Time to refocus?
As I have mentioned several times on this forum, SOU is very different to most other regional airports - as I have previously expressed, it's more of a 'local London City', catering very well for those wishing to connect to the near continent and around the British Isles. Sure, there have been a few knocks to this traffic too recently, the demise of BMI Regional and the route to Munich, the closure of the Flybe/Connect service to Dusseldorf, and the withdrawal of KLM.
But the demand for these short hop regional connections has been positively reinforced by the recent significant increase in frequency of services to AMS, CDG, EDI and MAN, demonstrating just how popular these services continue to be.
I'm a firm supporter and user of SOU, and live only five miles from the airport in a rural area under one of the flightpaths. It is noticeable that my neighbours are very accepting of the turboprops and small regional jets, but always comment and object to the occasional visits of A320s and 737s, so even I have to concede that there is likely to be a good deal of resistance to the runway expansion plans.
Maybe we have reached the point where SOU needs to re-focus even more on very short-haul regional connectivity targeted very much at the business community and the well-healed city break market using small aircraft (like LCY) and leave the bucket and spade market to more suitable alternatives like BOH.
Very few other small regionals have such a dense and frequent domestic service as Southampton. I feel whatever happens, with such a thriving and vibrant business community in a very affluent area, one way or another SOU will continue to be successful at what it does best.