Originally Posted by
autoland12feet
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!
The A321 has particularly poor take off performance, especially with obstacles. Departing JSI, if you are nearly full of passengers, you are unlikely to get back to the UK without a refuelling stop. However, going the other way from the UK to JSI, although there is normally a scheduled performance landing mass limit at JSI, you are normally able to get there from the UK. Although I haven't flown from SOU for nearly 30 years, I suspect that the outbound payload limitations ARE a function of SOU RTOM limits.