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Surely it’s good news for SOU. Loganair offer high frequency high fares that suit the business person who wishes to travel there and back in a day and their employers are picking up the air fare. 49 seats on a E145 is probably 80% filled by business users as the leisure traveller is just unwilling to pay the huge ticket costs. EZY with its limited frequencies will be used primarily by friends and family being flexible with dates and times, thus both airlines have their niche and will operate side by side. My thoughts although maybe wrong!
I'm struggling to understand why people are so negative on Easyjet starting SOU to GLA and BFS. Years ago when FR started routes to Malta, people thought it would be a disaster for connectivity to the island - the number of passengers at MLA doubled. There was concern again with Tel Aviv airport - again traffic increased significantly once the LCCs gained entry. Jersey doesn't seem to have suffered terrible privations because Easyjet fly to London - although it has made the island significantly more affordable to reach.
SOU is not some special llittle island... trains will continue, LGW, LHR, BRS and BOH are still accessible if things go wrong. No, SOU is not sexy (I used to live there), but there's almost certainly plenty of ordinary everyday people who would like to travel between the south coast and Edinburgh/Glasgow at modest prices, maybe to see family at the other end of the UK, but just can't afford Loganair fares and haven't got all day to go by train. If the airfare dramatically falls in price, that air ticket suddenly becomes viable for Joe Bloggs.
FR will happily ruthlessly screw an airport over, but U2 generally seem to be more reasonable and are acceptable to those travelling for work - the kind of LCC an airport would want to deal with.
Airports like Bristol and Leeds have found that embracing LCCs really does significantly boost traffic. Why shouldn't it have the same effect at SOU, and why is a bit of experimentation really so bad ? Airports that take no risks tend not to thrive long-term
SOU is not some special llittle island... trains will continue, LGW, LHR, BRS and BOH are still accessible if things go wrong. No, SOU is not sexy (I used to live there), but there's almost certainly plenty of ordinary everyday people who would like to travel between the south coast and Edinburgh/Glasgow at modest prices, maybe to see family at the other end of the UK, but just can't afford Loganair fares and haven't got all day to go by train. If the airfare dramatically falls in price, that air ticket suddenly becomes viable for Joe Bloggs.
FR will happily ruthlessly screw an airport over, but U2 generally seem to be more reasonable and are acceptable to those travelling for work - the kind of LCC an airport would want to deal with.
Airports like Bristol and Leeds have found that embracing LCCs really does significantly boost traffic. Why shouldn't it have the same effect at SOU, and why is a bit of experimentation really so bad ? Airports that take no risks tend not to thrive long-term
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 25th May 2023 at 21:14.
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Did Thursday live up to your expectations 😞
On Saturdays when there are cruise ship departures from (and arrivals into) Southampton it might do ok
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I'm struggling to understand why people are so negative on Easyjet starting SOU to GLA and BFS. Years ago when FR started routes to Malta, people thought it would be a disaster for connectivity to the island - the number of passengers at MLA doubled. There was concern again with Tel Aviv airport - again traffic increased significantly once the LCCs gained entry. Jersey doesn't seem to have suffered terrible privations because Easyjet fly to London - although it has made the island significantly more affordable to reach.
SOU is not some special llittle island... trains will continue, LGW, LHR, BRS and BOH are still accessible if things go wrong. No, SOU is not sexy (I used to live there), but there's almost certainly plenty of ordinary everyday people who would like to travel between the south coast and Edinburgh/Glasgow at modest prices, maybe to see family at the other end of the UK, but just can't afford Loganair fares and haven't got all day to go by train. If the airfare dramatically falls in price, that air ticket suddenly becomes viable for Joe Bloggs.
FR will happily ruthlessly screw an airport over, but U2 generally seem to be more reasonable and are acceptable to those travelling for work - the kind of LCC an airport would want to deal with.
Airports like Bristol and Leeds have found that embracing LCCs really does significantly boost traffic. Why shouldn't it have the same effect at SOU, and why is a bit of experimentation really so bad ?
SOU is not some special llittle island... trains will continue, LGW, LHR, BRS and BOH are still accessible if things go wrong. No, SOU is not sexy (I used to live there), but there's almost certainly plenty of ordinary everyday people who would like to travel between the south coast and Edinburgh/Glasgow at modest prices, maybe to see family at the other end of the UK, but just can't afford Loganair fares and haven't got all day to go by train. If the airfare dramatically falls in price, that air ticket suddenly becomes viable for Joe Bloggs.
