Originally Posted by
Rivet Joint
Who operated the Zurich route? Cannot remember that one.
It is very strange as you say. The Munich one is more odd for me. BM aren't exactly blessed with a good route network, and the SOU route was clearly growing (23% this year). Düsseldorf would undoubtedly be a loss as well, but flymaybe are getting rid of a load of Q400s without any replacements. The continental routes are going to be the first to go, Lyon looked to have performed well but is being dropped also. Ezy are definitely the perfect fit for SOU and hopefully the new MD will give them anything they want. Here's an interesting question, what would SOU look like now if Stobart had bought from BAA?
British Airways operated SOU to ZURICH six weekly flights with EMB145, the timings weren't perfect for business as they left SOU mid afternoon.
British Airways had a fairly decent network from Southampton at one point during the 1990's and early 2000's and operated to the following destinations Belfast City, Brussels, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Guernsey, Isle of Man (former Manx Airways route), Leeds, Manchester, Paris, Zurich.
In the mid to late 1980's British Airways operated a short lived Edinburgh-Manchester-Birmingham-Southampton route with a HS748.
Prior to April 1980 British Airways operated twice daily to Jersey with Viscount 800, prior to 1976 British also operated a daily service to Paris LBG with Viscount 800 (former Cambrian route).
If British Airways Cityflyer had spare aircraft available which they currently don't have as all of the LCY aircraft are busy during the summer they would also be an excellent fit at SOU along with Easyjet.
The management have to seriously look at alternative airlines to take up the slack at SOU otherwise this downward trend will only continue and at a time when the airport had finally reached the two million passenger mark for the first time.
With regards to Stobart, I'm also curious of what could have happened if they had bought SOU rather than SEN and the similar investment that could have been made at the airport.