Rivet Joint: cheers for your reply. I live 10 miles from SOU, use it twice a month and have done since 2002. You need to look at the original purchase criteria that BAA applied to SOU during purchase and redevelopment. If you think or feel that it was the 'runt' of BAA, you are ill informed and the basis for any argument otherwise is flawed. TCAS FAN-care to enlighten him with the details.
All I will say is that SOU delivered everything and more that was asked if it in BAA ownership. As for investment, they pumped £32m in to a land locked site to prove its capability and it did just that, shaking off its debt and becoming cash positive in just 8 years. Show me another uk regional airport that has done that. And please don't say Bournemouth!