And yet SOU has been experiencing strong growth over the last year or so. Especially over the last few months. Unlike the various dud airports, that rub along with their aldi airlines, BE must be getting theatall important yield at SOU. I fly with them regularly and tickets are always fairly expensive. The French routes are not really about leisure, more the 2nd home market. The south of England is the most affluent so you get the idea why these routes seem to have worked year round.
I have mentioned previously on the BE thread that the new management's attitude towards the cornerstones of their business is quite astounding. Without SOU, BHX and EXT there would be no BE and I suspect if you took them out of their route network today BE wouldn't last a year. Yet some bright spark is obviously flogging the idea that making deals with desperate airports (that are deserted for a reason) and flogging dirt cheap seats is the winning formula. Sure this works for the big boys with their scale and larger aircraft but with BE and their regional sized equipment? It's all starting to sound very familiar, BMI Baby anyone?