Southampton-2
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Has there ever been a time when the airport was more dependent on one carrier than this summer? If I am not missing anything, this summer there will only be Flybe and Aurigny operating from SOU plus the occasional Volotea flight to Majorca. Talk about eggs in one basket (although I have to admit that some of Flybe's flights are franchised).
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Is it Southampton putting their eggs in one basket or are they a victim of circumstance? i.e. It's not for the want of trying to attract other carriers? So stating the bleeding obvious it's not really the airport choosing where it's placing it's eggs but more to do with who wants to operate from there.
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Sure. But it is really noteworthy that SOU has no legacy carrier hub link anymore - no Skyteam to AMS or CDG, no Star Alliance to FRA, MUC or ZRH, no oneworld to DUB or MAD. Given that South Hampshire is the UK's eighth largest metropolitan area, at least one hub link does not seem to be too outlandish a wish.
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Sure. But it is really noteworthy that SOU has no legacy carrier hub link anymore - no Skyteam to AMS or CDG, no Star Alliance to FRA, MUC or ZRH, no oneworld to DUB or MAD. Given that South Hampshire is the UK's eighth largest metropolitan area, at least one hub link does not seem to be too outlandish a wish.
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Sure. I am not talking about thousands of seats daily. But three or four flights on a 100 seater to a hub that allows you to avoid the drive to Heathrow and the hassle of navigating a behemoth of an airport and gives you access to dozens of European destinations that are not served from Heathrow?
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Has there ever been a time when the airport was more dependent on one carrier than this summer? If I am not missing anything, this summer there will only be Flybe and Aurigny operating from SOU plus the occasional Volotea flight to Majorca. Talk about eggs in one basket (although I have to admit that some of Flybe's flights are franchised).
They operated to JSI last summer despite all the scoffing and derision on here, so I’m going to assume they’ll operate their expanded programme this summer.
That would give the airport:
Flybe’s scheduled flights
Aurigny to Guernsey and Alderney
Blue Islands to Guernsey and Jersey (Flybe franchise)
Eastern Airways to Leeds (Flybe franchise)
TUI to Palma, Ibiza and Mahon (the first two operated by Volotea, Mahon by Flybe)
Flylolo (8 destinations I think, some operated by Flybe, for the others airline tbc)
About 8 based G/A & business aircraft
Specsavers aviation M-F commuter flights to Guernsey and occasionally East Midlands
Capital air ambulance
Ad-hoc Bizjet and GA movements of which there are quite a few.
So not quite eggs in one basket, but yes, from an airline point of view Flybe are definitely the dominant carrier with probably 80% of the airport’s movements.
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The challenge for SOU really is what will happen if one day Flybe grows out of its Q400 operations - most airlines over the decades move from smaller to larger aircraft..Should BE one day move to 120-150 seaters, something needs to be done to keep SO competitive. I can think of quite a few airports on the continent with 1.200m'ish runways that have lost airline service as a result of the disappearance of 30-50 seater turboprops.Airports with 1.500-1.700m runways will face similar problems once airlines move away from 80-100 seat aircraft.
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I completely agree with you, and I suspect that’s the reason behind SOU’s masterplan and proposed runway extension. The market they currently cater for is slowly declining and so they need to be able to lift themselves up to the next level of airline (European locos flying jets) to have any chance of staying competitive.
It seems like it’s either go big or go home. Happily, the indications at the moment are that they’ve chosen to go big. How soon that happens is still up for debate.
It seems like it’s either go big or go home. Happily, the indications at the moment are that they’ve chosen to go big. How soon that happens is still up for debate.
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Actual loads as follows:
EasyJet carried 3398 of the SOU total over 28 flights, giving an average of 121 pax per flight.
Flybe carried 1237 pax on 24 flights, giving an average of 52 pax per flight.
Last January the easyJet average was 117 per flight, and the Flybe average was 70 per flight.
Flybe appear to be feeling the effects of the competition now as their loads are considerably lower this season.
No BOH figures for comparison yet, but their January average last year was 122 per flight.
For info, this January SEN averaged 114 per flight based on flightaware and CAA data. Other airports ranged from mid 130s to low 140s.
EasyJet carried 3398 of the SOU total over 28 flights, giving an average of 121 pax per flight.
Flybe carried 1237 pax on 24 flights, giving an average of 52 pax per flight.
Last January the easyJet average was 117 per flight, and the Flybe average was 70 per flight.
Flybe appear to be feeling the effects of the competition now as their loads are considerably lower this season.
No BOH figures for comparison yet, but their January average last year was 122 per flight.
For info, this January SEN averaged 114 per flight based on flightaware and CAA data. Other airports ranged from mid 130s to low 140s.
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The challenge for SOU really is what will happen if one day Flybe grows out of its Q400 operations - most airlines over the decades move from smaller to larger aircraft..Should BE one day move to 120-150 seaters, something needs to be done to keep SO competitive. I can think of quite a few airports on the continent with 1.200m'ish runways that have lost airline service as a result of the disappearance of 30-50 seater turboprops.Airports with 1.500-1.700m runways will face similar problems once airlines move away from 80-100 seat aircraft.
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I am thinking about 10 years or more into the future. I doubt that by then the Q400 is still in production (Bombardier has already offloaded it to Viking, IIRC). Maybe the ATR72 will survive, but for SOU leisure routes it is no option. The E75-E2 is a dying species as well and, if you ask me, only around because of US scope clauses. If Flybe is alive and kicking around in 10 years time, they will have moved on to something bigger than 80-100 seaters. Particularly now with Virgin/Stobart running the show.
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Southampton airport has the potential to do some real harm to Flybe if they are more aggressive with getting in a low cost operator (once terminal is extended and runway starter strip added). I would not be surprised if Ryanair did some initial services from Southampton to places like Bergerac and others - it would be a nail in Flybe's Southampton operations I think. It would also be a 'classic' Ryanair move - keeping BOH in check deal wise.
Southampton airport has the potential to do some real harm to Flybe if they are more aggressive with getting in a low cost operator (once terminal is extended and runway starter strip added). I would not be surprised if Ryanair did some initial services from Southampton to places like Bergerac and others - it would be a nail in Flybe's Southampton operations I think. It would also be a 'classic' Ryanair move - keeping BOH in check deal wise.
SOU need to think what happens now, this summer...2019
KLM and EI gone
Flybe - does their schedule remain unchanged with the Virgin takeover?
Flylolo - ??
EZY - are they happy at SOU?
Is it today they have their Twitter news??
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They aren't mentioned in the AF/KLM press release.
https://www.airfranceklm.com/en/news...re-partnership
https://www.airfranceklm.com/en/news...re-partnership
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They’ve tweeted they have won airport service or something of the year and they are ‘the moon’ ...... this isn’t THE tweet surely.... I thought we were listening out for 737 800’s roaring over Eastleigh .....
I don't think they can mention anything with regard to Flybe before the take-over has been cleared by the competititon authorities, so I would not take that as a definite "no",
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Sadly this was probably the announcement. A good achievement in it’s own right but not exactly the hoped-for airline or airside development news.