Adfly: I do not wish to be insulting but are you slow in the head? Try this for a plausible explanation, SOU's main client opening a base at a neighbouring airport because they quite fancied some cheaper fees at MAN. Does that help you at all? Essentially, every single customer That used BE at BOH would have used SOU. I make that a net loss of 11,179 and it's only going to get worse.
One of these airports is going to lose out eventually unless BE are stupid enough to run them side by side until they both marginalise one another.
If I was the owner of SOU (whoever they are) I would be arranging for those new stands to the north east of the runway to be created ASAP. Then I would be calling the orange lot and making them a deal they couldn't refuse. Of course SOU's new owners are some hedge fund who are just looking to park some money. Not even so much as a new bar of soap in the toilets should be expected. I shouldn't care and just fly from Gatwick but it's a crying shame how much potential SOU has. Being the cruise capital of Northern Europe alone is enough to appeal to any airline.