RW20
Not sure why you're making points directly to me (maybe hoping to influence?), but as you have my thoughts are as follows....
- I don't think any of us know the exact timescales for the runway extension, but (assuming legal obstacles are overcome) I agree it seems unlikely it will be done in 2022
- I'm not sure where you see "rapid recovery and increasing route structure" at BOH and EXT? Looking at today's schedules as an example, SOU has 24 inbound and outbound scheduled airline movements. BOH has 3 and EXT has 5. I can't see that changing much through the Winter (there will be some ski flights at SOU and BOH, as we know, but nothing very much different to pre-Covid times, apart from BA doing some of what Flybe did (eg, CMF, SZG) at SOU.
- Yes, 2 of the 3 EZY routes that ran from BOH during the Summer did ok, but they are seasonal, and as people switch back to more foreign travel next year, may not do so well.
- SOU is mainly about high-frequency "business oriented" schedules on its key routes (eg, today there are 4 LOG rotations to both EDI and GLA), and will always be a better choice than BOH for these, due to the latter's location and inferior connectivity. Frequency to AMS (and others) will no doubt increase as demand dictates. Who do you think would operate an AMS route from BOH?
- Agree it would be great to see CFE do more from SOU, but the reality is that their honey-pot is LCY (which seems to be recovering quite well) and I'm sure they will have all their fleet back there as soon as it's commercially advantageous to do so.
As has been said many times, SOU and BOH are different animals, and have their own niches. I can't see this changing much. Even with the runway extension, SOU is not optimised for anything other than fairly small-scale low-cost ops. BOH has the space and runway to be so, but it's location doesn't work in it's favour.