The Southampton route will only work if enough people want to travel to that region on business or leisure and are willing to pay Eastern's fares. The notion from the airport spokesman reported uncritically in the northern Echo article that it is a sort of replacement for the Heathrow service is nonsense. Nobody is going to drive to Durham Team Valley, spend the best part of two hours flying via Leeds-Bradford to Southampton and then get the train to London. They will get the train from the north-east in the first place, or, if they want to get to Heathrow, they will fly from Newcastle.