Terrible loads in the winter?! Bournemouth has some of the flatest seasonal fluctuations of any airport in the UK. It's monthly pax are around 75,000 in the winter and around 100,000 per month in the summer (growing at 12-20% year on year); or about 1.2m total this financial year. Yields are strong in BOH - the wealth in the area is above average - annual income and property prices can back that up. That would explain why there are 6 low cost airlines at BOH and all the big holiday companies. Yet at airports like Norwich, Exeter, Blackpool, Teesside/Durham Tees, Humberside, Coventry and Newquay (all comparable to BOH) there are only one or two 'big' low cost airlines. Plus you check out the seasonality levels at those airports - it's shocking. Bournemouth has a 'pull' in the summer and people in the locality like to escape in the winter - it's like the perfect destination for year-round traffic, with a real mix of leisure, VFR, business (about 15-20% despite the low frequency levels compared to SOU), students, tourists, in-bound visitors etc. Tourist industry professionals working here travel in the winter and in-bound tourists flood in during the summer. PERFECT!
I wasn't referring to winter loads from Bournemouth in general but winter loads on FR flights from Bournemouth. Taking the CAA stats for January for example. Shannon had a loadfactor of 27%, Madrid was 37%, Pisa was 46%, Girona was 47%, Prestwick was 51% and Dublin was 57%. Out of 6 routes only 2 had loads of more than 50% and neither were much above 50%. I don't know what you would perceive as poor loads but I definitely would consider these loads to be pretty bad. However as far as Ryanair goes you can never say never. Its impossible to predict what they'll do next.