Both the Welsh Government and the Welsh Government's wholly-owned Cardiff Airport sent letters to North Somerset Unitary Authority regarding Bristol Airport's expansion planning application that was rejected last week by the local authority. Their contention was that the expansion wasn't necessary as CWL could cope with any extra passenger traffic in the Severnside region. BRS is my local airport and I am a user but I see nothing wrong in the WG's or their airport's actions in trying to protect their own interests. The same applies with BOH.

In the 1990s Bristol Airport objected at a planning enquiry to a proposed new city airport at Filton.

Interesting to hear. I am sure it’s standard practice to defend their own interest, but BOH has invested around £50 million over the last few years and not got very far as a result. Let’s hope SOU gets the same chance to implement some investment.

A 19% growth in PAX numbers at BOH for 2019 cf 2018 is equal to "not got very far"?

Groundloop, BOH is on the up and will probably be the regional airport of the South in the next few years. Good investment has paid off.There are contributors on this Southampton blog that are blinkered to how
​​​​bad SOU has been managed in the last 15 years,simply relying on Flybe was so short sighted ,and if it goes down then it will be the demise of Southampton airport. Bournemouth can take up some of the routes that could become available,and expand its routes into Europe. The era of the turboprop is slowly declining.

BOH (which is very convenient, dont get me wrong) great, is on the 'up', but surely in the main, the traffic is seasonal leisure influenced as it always has been since the 60's.
Mostly Summer and Winter sun, SKI flights, Norway Cruises, and a bit of long haul Cruise stuff.
With regards to ethnic/EU worker & associated VFR traffic, the new EU workers immigration status changing may see any such Lo-Co traffic not ever return.
BOH suffers poor road access, no train station, and an erratic slow bus link from town.
The airport is a taxi drivers or car park company's dream, but great to go on your Hols from.

So I cannot see BOH in the future ever being a ''regional'', sorry.

SOU (and EXT for that matter) both have more regional point to point business links, good direct road and motorway access, and SOU has a Railway station just 3 minutes walk from check-in.
That alone is worth a pot of gold surely?
The huge SOU Port cruise ship business does not seem to have been tapped into.
The Cruise lines run door to door luxury coaches from Scotland, Mids and the North direct to the ship side...

So, where has SOU all gone wrong...If Flybe fail then we are looking at a very empty space which is a crying shame.

We all talk of EZYjet doing this and doing that - Maybe they will come into SOU like they did at SEN, and gamble to make SOU a real game changer?

wonder - if there was no traffic at SOU - (e.g if Flybe were to go under) whether the BOH issue with not being able to support regional services would be alleviated?

It would be better of course for SOU to attract easyJet itself in the likes of BFS, GLA, EDI, INV and ABZ. Perhaps even JER. Definitely AMS and CDG.

SOU processed 100,912 pax in Jan'20 (down 16%) with a year-to-date total of 1,762,018
Growth on the CDG route of 16% was reassuring to see at over 5,355 pax.

One suspects GVA should be well up also, EZY appear to have been operating up to 6 weekly recently.

no, usual frequency and instead a fault with FR24!

Unfortunately GVA was one of the worst performers, down 25%. Passengers on this route stood at 3,495 in Jan'20 down from 4,645 in Jan'19.

let’s not forget EZY has cut the Tue departure this year plus I believe BE haven’t reached the numbers of previous years. From what I have heard the EZY loads have been very strong!

EZY had an average of 134 pax per flight in January, up from 121 last year and 117 the year before. As StewyB says they only operate on Sundays and Thursdays this year, apart from a couple of weeks around Christmas and Feb half term when the Tuesday flight is reinstated.
Flybe had an average of 45 pax per flight in January, down from 52 last year and 70 the year before.
So less passengers carried this year, but the numbers appear to be going in the right direction for EZY.

It seems Flybe have finally conceded defeat.

So sorry for all the staff, but where does this leave SOU where 95% of it's commercial movements and pax came from this one airline.

Regrettably the airport lost it's other carriers and was left with just one on life support and now reportedly that has been switched off.

It's curtains for the airport,there's no way the owners will resist the cashpot that the land will make for housing.
It's a tragedy that could so easy have been a success story given airside investment over the years,and certainly the full implementation of the 2005 masterplan.
Good luck to Bournemouth,they take on the regional airport role

I'm hoping that some routes can be taken on, even if for a short period, however do feel that the proposed extension plans have now taken a massive hit. EBC will truly be rubbing their hands at the thought of possibly gaining some more land for housing, feel for everyone involved at the airport.

A devastating blow for SOU, but I believe the airport will bounce back. It’s worth remembering that the financial problems lay with Flybe, not with most of the routes from Southampton. The ‘core routes’ to Manchester, Edinburgh’ Glasgow, Ireland and the Channel Islands are all exceptionally well-used and profitable, and AMS and CDG perform well too.

There will obviously be a disastrous short-term down-turn with the suspension of these services, but in the medium term these core routes will either return with a similar frequency with a mix of other regional carriers, Aer Lingus Regional, Eastern, Loganair, Blue Islands, Aurigny, KLM, or with easyJet ‘cherry picking’ a few domestic routes offering a couple of services a day. And yes, an A319/A320 can operate on these short routes perfectly well.

The demand is clearly there’ and the market will respond in the appropriate way.

The state of some of these comments! One in particular.
its a sad day/night. These are real people out of work or fearful of it. It isn’t something for glee.
my thoughts are always that if they could get out of historic / legacy contracts then the owner group will pick and create a new airline without the baggage and whatever routes they like.
i expect to see a launch soon of a new virgin et al backed connect airline without any of the debt baggage. Whether they get the routes/slots is another question, but who will be competing? Possibly wait 6-12 months due to the virus outbreak before committing.
the planning application wasn’t good - if it fails it won’t be because of Flybe. On appeal it could still stand a chance - depends if that’s what they want.
hope and best wishes to all at SOU and of course Flybe and associated providers / etc

Well said and fully agree, the airport will bounce back even though certain posters are desperate for the airport to fail!

So tomorrow a.m. there will be a grand total of three scheduled flights?

Cash flow is King, I wonder how much outstanding debt will be owing to Southampton airport by Flybe?