Good post.
Although not liking your title.
BOH is very seasonal, with little or no demand in the winter months making it a tough place to be based year-round.
Winter specific routes like Geneva, Canaries, that seem successful are catering to strong latent demand that already exists. They are few and far between from BOH.
One of the major issues is the catchment area. The airport estimates it at between 2.5m and 5m. But we estimate it much lower, depending on the route/awareness/frequency/fare offering. Problem with BOH is that awareness of the airport is low - meaning people are stressed if they think they have to worry about how to get to an airport they never heard of. In reality BOH's catchment is unfortunately quite small and caters to the very immediate needs of Bmth,Xchurch,Poole of around 400,000 people.
This is why the low cost formula is the only formula for BOH. It is the only way they can 'punch above their weight' and attract the volume of people that is required to support a route.
Last edited by ryanair1; 22nd Jun 2011 at 06:20.