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Old 11th Dec 2023, 15:03
  #2561 (permalink)  
 
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This is something that again crops up on various threads, and it seems obvious but you rarely see it (I'll make an exception for Aer Lingus UK - I'd love to get rid of their ads off You Tube ).

Anybody got any insight as to when it works, why airlines/airports don't do it, or are we all just old foggies and the smart kids don't get their info off the side of buses and billboards?
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Old 11th Dec 2023, 15:09
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Youngsters don't look at sides of buses or billboards, they don't take their eyes away from their mobile phones......
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Old 11th Dec 2023, 16:09
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Originally Posted by Sharklet_321
What are you all complaining about? Southampton is literally on the motorway network and public transport access is second to none. Bus network is good.
SOU rail and motorway access is great for places west of about Farnborough, Guildford or Chichester. Trains to/from London are expensive and take a long time.
The absence of competition may have something to do with SOU having a favourable position in Hampshire

Last edited by davidjohnson6; 11th Dec 2023 at 16:52.
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Old 11th Dec 2023, 17:13
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"To most people, it's like, "Yeah, I know you can fly to the Channel Islands"."

For once we're in agreement - that's all I ever here when I mention SOU to people - I know people in Basingstoke who drive to Bristol for flights and are totally oblivious of the airport down the road

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Old 11th Dec 2023, 17:36
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Originally Posted by Asturias56
"To most people, it's like, "Yeah, I know you can fly to the Channel Islands"."

For once we're in agreement - that's all I ever here when I mention SOU to people - I know people in Basingstoke who drive to Bristol for flights and are totally oblivious of the airport down the road
SOU management take note!
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Old 12th Dec 2023, 05:19
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Well,
Finally, they get it LOL they finally get it....

SOU Airport, nor its incumbent airlines do NOT do any PR, nor high level Targeted Advertising,

Therein lies the BIG problem.

Until that changes SOU Airport will be forever known as the place to go for the Channel Islands...or where Flybe was once until it went bust.

Last edited by rog747; 12th Dec 2023 at 06:26.
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Old 12th Dec 2023, 11:58
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Originally Posted by rog747
Well,
Finally, they get it LOL they finally get it....

SOU Airport, nor its incumbent airlines do NOT do any PR, nor high level Targeted Advertising,

Therein lies the BIG problem.

Until that changes SOU Airport will be forever known as the place to go for the Channel Islands...or where Flybe was once until it went bust.
I've been saying this for so long! People in the local area just don't know about the potential to travel from their local airport. My immediate next door neighbours had absolutely no idea they could fly with EasyJet from Southampton for the ski holiday this winter, they were amazed when I told them and they have now booked. A couple of summers ago, my brother and his wife wanted to visit one of the Mediterranean resorts - I can't remember which, but again they had no idea that BA Cityflyer could take them from Southampton. In both cases, the people involved lived within five miles from SOU as the crow flies.
Unless Southampton get the word out there, the passengers won't come!
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Old 12th Dec 2023, 12:18
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Airport advertising

Agree with all of the points above. Indeed, it looks like in the past year or so the SOU social media pages have been ran centrally (I guess from AGS HQ) rather than by by someone employed at the airport.

A quick look through the pages shows a lack of awareness of who fly's where, and when people enquire on there about flights to X or Y, they get the same generic 'we are always looking at new destinations to fly to, see where we fly here (link)'. I've seen this even when people ask about a destination that an airline currently fly's to as well.

Purely opinion but I think it appears a little lazy considering the relatively small number of carriers and destinations available - surely it can't be hard for a social media rep to do a 5 min search and reply 'airline x fly's to y up to z times a week/day' (link).
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Old 12th Dec 2023, 12:55
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Originally Posted by rog747
SOU is fantastic to get to by Train (as long as its running with no strikes, no signal failures, or any other nonsense delays and cancellations we are currently plagued by)
and by a great Motorway network.

BOH is down a village country lane - go figure - watch the cows whilst you are sitting in the traffic jam,
and BRS is perched on top of a Hill almost falling off due to so many buildings added since the days of Lulsgate LOL>.....!
again also approached by country lanes....
And yet, plenty of people still use BOH and BRS... For business travelers and couples seeking a quick getaway, I get that proximity to train stations is beneficial. However, for families, especially those with a lot of luggage, the convenience of driving to the airport often outweighs the benefits of public transport. The hassle of coordinating taxis, managing luggage and children, and dealing with potential train delays, particularly in cold weather, can be significant. Additionally, the cost difference between parking and using public transportation is often negligible.

Plenty of airports in the UK and Europe, despite lacking direct train and motorway connections, continue to thrive. The key factor for most travelers is whether their local airports offer flights to their desired destinations, at convenient times, and an acceptable price.

I really don't get the logic of denigrating BOH and BRS for this, I see BOH and SOU's future growth complementing each other like BFS and BHD. I couldn't care less whether I fly from BOH, SOU or BRS, I would just rather not have to keep schlepping up to LTN, STN, or LGW for choice, frequency, and price.
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Old 14th Dec 2023, 14:51
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Originally Posted by adfly
Agree with all of the points above. Indeed, it looks like in the past year or so the SOU social media pages have been ran centrally (I guess from AGS HQ) rather than by by someone employed at the airport.

A quick look through the pages shows a lack of awareness of who fly's where, and when people enquire on there about flights to X or Y, they get the same generic 'we are always looking at new destinations to fly to, see where we fly here (link)'. I've seen this even when people ask about a destination that an airline currently fly's to as well.

