SOUTHAMPTON

[Rivet Joint]

Oh dear, has all got very silly on here. See the usual trolls have crept out from under their stones .

Lets take a stock,

Southampton:

The cruise capital of northern Europe with 4 cruise terminals and therefore thousands embarking/disembarking daily (indeed recently 30,000 people in one day). Also head office of many of the cruise companies and base for staff transfer (upwards of 800 per ship).

One of the biggest oil refineries in England.

The second biggest container port in the country and the biggest exporter of vehicles in the whole of UK.

2 universities with one of them being in the top 10 of the whole country and being a national leader in various high end fields. Indeed thousands of Asian students come year round.

The best art collection outside London.

The home of the biggest boat show in the UK.

Massively multicultural population.

History wise the airport and city are closely associated with the Spitfire and of course Southampton is where the Titanic set sail from so big draws for tourists.

Also has a royal naval base and many army and RAF bases close by.

Home of a premiership football team with the biggest stadium on the south coast which will also be one of the venues for the 2018 rugby world cup.

The airport has a modern upmarket terminal with a security fast track probably only bettered by LCY and of course is bordered by the main motorway to London and has the closest plane to train distance in the UK.

Also outside the big London airports and Manchester it has the highest number of passengers on nearly all its domestic routes than any other UK airport (200,000 yearly alone on the Edinburgh route – I make that pretty much a ¼ of Bournemouth’s total yearly volume!)

Now Bournemouth.........................

It has a beach?

Lets all await the trolls to nitpick but at the end of the day it’s a one sided argument so lets just stick to our own boards. Surely you have better things to be doing. The routes were cut because they are taking a gamble on EMA which is such a great airport that its main airline is being closed down. Case closed.