TCAS FAN: Thanks for the informed post. Sheds a lot of light on the limitations. I am not surprised at all that the MD claimed credit. If you read the article posted recently, he was directly quoted as claiming credit for the improvements to the highways and the train station (nothing to do with the airport). I do not want to harp on about the man, but he was apparently in charge of development at the time the master plan came out in 2005, and over 10 years later not a single thread of its content has ever materialised. you would think that the so called author of a master plan then becoming the MD would have resulted in at least some of it coming to fruition? It is a kid in a sweet shop situation is it not? I think what sums it up is that if the man had any ambition arguably he would have moved on to a larger airport by now, and yet he has hung around for over 10 years. As far as I am concerned, regardless of any recession, the airport has not moved on at all since 2005.
destinationsky: My back story is completely irrelevant, the beauty of living in a democracy is that you can have an opinion regardless. I would like nothing more than for SOU to grow and to start serving its affluent catchment like it should. I got my wires crossed and was referring to the VOR rather than the ILS. There was an article some time ago about 02 being served by a GPS system as an ILS would be a retrograde step (yeah right, more like SOU preferring the cheaper option). Of course nothing has materialised since, hence my intrigue as to whether the VOR has been removed with nothing being installed in its place. The car park means that larger aircraft cannot utilise the stands that run parallel with the runway. If they did then their tails would affect the runways operational ability. This is a huge factor, as it means SOU can only really handle 2 large aircraft at once on the stands opposite the royal mail building (another screw up by the airport selling that land to them). I have mentioned the CS100/CS300 previously, as does TCAS FAN. I believe EZY could and should buy a load of these as their cheap tickets and strong focus on being as much about business routes as they are leisure, would be a match made in heaven with the affluent South East. Anyone who has flown out of SOU would choose it over LGW every day of the week if the costs stacked up. I have no grudge, as a local who relies on the airport for both business and leisure I would quite like for it to finally kick on after all this time!
Last edited by Rivet Joint; 5th Jan 2017 at 19:43.