Purely opinion but I think it appears a little lazy considering the relatively small number of carriers and destinations available - surely it can't be hard for a social media rep to do a 5 min search and reply 'airline x fly's to y up to z times a week/day' (link).
What is happening with SOU? the answer is not a lot!, Southampton must have a huge Poleish population,are the any flights?, and nothing on the horizon!
They travel no less to BOH!
Really the airport has moved on from the runway extension at a snails pace, something is not right,a few extra Easy flights is not enough to move into profit!
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Old 14th Dec 2023, 15:44
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It is a shame that so many people here have no faith in the company that built the runway extension and feel the airport is already failing despite the runway extension being open for less than a 100 days.

I would suggest that these people need to get a grip with reality and stop moaning or did they really expect a new based operator to be already running a fleet of Airbuses to destinations across Europe?
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Old 14th Dec 2023, 15:54
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Back to a previously discussed topic. It may be dark and cold outside but there are 5 cruise ships in port this weekend, I wonder how much traffic the airport will see as a consequence?
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Old 14th Dec 2023, 16:13
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Yep - a busy weekend in port, with all heading off on 12 to 18 night cruises apart from the MSC one. It really quietens down after that though.

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Old 14th Dec 2023, 19:47
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Originally Posted by Albert Hall
Yep - a busy weekend in port, with all heading off on 12 to 18 night cruises apart from the MSC one. It really quietens down after that though.
Also plenty of ships wintering in The Carribean at the moment (like I was a few weeks ago on P&O's Britannia) and the Canaries.

To add an aviation theme - the airlift to get us all out there (we started and ended in BGI) is an impressive operation in itself (for Britannia alone it's 5 Tui 787's on a Fri and Sat plus a couple of Maleth-Aero A330's operating from LGW and MAN, ie, 12 rotations in total over the 2 day turnaround).

Last time I was in SOU there was a very big picture of Britannia on the stairs up to Costa in departures - is it still there?
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Old 14th Dec 2023, 21:02
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Not the cruise thing again. Guys, the cruise thing is its own separate thing and Southampton has been cruise turnaround capital of Northern Europe for many many years. The passengers come from all over with a lot from the States. It’s not a big market for SOU. If you have spent £1,000 plus on a cruise it’s unlikely you also want to spend money on a flight. It’s coaches galore.

As for the marketing, I agree it’s poor but the airport do quite a lot on their socials. Let’s be honest most people don’t look past the low cost carriers nowadays and it’s just accepted that when going away it’s a trip to one of the second rate London airports. A fairly sizeable selection of routes from a low cost operator and a few years of ops will be needed. Hopefully that’s the road we are on now with Ezy. They could speed things up by moving all their ops from BOH to SOU. Not sure the benefit of serving GVA from two local airports. I’d wager most of BOHs passengers are from this side of the new Forest. Odd people not flying from SOU. No desire to create a which airport is better debate just based on the fact EZY seem to be making SOU its preference, FR already in situ at BOH and why would people drive to BOH and leave their car in a car park all week when they can hop on the train and walk into SOU.
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Old 15th Dec 2023, 06:59
  #2576 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by Pain in the R's
It is a shame that so many people here have no faith in the company that built the runway extension and feel the airport is already failing despite the runway extension being open for less than a 100 days.
I would suggest that these people need to get a grip with reality and stop moaning or did they really expect a new based operator to be already running a fleet of Airbuses to destinations across Europe?
Sorry old chap, but that statement is frankly the biggest case of Emperor's New Clothes that I've ever read on this thread;
Of course Southampton Airport have not been diligent, nor have any of the Airlines in promoting anything at all to get business back, or to get new business in to the Airport.
A rarely updated Twitter/X feed, and a Facebook Page is simply not enough.

It's a major fail,
FYI
I myself, and others that post here, do have a grip on the Travel Industry and what's been happening (or lack of) at SOU and also at our other local Airports in the South and West.
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Old 15th Dec 2023, 07:07
  #2577 (permalink)  
 
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Sorry old chap, but that statement is frankly the biggest case of Emperor's New Clothes that I've ever read on this thread;
Of course Southampton Airport have not been diligent, nor have any of the Airlines in promoting anything at all to get business back, or to get new business in to the Airport.
A rarely updated Twitter/X feed, and a Facebook Page is simply not enough.

It's a major fail,
FYI
I myself, and others that post here, do have a grip on the Travel Industry and what's been happening (or lack of) at SOU and also at our other local Airports in the South and West.
Bournemouth and Bristol are often quoted here as doing a better job than SOU. What are they doing that SOU aren't in terms of getting the message out?
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Old 15th Dec 2023, 07:14
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I'm sure I read an article a few years ago, albeit based on Ryanair, in that they feel they hardly ever have to promote a new route now. Just their own brand and size is enough to drive attention. For the life of me I can't seem to find it now.

I do wonder what the airport's overall PR strategy is? Certainly wouldn't harm having a bit more.

Airline wise, Jet2 are always on my local radio advertising for Bristol. Anyone from the Southampton area old enough to still listen to local radio hear anything from easyjet?
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Old 15th Dec 2023, 07:17
  #2579 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by SWBKCB
Bournemouth and Bristol are often quoted here as doing a better job than SOU. What are they doing that SOU aren't in terms of getting the message out?
You tell me >???

BRS is (and has been for many years now) a huge beast, and today has no comparison to tiny BOH, SOU and EXT.
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Old 15th Dec 2023, 07:45
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I don't know which is why I'm asking the question. Has anybody got an example of a model SOU should be copying?
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