Originally Posted by
stewyb
SOU don’t care which airline operates what route, if the deal is right for them they will welcome whomever with open arms, fact!
Simply not true. Do you think the runway extension which has been many years in the making was for BEs benefit? They clearly want to attract one of the big low cost airlines which would be completely game changing for the airport and the local area. Having a BE base makes it a harder sell for SOU.
Of course SOU are not going to turn away business and can’t do much even if they wanted to but the routes hinted at above are all routes already served by other airlines and would clearly indicate BEs intentions to come into SOU and push all other competition out and have a monopoly again. There are still a fair routes left unserved like CDG, MAN etc. Whilst the incumbent carriers aren’t the best, outside KLM, this is not healthy for any airport. I’d like to think BE, EZY and KLM could all operate at SOU together. BE for regional routes, EZY to Europe and KLM to offer the world connections. I suspect they would all want to fly to AMS though so not going to happen.