SOUTHAMPTON
Is Southampton sufficiently far from Newquay in terms of both distance and time, to be able to justify commercially an air link in competition to the car ?
Not saying it can't work, just that Newquay-Southampton is about 60 miles fewer or an hour's less driving than Newquay-London.
Not saying it can't work, just that Newquay-Southampton is about 60 miles fewer or an hour's less driving than Newquay-London.
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Possibly, possibly not
When BE tried last time it was just after they bought BACON and they put the ERJ on it, well then decided to ditch it before flying it.
Might work a couple times a week to cater to the eldery retired cruise market.
cs
When BE tried last time it was just after they bought BACON and they put the ERJ on it, well then decided to ditch it before flying it.
Might work a couple times a week to cater to the eldery retired cruise market.
cs
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Southampton, U.K
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Some interesting comments, NQY could probably work a couple of times per week in the Summer, if timed right it could be useful for some inbound cruise passengers and outbound leisure travel (driving down to Cornwall in the Summer is a very slow journey so the option of flying down there in an hour could be quite appealing to some).
I have to agree that BMI regional would indeed be a good candidate to serve some business oriented European routes from SOU on their E135/145's.
Aer Lingus regional to Cork would be a logical addition to cater for the notable Irish population in the area.
Vueling would probably only work if Flybe were to drop the sun routes next year then they were to come in and 'save' them, which would hopefully generate them plenty of publicity. Of course it would be good to deal with the parking issue beforehand, but for a small operation they could try and mark out 2 larger stands across the existing stands 2-5 meaning 2 A320/738 sized aircraft could be handled at once.
KLM do effectively serve Flybe via codeshare so I would not expect this to change any time soon, though I expect AMS will eventually increase to 4 daily year round considering it has seen good increases in passenger numbers all year.
Air France to CDG would probably not add much to SOU, since KLM offer connections everywhere and Flybe's ORY service caters for the Paris market as well as some onwards domestic/French territories connections. HOP! could look at LYS & NCE I guess?
Iberia Regional would be a long shot, but could be possible if they decide to expand their UK presence in the future. What would a CRJ900 be like performance wise off of SOU's runway?
Finally I have mentioned it before but SOU fits well with Volotea in the sense that it fits their business model of avoiding competition from the main LCC's and the 717 is quite a good fit for SOU from both a runway performance and physical dimensions point of view.
I have to agree that BMI regional would indeed be a good candidate to serve some business oriented European routes from SOU on their E135/145's.
Aer Lingus regional to Cork would be a logical addition to cater for the notable Irish population in the area.
Vueling would probably only work if Flybe were to drop the sun routes next year then they were to come in and 'save' them, which would hopefully generate them plenty of publicity. Of course it would be good to deal with the parking issue beforehand, but for a small operation they could try and mark out 2 larger stands across the existing stands 2-5 meaning 2 A320/738 sized aircraft could be handled at once.
KLM do effectively serve Flybe via codeshare so I would not expect this to change any time soon, though I expect AMS will eventually increase to 4 daily year round considering it has seen good increases in passenger numbers all year.
Air France to CDG would probably not add much to SOU, since KLM offer connections everywhere and Flybe's ORY service caters for the Paris market as well as some onwards domestic/French territories connections. HOP! could look at LYS & NCE I guess?
Iberia Regional would be a long shot, but could be possible if they decide to expand their UK presence in the future. What would a CRJ900 be like performance wise off of SOU's runway?
Finally I have mentioned it before but SOU fits well with Volotea in the sense that it fits their business model of avoiding competition from the main LCC's and the 717 is quite a good fit for SOU from both a runway performance and physical dimensions point of view.
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Adfly
I completely forgot about Volotea and I agree they would be an ideal airline for SOU for the reasons you state, the same applies to HOP.
With regard to Air France to CDG I was thinking this could be in addition to the current Flybe connection to Paris Orly, CDG offers more world wide connections and Air France could still code share on the route with Flybe.
The same goes with Amsterdam, added frequency could be with KLM offering additional flights again with the Flybe code share.
