SOUTHAMPTON

[davidjohnson6]

Perhaps ILD for Lleida in the Pyrenees for skiers ?

[adfly]

Yes, that's the one! Corrected in the other post now.

[darren1]

With the biggest Embraers and sun routes going and BE focus on BHX, what does the future hold for SOU?

[adfly]

Flybe have extended SOU-ALC/AGP/FAO so they will now all run until the 2nd November rather than the 30th Sept/1st Oct. Still no word on whether any of the 'med routes' will be operated by anyone next summer (aside from Thomson's weekly PMI).

[MARKEYD]

I would imagine they have extened the season to Nov to cover for the school half term which is always popular for Med flights
Ryanair have also done the same at Bournemouth by extending there seasonal flights to Nov 5

Very strange though there are still no flights on sale past Jan 3 with Flybe to any destination , they really must be missing out on advance sales considering all the other UK bases are on sale for the winter

[Phileas Fogg]

Flybe have extended FAO so will now run until the 2nd November rather than the 30th Sept/1st Oct. Still no word on whether any of the 'med routes' will be operated by anyone next summer (aside from Thomson's weekly PMI).

I would imagine they have extened the season to Nov to cover for the school half term which is always popular for Med flights

By "med" may I presume y'all mean the Mediterranean Sea? ... Has Faro moved since I last checked?

[adfly]

'med or Mediterranean' is commonly used to describe southern European coastal destinations such as the ones that I have mentioned, even if it is not always 100% geographically accurate (Faro is hardly far from it anyway) so there really isn't a need to be so pedantic as I'm sure 99% of the people who read the post know what I am talking about when I say 'med destinations'. If I was saying somewhere like Madeira was in the Mediterranean then I'd be inclined to agree with you.

[hampshireandy]

SOU is the only airport where no Flybe flights are on sale for next year. Im still putting money on them relocating to BOH after christmas.

[MARKEYD]

Really cant see that hapening , i think Flybe are holding out with Southampton for better landing deals etc

Bournemouth does not have enough car parking space , arrivals hall would be to small , ramp area only has 12 stands i think , no executive lounge and probably check in area rather to small

[Flitefone]

All or nothing

Mark, the suggestion that Flybe may relocate from SOU. is not without merit, but for many reasons, not least the points you raise, it will not be an all or nothing decision. For instance the Channel Islands routes rely on the link with the train and Fast access to London. SOU has a unique selling proposition here.

However the domestic trunk routes from SOU particularly Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh mostly serve the local market, not those passengers looking for an alternate route to London.

I still think that there is a reasonable prospect that
Flybe will relocate or replicate some of their services that would benefit benefit from being further away from their real competition at LHR and LGW, most likely the domestic trunk routes, as well as Dublin, Amsterdam and Nice. The other Flybe routes attract too much attention from EZY and RYR, clearly there is enough demand at SOU and BOH for the sun routes to operate from both.

Competition for the French Regional Airports is less obvious, it's easy to see these continuing to work well at SOU.

Overall, this is exactly how Exeter operates in relatively close proximity to Bristol.

Time will tell!

FF

[Siggyboy]

SOU/BOH Flybe

Flitefone..do you really think that is a possibility??? As very close to BOH would be very beneficial to me..I can see and understand all the reasons they would not move lock stock and barrel to BOH, but your suggestions are certainly plausible.. BOH's domestic routes have always been done half heartedly with poor timings and lack of frequency so were never going to attract much traffic ( As per Air Lingus now with Dublin). Interesting times..

[Wycombe]

One could maybe forsee a scenario where Flybe expand their domestic and European business-centric routes from SOU, to make up for the loss of the longer sun/leisure routes.

[TCAS FAN]

Wycombe

Any ideas where in Europe, other than past failures? With the underpowered 175s and consequent payload restrictions Scandinavia is out, as is the Baltics. No Spain, regional France covered, Channel Islands saturated, few holidaying in Durham Tees Valley, so where?

[Wycombe]

With an improving economy, I would suggest that some of those destinations tried and withdrawn in the past might be worth another go - the likes of FRA, ZRH, BRU, DUS spring to mind. These should all be close enough for the 175's, or do-able in the Dash with only slightly longer sector times. I am assuming, of course, that suitable slots would be available and that the cost of accessing these airports makes services viable.

It's hard to see what else BEE are going to do at SOU with the 195's gone and no meaningful runway extension possible.

[LTNman]

SOU is the only airport where no Flybe flights are on sale for next year. Im still putting money on them relocating to BOH after christmas.

I think pigs will fly first. Southampton has great public transport links while Bournemouth has none worth talking about. How are inbound passengers without cars to pick them up meant to get anywhere.

[davidjohnson6]

Perhaps MAG could arrange a significant increase in frequency of the bus service between Bournemouth airport and the train station ? Would that make things a little more interesting ?

[LTNman]

Think it was actually cut back this year, anyway it is not a great journey from Bournemouth railway station to the airport with the bus full of shoppers that have been picked up on the way.

[pottwiddler]

To answer a few inaccuracies.
The bus was with one company but is now a Yellow bus and is a direct route to the train station/town centre, gone is the route around the hotels. I'm sure that if there's more demand then capacity will increase. (business agility)

The departures terminal is bigger than Southampton's and was designed to handle up to 3million pax. Not sure about the arrivals. As for a business lounge, I'm sure something can be built within the existing facility.

Car Parking could be difficult though, but I'm sure BOH have plans to create more.

But I can't see it happenning, I'm inclined to think along the same lines Markeyd in that Flybe are holding out for a better deal with Southampton. And I doubt they would be happy to lose their (only) customer.

[TCAS FAN]

Wycombe

"It's hard to see what else BEE are going to do at SOU with the 195's gone and no meaningful runway extension possible"

I second the sentiment, however an extension is possible at the north end but needs land acquisition plus obstacle removal/reduction, and resolution of tree problems at the south end (which I indicated to my then lords and masters in 2000) to have any significant impact on take-off weight increases.

Is there any interest by the airport owners, who by all accounts are trying to off load SOU and other airports in the group?

[Phileas Fogg]

SOU has a 5,653ft runway, it's primary destinations are the CI, both ACI and GCI have lesser length runways so nothing achieved by extending the runway at the SOU end and not t'other end of the route(s), JER has a slightly longer runway but one can operate B737's SOU to JER (I know because we did it) so nothing achieved in extending the runway for JER operations, Eastern Airways hardly need longer than the existing SOU runway and that leaves FlyBE who have various sizes and types of equipment whilst they chop and change their routes, so all they need to do is allocate the appropriate equipment to the appropriate SOU route and everybody lives happily ever after!