When the FR EDI/BOH was 2x daily operated by EDI machines the flights were busy from the BOH end (eg BOH-EDI AM was busy and EDI-BOH PM was busy) does this mean people from BOH want to go to EDI but people from EDI don't want to go to BOH? I travelled on the early EDI-BOH and late BOH-EDI quite a few times and sometimes there were only 14 people on board, 6 of these being crew and flight deck. The return flight in the evening was busier than this but I never saw it over 70 pax.
I can remember sitting one morning in EDI waiting for the BOH to be called and the early SOU was called before us and there was 60 pax got on the Q400 and only 18 got on the 738. Is it that BE have the right machines for the sector? Supply and demand etc? Or does everyone just want to go to SOU rather than BOH? Does the railway station on the doorstep really make the difference at SOU for onward connections?
The original timings of the EDI-BOH flights were good in the morning but crap in the evening. 20:25 out of EDI meant a post 23:15 arrival back in to EDI. No attraction for the business traveller with those times. Even for leisure travellers it was not appealling. When it went 1x per day the timings were even worse. either very late or very early flights that meant lost days at each end.
I think FRs biggest issue is the 738. It is just too big for internal routes. BE have an advantage in that they can run 4, 4 or 6 x daily and offer a good spread of flights. Yes, they are much more expensive but in general business travellers need the flexibility.
SOU is also much better situated for business traffic having a catchement area of Southampton, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Winchester, Basingstoke and as far north as Newbury. There is simply not the same business catchment for BOH.
And yes, the railway does make a big difference. 40 minutes to central Bouremouth, 10 minutes to Winchester, 25 to Basingstoke.