Southampton 2
Have been reading posts on SOU for many months and at last have overcome the challenges of becoming a poster. I was an aircraft spotter at Sou back in the 1960s and subsequently became a commercially qualified flyer and spent nearly 40 years flying big jets and a few smaller turboprop s with a well known outfit.
Always an advocate of development at SOU , I have witnessed growth from 10 departures per day to over 50. As a professional pilot who has also been involved in flight operations in a management role I have to say that there has been a lot of absolute nonsense posted about our airport both with regard to the way the airport is run and the way in which aircraft are operated.
As an example, I flew to Skiathos and back in October. The payload limitations imposed are not just SOU runway limitations but Skiathos. The runway there is shorter than SOU!
I witnessed Thomas Cook Airbus 321s departing Skiathos to fly to the Greek mainland to refuel! These companies take these restrictions into account when pricing their products! When it comes to operating hours, our biggest international airport LHR, also has similar restrictions regarding night curfews. It has not stunted growth there!
Run out of time just now. More comments to come.