Southampton-2

[SotonFlightpath]

I can’t help thinking that it’s unlikely that SOU will develop in the way many of the posters on this forum would like. It will develop, and new destinations will be established, but I have always thought that Southampton is in many ways fundamentally different from many other regional airports.

There are several reasons for this: SOU’s proximity to London, together its excellent transport links and affluent catchment area means that the airport has already developed quite differently to most regional airports. Most of the local catchment area are quite happy to travel to LHR for most long-distance travel, and to LGW for leisure flights.

Southampton’s forte is regular short-haul domestic and near-continent flights, primarily for business users, but also with some short-break weekends, and visiting friends and family etc. SOU is far more comparable to London City than any other regional airport, and indeed it attracts a not inconsiderable amount of business from the SW home-counties and Western end of the Thames Valley, as well as locally.

I really wish BA City Flyer would consider SOU for some of their growing number of off-peak leisure flights as their brand profile is a good fit for the largely affluent local market, and, they have exactly the right equipment!

I also think that BMI regional could potentially have a go at a few more business/city break routes, eg. Frankfurt, Milan and possibly Brussels or Copenhagen.

There will always be leisure-oriented carriers such as Volotea, EasyJet etc having a punt at the discount holiday markets from Southampton, but SOUs unique strength is the fabulous and frequent connections it already has to useful destinations for the local market.