operate from SOU and management may take a different view.
Flybe flew from SOU to NCE for years, why did it abruptly stop when so many other regional flights to France have been successful!
Maybe an Iberia flight from Madrid operated by Air Nostrum during the peak summer could work especially when you hear and see so many Spaniards in our region working, living, inbound Tourism, exchange students, etc.
The route network has so much potential from Southampton and the incumbents are not exploiting that opportunity that's why the airport desperately needs to attract new business from alternative airlines.