Ok I'll bite.
There is no reason to fly to dorset. It has a beach, thats the only thing it has over Southampton.
Not 'a beach' but some of the nicest beaches in the country not only at Bournemouth but also Sandbanks and Studland to name just a few.
It also has the 'Jurassic Coast' - a world heritage site and is closer to the New Forest National Park than Eastleigh.
Southampton has the M3 and and a direct train service on its door step to the rest of the country not to mention numerous businesses and industries located near by.
Ok, so the links to BOH are not quite as good as those at Southampton but I really don't understand all the complaints. It is only about 1.5 miles to the A338 and a dual-carriageway link all the way to the M27 via the A31. It is exactly 1 mile from Southampton Airport onto the M27 so not exactly much difference! Also Bristol is doing very nicely with inferior transport links than BOH.
Doesn't Bournemouth/Christchurch/Poole also have numerous businesses and industries? It certainly has numerous language schools.
I do not agree that there is 'no reason to fly to Dorset'. In my opinion, the marketing department for BOH are not doing enough to attract inbound visitors. When I used the Ryanair Prestwick flights in the past there were numerous Scottish families travelling South for their holidays but sadly just not enough to maintain a service on a B738.
The area has a large population of wealthy and retired people looking for flights to destinations other than the usual bucket and spade type holidays, with a better quality service than that offered by Ryanair (I have nothing against Ryanair having used them many times from BOH, with little problem, but I appreciate they do not suit all tastes). I am amazed that Palmair have not managed to develop and grow their market but instead will lose many of their previously loyal customers by cutting winter flights. They seemed ideally placed to benefit from the Ryanair pull-out by putting on extra flights but obviously the volcanic-ash saga has hit them very badly and they cannot afford to take any risks.
The new terminal etc is hugely impressive but personally I think its as much a white elephent as the milenium dome was.
But the white elephant that was the Millennium Dome has become the very successful O2 Arena. Hopefully the new terminal will become just as successful in the future.
LT