Originally Posted by
rog747
A lot of sense, with the greatest of respect is to have a runway that could even accept Jet2 or Wizz...
They have 737-800 and A321 - both of which cannot, even with a 164m runway tag on operate economically safely or payload unrestricted in or out of SOU.
If you want FR Jet2 or anyone with a 738 or an A321 you need quite a bit more than 164m....and that means likely tunnelling the M27 lol
That is not gonna happen is it now.
With all due respect, are you able to produce valid performance figures to back up those statements? If SOU gets a 164m extension and the tree obstacles on the runway 20 climbing are removed, then my understanding from what I've been told is that economic 738 operations would become possible, particularly with the SFP model.
It's an argument that's often trotted out on this thread as yet another nail in the coffin for SOU (and depending on who's posts you read, there can appear to be many, many nails). What I'd like to see though is for a real pilot (are there any on this section of pprune?) to run the performance figures for a 1887m runway with no significant obstacles and then show their working, along with an indication of how far they could carry a commercially viable load from that runway. That would hopefully put the argument to bed one way or another.