Originally Posted by
AVBH
TUI already have S24 on sale. Two base aircraft, an increase in current schedule & 1 new route. It was rumoured earlier on Pprune that Ryanair were increasing their base aircraft to 3. Not sure how legitimate this may be.
SOU & BOH are very different places. SOU is nowhere near as superior to BOH as some people make it out to be. It has better transport links & a nice bar before security. That’s about it. SOU is a major transport hub for domestic flights, business & leisure. IMO, I think it’s unlikely SOU will ever compete directly with BOH. With current infrastructure, I believe SOU could perhaps manage some additional extra international routes. Certainly not enough to warrant TUI, Ryanair or EasyJet to create a hub. I believe BOH will continue to tick over commercially not exceeding 1.2M but not dipping below 750K passengers.
All personal assumptions of course.
Yes, I think as most would agree a single airport on the south coast would probably really thrive and perhaps have a throughput similar to LBA, but since that's not a likely or welcome scenario I think it's important to embrace BOU & SOU's different roles and markets. BOU is always going to struggle with catchment and while SOU theoretically has a larger catchment, it is 30 miles closer to LHR and LGW than BOH is.