There is so much potential for SOU as regards to new links but the previous owners were too happy to have concentrated on Flybe and there operations but with them shortly opening a base at BOH and the potential loss of the sun routes the management at SOU have to really consider their options as to what direction the airport is taking!
I completely forgot about Volotea and I agree they would be an ideal airline for SOU for the reasons you state, the same applies to HOP.
With regard to Air France to CDG I was thinking this could be in addition to the current Flybe connection to Paris Orly, CDG offers more world wide connections and Air France could still code share on the route with Flybe.
The same goes with Amsterdam, added frequency could be with KLM offering additional flights again with the Flybe code share.
There is so much potential for SOU as regards to new links but the previous owners were too happy to have concentrated on Flybe and there operations but with them shortly opening a base at BOH and the potential loss of the sun routes the management at SOU have to really consider their options as to what direction the airport is taking!
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Southampton, U.K
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Santa!
Little bit of good news for next winter on the airport's facebook page, there is going to be 4 santa flights, which is a significant increase on the one in previous years.
They appear to be as follows:
8th December - 2 night break with Santa's Lapland (Appears to have Jet 2 flight numbers)
12th December - Day trip with Transun
20th December - Day trip with Canterbury Travel
21st December - Day trip with Canterbury Travel
Also, Thomas Cook are selling holidays to Palma for this summer using the scheduled Flybe flights, although there is no sign of them selling holidays to Faro and Verona with the same arrangement like they have done in previously.
They appear to be as follows:
8th December - 2 night break with Santa's Lapland (Appears to have Jet 2 flight numbers)
12th December - Day trip with Transun
20th December - Day trip with Canterbury Travel
21st December - Day trip with Canterbury Travel
Also, Thomas Cook are selling holidays to Palma for this summer using the scheduled Flybe flights, although there is no sign of them selling holidays to Faro and Verona with the same arrangement like they have done in previously.
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Adfly,
KLM city hopper used to fly from SOU with S f-340's
Air France used to fly 2 or 3 times daily to CDG with ATR-42's
British Airways Regional tried Frankfurt and Munich with ERJ-145's
I think even SABENA operated at some point to BRU with Dash eqp
Aer Aran flew to cork with ATR-72 for a number of seasons before that was stopped
Skybus has also tried and failed with its Twin Otter to Scilly
I don't hold out much hope of the same airlines returning on the very routes that didn't work for them.
However I do agree that BMI regional would be an interesting trial as you mentioned
KLM city hopper used to fly from SOU with S f-340's
Air France used to fly 2 or 3 times daily to CDG with ATR-42's
British Airways Regional tried Frankfurt and Munich with ERJ-145's
I think even SABENA operated at some point to BRU with Dash eqp
Aer Aran flew to cork with ATR-72 for a number of seasons before that was stopped
Skybus has also tried and failed with its Twin Otter to Scilly
I don't hold out much hope of the same airlines returning on the very routes that didn't work for them.
However I do agree that BMI regional would be an interesting trial as you mentioned
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Cornwall
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G-FBJK has just departed to AGP.
Maybe in 2016, the sun routes may be operated by E175. What would the runway performance be like especially to FAO/AGP?
Maybe in 2016, the sun routes may be operated by E175. What would the runway performance be like especially to FAO/AGP?
Last edited by NewquayJacob; 7th Feb 2015 at 11:33.
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Sharklet 321
British Airways only flew to Frankfurt never Munich, there other European routes from Southampton were to Brussels, Paris and Zurich all using Embraer 145 aircraft.
Sabena never flew the Southampton to Brussels route, when British Airways stopped there Brussels flights they were taken up by the Belgian airline VLM Airlines using a F-50.
Air France flew to Paris CDG from 1986 up till about 6 years ago using a mixture of ATR 42/72 and CRJs.
KLM City Hopper and before that Netherlines used Saab 340s to Amsterdam which later became F-50s, when KLM took over Air UK the route was flown with F-100s.
Aer Arran operated to Cork with ATR42/72.
Air Berlin operated to Paderborn in Germany with Boeing 737-800.
