SOUTHAMPTON

[stewyb]

I don't think we will ever see any investment airfield side, this includes stands. Its ridiculous that we are about to start another summer season with Volotea operating an A319 potentially twice weekly and it will have to overlap 2 stands. An airport that should hit 2m passengers this year still has no accommodation for this size of plane, just bonkers!!

[davidjohnson6]

How many times per week does Southampton see an aircraft capable of holding 150+ passengers ?

[LGS6753]

...or perhaps more to the point, how many times per week would Southampton see an aircraft capable of holding 150+ passengers if they had better ability to handle it?

[stewyb]

Agreed although don't you still think it a little crazy that the airport doe's not have facilities when they do turn up? If they want to keep Volotea and maybe expand with them, the 319 will become the only alternative very soon!

[RW20]

LGS6753
So if Easyjet wanted to take over Flybe operations there is very little facitity for them!
Also Southend apron extension is for future development,they don't have the routes and movements that Southampton has at the moment,but are looking forward ,enough said!

[Rivet Joint]

RW20: Hit the nail on the head. BOH invested 50mil in new facilities with no real services to justify the investment. The difference? BOH is owned by an airport company. SEN is owned by a transport company. SOU? Owned by a pension fund. A nice steady profit is all that they care about. Its a shame MAG or Stobart didn't come in for SOU when it was up for sale. Much more going for it than BOH or SEN.

[Buster the Bear]

Pension funds take on investments for the medium to long term. No doubt Southampton makes a tidy profit for them and passenger figures are rising slowly albeit it that the majority of passengers are generated by Flybe or their franchise. Whenever I have flown through, the vast majority of travellers seem to be business related, thus the yields will be good. Not too sure where or how the airport could grow substantially within the footprint of the existing boundaries?

[stewyb]

Are plans afoot to start preparation for the northern runway extension? Just noticed from a very recent on board You Tube video of a KLM F70 landing from the north that it looks like the trees and bushes are being removed and groundwork leveled from outside the boundary fence on the centre line. Anybody else know?

[InterHaram]

I believe the area down towards the railway yard/chickenhall lane is being cleared for housing developments, despite the airport's management stating that they'd put a starter strip in. Hopefully not though, there was brief talk of upgrading ILS if they managed to increase usable runway length

[stewyb]

The removal of trees and bushes though is directly outside the airfield fence before you reach the rail sidings, no houses being built there!

[Centre cities]

Originally Posted by stewyb

The removal of trees and bushes though is directly outside the airfield fence before you reach the rail sidings, no houses being built there!

Would not a search of planning applications with Southampton Council reveal the reason for the ground clearance.

Centre cities

[canberra97]

The area concerned doesn't come under the control of Southampton City Council, it comes under The Borough of Eastleigh

[stewyb]

Thomson have released S18 timetable, Majorca stays at x 2 per week and Ibiza x 1. This is positive as other Thomson routes are in fact being reduced and presume they will again be operated by Volotea

[canberra97]

It is very good news considering the amount of cuts that have recently been announced by Thomson.

Whenever I see the Southampton thread highlighted I'm always dubious to open it because I fear it might be bad news but in this situation it's not, hopefully this might encourage Volotea to add another route or two especially if Flybe's sun routes are under threat for 2018.

[stewyb]

With Flybe's less than rosy financial outlook at present, I believe they will concentrate more on UK domestic routes and the summer/winter sun destinations might disappear sooner rather than later. In which case this is an ideal opportunity for someone to take them on and Volotea has to be in pole position!

[canberra97]

Stewyb

As this is a rumour site, what routes would you like to see Volotea start from Southampton IF they ever expanded with either based aircraft or aircraft from their existing bases.

Other than their existing flights to both Ibiza and Palma I could envisage the following destinations being added

Alicante
Bergamo
Faro
Florence
Malaga
Nice
Turin (winter)
Venice
Verona

Obviously this is just a bit of fun and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

[stewyb]

Its always good to speculate! I reckon Volotea might look to take on the routes of Malaga and Faro initially that Flybe has announced will not be continued in to winter 17/18. Alicante has been confirmed on Flybe's network for this period but this i'm sure will be operated by a Q400 whereas the other two destinations require the E195 and these are being gradually withdrawn over the next few months. As to the future, who knows!!

[MARKEYD]

Loloflights.co.uk | Flights to Greece.

Just found this link which initially sounds very interesting for Southampton but on closer inspection its the same outfit that advertised flights last summer from Bournemouth and Manchester to Skiathos then cancelled the programme due not enough time to start selling tickets and promoting the flights

They indicated they would re start bookings in 2017 much earlier in order to catch the summer peak bookings

All looks rather amateur to me ?

[adfly]

Could be an interesting venture, but they'd best get a move on if they want to catch peak summer bookings!

[RW20]

Adfly
Can a 195 reach Corfu with a full load from Southampton,and what airline are we talking about?