FR will happily ruthlessly screw an airport over, but U2 generally seem to be more reasonable and are acceptable to those travelling for work - the kind of LCC an airport would want to deal with.
Airports like Bristol and Leeds have found that embracing LCCs really does significantly boost traffic. Why shouldn't it have the same effect at SOU, and why is a bit of experimentation really so bad ?
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So yet again I’ve been proved right. I said probably 2 years ago that when the runway was done Easyjet would start building a base. It’s almost like I have a crystal ball. This is just the start and will become a 2 aircraft base and then finally a 4 aircraft base. Wizz air will also open some routes. Come back to this post in the years to come.
In respect of Logan and Emerald, there will still be room for them but reduced frequencies. Can see Logan being double daily with early morning and late evening with Easy doing one in the middle. Emerald one a day. As for their ticket prices being more than Easy, quite a lot of the tickets are being bought by employers who don’t care about saving £100 or so. They need the flexibility for their staff.
It’s onwards and upwards for SOU and I look forward to seeing a lot of the detractors on this thread eat a lot of humble pie now. This victory tastes very sweet indeed
In respect of Logan and Emerald, there will still be room for them but reduced frequencies. Can see Logan being double daily with early morning and late evening with Easy doing one in the middle. Emerald one a day. As for their ticket prices being more than Easy, quite a lot of the tickets are being bought by employers who don’t care about saving £100 or so. They need the flexibility for their staff.
It’s onwards and upwards for SOU and I look forward to seeing a lot of the detractors on this thread eat a lot of humble pie now. This victory tastes very sweet indeed
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RJ, that's absolute b****cks. There's nothing here which says that Southampton will ever become a base. If you predicted that, you still have a very long way to go to be proved right. Yes, easyJet will have a presence at SOU and will be expanded next summer with sunshine flying, but that's not the base of which you speak. Happy to come back in years to come to see who's right, but for now, it's BS.
Coming down from Scotland (or indeed NI) to join a cruise ship at Southampton adds a day (and sometimes overnight accom etc) to each end of the holiday, so what's not to like if there is an affordable flight down/up on the day of departure/arrival.
Oh, and agree re. the above post from RJ, I don't see an EZY base coming, but I do see flights from other bases (ALC for next Summer?) and maybe even some W's for SOU
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While I appreciate that some feel that the arrival of EZY on already served domestic routes from SOU is good news, I think they underestimate 1/ the likely effect on Loganair and 2/ how poorly EZY serve some domestic routes. Going to 1/. I accept that the planned twice weekly winter service, particularly at those weird timings, will not decimate the LM operation but be in no doubt it will have an effect. Two A320s a week is roughly the same capacity as seven ERJ145s and the pax to fill the EZY flights will have to come from somewhere. Even if half of them are “new”, the loss of the other half will be very noticeable to LM. If EZY increased to a daily service I doubt whether LM could survive it. 2/ If EZY became the sole operator on the route, don’t kid yourselves that you get a “good” schedule. Look at, for example, BHX to Scotland. Random timings where they’ve got a gap. Ditto BHD to regions. And on LGWGLA this winter, which you think would be a fairly prime route, there are no flights in the morning at all on Thursday or Friday. The best hope for SOU Scotland is that EZY get their fingers burnt and retreat sharply.
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Remember that Easyjet once operated Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast routes from Southend. Those routes went well before the pandemic. There was another time when Ryanair started to compete with Easyjet's successful Luton Copenhagen route. Easyjet eventually pulled the route due to Ryanair's pricing leaving Ryanair as the sole provider. Once they won they moved the route to Stansted leaving Luton's busiest route with no passengers.
The danger here is that Easyjet could damage bread and butter routes.
The danger here is that Easyjet could damage bread and butter routes.
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RJ, that's absolute b****cks. There's nothing here which says that Southampton will ever become a base. If you predicted that, you still have a very long way to go to be proved right. Yes, easyJet will have a presence at SOU and will be expanded next summer with sunshine flying, but that's not the base of which you speak. Happy to come back in years to come to see who's right, but for now, it's BS.
I have always said that Easy and SOUs catchment are hand in glove. I said if SOU made the changes to make their ops viable they would come. Here they are are now building their ops.
As I said, come back in 2 years when Easy have a vase and I have been vindicated again.
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Remember that Easyjet once operated Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast routes from Southend. Those routes went well before the pandemic. There was another time when Ryanair started to compete with Easyjet's successful Luton Copenhagen route. Easyjet eventually pulled the route due to Ryanair's pricing leaving Ryanair as the sole provider. Once they won they moved the route to Stansted leaving Luton's busiest route with no passengers.