Amongst scheduled European airlines we also used to get regular charters with Air Malta to Malta using Boeing 737.
We could do with more choice at SOU that's for sure!
British Airways only flew to Frankfurt never Munich, there other European routes from Southampton were to Brussels, Paris and Zurich all using Embraer 145 aircraft.
Sabena never flew the Southampton to Brussels route, when British Airways stopped there Brussels flights they were taken up by the Belgian airline VLM Airlines using a F-50.
Air France flew to Paris CDG from 1986 up till about 6 years ago using a mixture of ATR 42/72 and CRJs.
KLM City Hopper and before that Netherlines used Saab 340s to Amsterdam which later became F-50s, when KLM took over Air UK the route was flown with F-100s.
Aer Arran operated to Cork with ATR42/72.
Air Berlin operated to Paderborn in Germany with Boeing 737-800.
Amongst scheduled European airlines we also used to get regular charters with Air Malta to Malta using Boeing 737.
We could do with more choice at SOU that's for sure!
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Southampton, U.K
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Jan '15 Stats
Passengers up over 15% compared to last Jan as per the CAA provisional stats, which is very impressive. Lets hope this growth continues throughout the year!
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Solihull
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January
Sharklet_321
For January probably cheap seats on flybe.
Purple Wednesday with flights at £15 would have helped.
Lets have a look at other flybe bases for January: -
Birmingham - record January pax up 11.4% (12 based aircraft)
Exeter - up 32%
Non-bases but flybe growth
London City - +23/9%
EMA - added nearly 5000 pax on least years routes (not counting CDG canx)
Pete
For January probably cheap seats on flybe.
Purple Wednesday with flights at £15 would have helped.
Lets have a look at other flybe bases for January: -
Birmingham - record January pax up 11.4% (12 based aircraft)
Exeter - up 32%
Non-bases but flybe growth
London City - +23/9%
EMA - added nearly 5000 pax on least years routes (not counting CDG canx)
Pete
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Southampton, U.K
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Holidays
It seems now Thomas Cook are also selling holidays to Faro and Verona alongside the already mentioned Palma as per last year, using the scheduled Flybe flights.
Thomson are doing the same for Alicante and Malaga and their lakes & mountains division are selling holidays using the Milan and Verona flights. This is in addition to the weekly Volotea flight to PMI. So although there is nothing new flight wise Thomson now serve a far wider range of destinations from SOU than they have in quite a few years.
Flybe are also chopping the ABZ end of their flyshuttle route at the end of this month but the LBA-SOU-JER section shall remain. I suspect the slow start was further hampered but lower oil prices. On the plus side the reduces the chance of Eastern dropping the as a result of Flybe dumping it with cheap seats.
Thomson are doing the same for Alicante and Malaga and their lakes & mountains division are selling holidays using the Milan and Verona flights. This is in addition to the weekly Volotea flight to PMI. So although there is nothing new flight wise Thomson now serve a far wider range of destinations from SOU than they have in quite a few years.
Flybe are also chopping the ABZ end of their flyshuttle route at the end of this month but the LBA-SOU-JER section shall remain. I suspect the slow start was further hampered but lower oil prices. On the plus side the reduces the chance of Eastern dropping the as a result of Flybe dumping it with cheap seats.
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Feb 2015 passenger numbers
SOU handled 128,207 this Feb, up an impressive 21.2% on last year. A brief skim through the CAA stats shows some very impressive increases across the board for domestic routes and some good ones on international routes. Considering the frequencies of most flights aren't significantly different from last year it must be a case of significantly improved load factors.
Join Date: Nov 2014
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Very impressive performance but it doesn't surprise me as the new directive from Flybe is to generate better load factors through more consistently lower fares. This was only really seen filtered through in the last few months. Having said that the total number of flights operated were up 15% too so Groundloop comment above also well made.
No reason why SOU can't handle 3-4m pax per year especially with LHR constraints till 3rd runway.
No reason why SOU can't handle 3-4m pax per year especially with LHR constraints till 3rd runway.