A devastating blow for SOU, but I believe the airport will bounce back. It’s worth remembering that the financial problems lay with Flybe, not with most of the routes from Southampton. The ‘core routes’ to Manchester, Edinburgh’ Glasgow, Ireland and the Channel Islands are all exceptionally well-used and profitable, and AMS and CDG perform well too.
There will obviously be a disastrous short-term down-turn with the suspension of these services, but in the medium term these core routes will either return with a similar frequency with a mix of other regional carriers, Aer Lingus Regional, Eastern, Loganair, Blue Islands, Aurigny, KLM, or with easyJet ‘cherry picking’ a few domestic routes offering a couple of services a day. And yes, an A319/A320 can operate on these short routes perfectly well.
The demand is clearly there’ and the market will respond in the appropriate way.