The danger here is that Easyjet could damage bread and butter routes.
The danger here is that Easyjet could damage bread and butter routes.
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EZY are using a very similar model to BHX and building routes with away based flying. I wouldn’t ever rule out a 3 aircraft base but it won’t happen for a couple of years and they will want to see route growth before anything further materialises. Next summer will be interesting with the popular sun routes coming on board!
Last edited by stewyb; 26th May 2023 at 12:42.
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If they're following their BHX approach at SOU then don't hold your breath ...EZY are cautious about new base openings. Their first BHX route was GVA (like SOU) in 2007. (although I think year round from the outset although happy to be corrected)...for years we only had GVA and BFS then GLA and EDI after Flybe1 went bust in 2020. Slow growth to a base in 2024 that is being widely touted as taking over the current away based routes, leaving little room for new destinations ,( if indeed this rumour is true,)
Indeed no major reason for EZY not to eventually open a base at SOU but I think they'll have to grow away based flights first to a level that warrants the cost of setting up and running an operational base. At present, a winter seasonal to GVA and a couple of twice weekly domestics do not a base make. I think though that SOU must surely be in line for PMI/ALC/AGP by EZY in S24 in addition to EDI plus increased frequency on GLA and BFS?
The good thing for SOU is that the interest is there from EZY, however I'm sure none of you want EZY to dominate as BE did.....and previous posters comments about the BHX - GLA and EDI schedules are correct, constantly chipping and changing and no fixed early - middle day - evening schedule (perhaps this will change with the base being opened)
Indeed no major reason for EZY not to eventually open a base at SOU but I think they'll have to grow away based flights first to a level that warrants the cost of setting up and running an operational base. At present, a winter seasonal to GVA and a couple of twice weekly domestics do not a base make. I think though that SOU must surely be in line for PMI/ALC/AGP by EZY in S24 in addition to EDI plus increased frequency on GLA and BFS?
The good thing for SOU is that the interest is there from EZY, however I'm sure none of you want EZY to dominate as BE did.....and previous posters comments about the BHX - GLA and EDI schedules are correct, constantly chipping and changing and no fixed early - middle day - evening schedule (perhaps this will change with the base being opened)
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If they're following their BHX approach at SOU then don't hold your breath ...EZY are cautious about new base openings. Their first BHX route was GVA (like SOU) in 2007. (although I think year round from the outset although happy to be corrected)...for years we only had GVA and BFS then GLA and EDI after Flybe1 went bust in 2020. Slow growth to a base in 2024 that is being widely touted as taking over the current away based routes, leaving little room for new destinations ,( if indeed this rumour is true,)
Indeed no major reason for EZY not to eventually open a base at SOU but I think they'll have to grow away based flights first to a level that warrants the cost of setting up and running an operational base. At present, a winter seasonal to GVA and a couple of twice weekly domestics do not a base make. I think though that SOU must surely be in line for PMI/ALC/AGP by EZY in S24 in addition to EDI plus increased frequency on GLA and BFS?
The good thing for SOU is that the interest is there from EZY, however I'm sure none of you want EZY to dominate as BE did.....and previous posters comments about the BHX - GLA and EDI schedules are correct, constantly chipping and changing and no fixed early - middle day - evening schedule (perhaps this will change with the base being opened)
Indeed no major reason for EZY not to eventually open a base at SOU but I think they'll have to grow away based flights first to a level that warrants the cost of setting up and running an operational base. At present, a winter seasonal to GVA and a couple of twice weekly domestics do not a base make. I think though that SOU must surely be in line for PMI/ALC/AGP by EZY in S24 in addition to EDI plus increased frequency on GLA and BFS?
The good thing for SOU is that the interest is there from EZY, however I'm sure none of you want EZY to dominate as BE did.....and previous posters comments about the BHX - GLA and EDI schedules are correct, constantly chipping and changing and no fixed early - middle day - evening schedule (perhaps this will change with the base being opened)
Although the majority of cruise ships are elsewhere during the winter season the Port of Southampton still sees certain cruise ship calls during that period. For the first time in the port's history the Port of Southampton handled 16 cruise ships in February 2023, with three turnarounds on one particular day.
Can those that constantly imply you have to be as rich as Croesus to fly with LM back that up?
How much influence in to where and when EZY fly do SOU have?
Airports like Bristol and Leeds have found that embracing LCCs really does significantly boost traffic. Why shouldn't it have the same effect at SOU, and why is a bit of experimentation really so bad? Airports that take no risks tend not to thrive long-term