Sept CAA Stats
 

Southampton handled 191,947 passengers in September down about 300 on last year (<1%), the first fall in quite a few months, albeit a very small one.

Some basic route breakdowns below:

Alicante - 115 pax / 97%
Cork - 45 pax / 62%
Dusseldorf - 50 pax / 63%
Faro - 111 pax / 94%
Ibiza - 100 paz / 80%
Malaga - 114 pax / 96%
Munich - 31 pax / 62%
Paris CDG - 59 pax / 75%

Heading into the winter Powdair have been lost, although I wonder how many will be particularly surprised at that (all those fancy launch events happening while they haven't even sourced aircraft yet etc seemed odd to me!) but, hopefully the arrival of Easyjet will give the Geneva route a good boost.

As for next year, so far the only new routes are TUI's charters to Mahon and Loloflights to Skiathos both using Flybe.

I believe EasyJet could potentially do summer routes succesfuly. Given that there are many routes that they could introduce at SOU. Prices are relatively reasonable too considering I’ve just booked the GVA flight for £54 return including choosing my seats both ways.

Souspotter96
As stated many times in the past,unless there was substantial airside investment ( apron,taxiway etc)at Southampton,then easy jet and any other potential operator with Airbus/Boeing equipment will not be able to launch expanded operations.Southampton is stuck with Flybe who fill the present needs for the airport.
I suspect that there will be little change and a leveling off of pax numbers.
Development down the road at Bournemouth would impact eventually on the long term future of Southampton airport.

It's a shame because SOU has the much better external infrastructure to make it a viable airport (railway/ access to M3/M27) Not to mention the wider catchment area of Bournemouth to Portsmouth.
Bournemouth just can't compete with that, and i highly doubt now that Rigby have taken over, they will invest the £mils (maybe even £bils) to bring it to the same infrastructure standard as SOU. (would they even be allowed in the first place?)

Yet as everyone has mentioned, the lack of investment here has allowed this prospect to arise, making a rod for it's own back with local competition

'Prices are reasonable' = tickets are being sold below cost. Looks as if the route isn't doing well.

Oct CAA Stats
 

Southampton handled 176,421 passengers in October, representing a 1% increase on last year (not sure how half term fell this year?).

Some basic route breakdowns below:

Alicante - 97 pax / 82%
Cork - 38 pax / 53% (Not 100% sure on the days of operation and if it was 5 or 6 weekly, estimate is based on the latter)
Dusseldorf - 49 pax / 63%
Faro - 103 pax / 87%
Malaga - 102 pax / 87%
Munich - 26 pax / 52%
Paris CDG - 57 pax / 74%

Two BA A320 diversions in this evening, one from Krakow and one from Geneva. Three aircraft diverted from SOU earlier in the afternoon due to high crosswinds.

Interestingly my friend was one of the crew that diverted into Southampton last night as had run out of stands for inbound aircraft at T5 from 1630

Was told that the ground guy got on the aircraft at SOU and said when the request came to land it was agreed on the basis that the aircraft did not have baggage containers they could handle it
When they landed it did of course have containers so all the passengers got off but SOU didn't have the equipment to offload the bags

Aircraft has arrived back at LHR still with bags , wasn't aware SOU does not have container facilities ?

Why would it have?

Plenty of Airbus narrowbodies have frequented SOU over the years (most recently, on a regular basis, Volotea 319's), but as these aircraft can be bulk-loaded as well as containerised, one would assume the former was the case with those.

SOU almost certainly hosts no other aircraft types that would require the use of a transfer loader (to get the containers on and off the aircraft).

With Easyjet starting 319/320 Ops imminently, one suspects bulk load will be the order of the day again, including lots of skis!

Well it's about time that SOU get some equipment at least one for these situations especially as they accept diversions from the likes of BA, it will be a bonus for the airport, another bit of ground handling equipment wouldn't hurt.

That seems a bit embarrassing to not have the equipment. Speaking of 320’s, what’s the likely hood of getting a NEO at SOU from EZY?. Do the retro fit winglets affect the size to the extent of having to take up two stands?.

Ahh, the Pprune spenders of other people's money are out again. Seriously, you buy an expensive piece of kit just in case you might get a couple of diversions a year? :ugh:

Agreed SWBKCB.

Why buy a hi/lo loader for 1 or 2 diversions a year at a cost of over £50k (new) plus the expense of having to maintain it and train staff on it.

BFS have hi loaders but the one they have isn’t capable of taking AKE’s off a A319 due to its size and how close it would get to the engine. They get BA diverts all of the time but it’s always on the understanding that the bags will stay on. In almost all cases the aircraft fuels and positions to BHD.

All BA aircraft are containerised that operate from LHR and have to be due to the way the airport baggage system is made up, this is why the BMI A319’s / A320’s we’re mostly sent to LGW as they were bulk loaded.

It's not just the cost of the hi/lo, they'd also need to buy dollies to transport the ULDs on. These take up a fair bit of space when stored too, which it's fair to say is at a premium at SOU!
The lack of this equipment doesn't stop the airport handling fuel & go diversions, bulk loaded aircraft, or containerised diversions on the understanding that the bags stay onboard, so personally I don't think it's a huge issue considering the cost/benefit ratio.

Containers/Bulkloading
 

When BA diverts in normally it's fog delay or excessive holding at LHR, and they wait with passengers on board until they refuel and get a slot back into LHR. This time the passengers needed to be offloaded and transported, but the baggage couldn't be.

call it progress = erm not
BA decides to have its short haul Bus fleet using ULD containerised baggage but most other carriers use bulk loading

BA diverts and the airport cannot handle taking off the luggage = pax pissed off - happened to me in mykonos this summer on BA A320 poor greeks never seen containerised short haul luggage what a fiasco in the world of aviation and its 2017!

Can we expect any further airline/route announcements going in to 2018 or has the airport flat lined?

Of course it's progress. It greatly simplifies the VAST majority of BA's SH baggage handling. The entire T5 baggage system at LHR was designed around containers. So occasionally things don't go quite to plan. That's life!