Originally Posted by
Rivet Joint
Sorry but you are not talking sense. You only have to look at the discrepancies between the arrivals and departure boards on any given day to see that the majority of arrivals (even the ones that arrive early) are departing late. Of course this could be down to a number of reasons but SOU prides itself on its car to plane time duration, and from personal experience I could not find fault with that. It stands to reason that the lack of any real taxiways is a huge handicap with planes effectively having to sit on stands whilst the runway becomes free. If it was not an important cog in an efficient airport why do all airports have them? Apart from LCY, which other airport in the whole of the UK have backtracking of the runway? Even if this point could be argued, your point is flawed in that a well run business plans for the future, it does not wait until it is crippled before putting its hand in its pocket. The low cost operators would be turned off long before that.
Even SEN have just spent several millions on completely upgrading it's three taxiways in addition to a resurfaced and extended apron area. The three taxiways have greatly reduced the need for runway backtracking, presumably Stobart consider this investment to be future proofing the airport.