Originally Posted by
Rivet Joint
What is it about facts that antagonise you? Most people know where they stand when it comes to facts but clearly you don’t. Who cares if EZY push every single other operator out of SOU. People will still need to fly and for a fair price. If EZY get a monopoly and start charging too much people will fly from another airport. If the frequency drops and no longer suits again people will choose another option.
Here is one big hard fact for the dense brigade on here, SOU is not viable with the current selection of operators and circa 700k annual passengers. That is from the horses mouth, SOU themselves. So no keeping the current status quo is not an option. There is never going to be another Flybe so the next best thing for SOU is a low cost carrier base. Everything so far suggests that SOU and EZY are working together to get towards that. Again this will no doubt antagonise the odd lot but again is completely factual. I also predicted EZY would move in at SOU a few years ago so think I’m a pretty good judge at these things.
As for the other potential interested party, my bets are Wizz or Volotea. I look forward to collecting my winnings as usual.
Volotea have only just started operating Strasbourg to London Gatwick. This is currently their only scheduled flight to the UK with London Gatwick being their sole point of entry. Having recently obtained slots at London Gatwick I'm sure that Volotea will want to expand from there. Therefore, WHY would Volotea consider resuming scheduled flights from Southampton when their only UK airport is 78 miles or 1.40 hours away.
Obviously we're all aware of Volotea having previously operated from Southampton and their return would be a great addition but realistically I can't see them returning on a scheduled basis. The only way we could possibly see the return of Volotea to Southampton is if they resumed flying on behalf of TUI.
In one way or another, Wizz is retrenching from the UK regions rather than expanding. With their nearest base being at London Gatwick, the same applies to the last part of my previous paragraph.
I'm not denying that Volotea resuming scheduled flights to Southampton wouldn't be a good thing. Although there are many opportunities for Volotea to resume some of the destinations previously operated by Flybe from Southampton. Those possibilities could well include Bordeaux, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse, etc, where the airline has bases.
Easyjet, of course, is a completely different story to anything that I have noted above.
I wouldn't count on collecting your winnings just yet and btw, there were many on this thread in predicting Easyjet would "move in" to Southampton, although most of us never used that term. You should definitely not be taking credit for that. After Easyjet announced Geneva to Southampton in 2016, there was a lot of speculation on here at the time. You were definitely not alone.
So on that account, don't expect to receive too much from your winnings because it would have to be shared out amongst those who also shared the same view a "few years ago."
Also, regarding your previous "rant," You're like my water taps. They run hot and cold.