Confirmed by the airport that cross wind conditions were the cause, think BE E95 also diverted to BOU!

Shambles, far from it, concerning yes if the airport wants to attract a LCC!

Sorry but why is it a shambles or even a concern if crosswind components are exceeded one day? It’s the weather, nothing to do with the airport. EZY probably encounter weather diversions across their network at least once a week if not more often. I’m struggling to understand how SOU is at fault here. Is it for failing to anticipate this and building a runway on a turntable so it could always be facing into wind?

I live four miles NE of SOU and mid-morning wind gusts here were force 10, causing widespread damage to trees - including the tree in my garden! Force 10 is 52 knots and the absolute maximum crosswind performance for an A320 is 38 knots landing, 29 knots on take off, so clearly it could not have operated safely at any airport anywhere in such conditions. The wind in South Hampshire today has been extreme to say the least, with the isobars very locally being squeezed just in the immediate area by low pressure just east of London, and low pressure to the north west, and there is nothing that could have been done to mitigate the circumstances and avoid the diversions. Clearly not SOU’s fault on this occasion.

SEN starts RYR ops next month and is also only CAT 1 ILS!

I am not suggesting they should be able to control the weather, but ops are constantly disrupted at SOU. Fog, wind, closing times, ancient landing system, candles for landing lights etc. You only have to look on this thread to see how frequent these issues materialise. Sure, every airport has its off days but for SOU it’s constant. There is no point carrying out their planned investment if planes cannot operate in and out in the first place.

You can pick any day an airbus sized aircraft is operating and it leaves late every single time (even when arriving early). It’s woeful that they struggle to handle even one of these sized aircraft a day. Let’s say EasyJet base one aircraft here, and it operates 4-5 flights a day, with the usual approximate 30 minute delay added to each departure of an aircraft this size, every one of the last arrivals of the day is going to have find somewhere else to land for the night. The issue would be twice as exasperated if they based 2 aircraft.

I’m sure Easy Jet want to open a base, at the very least because other airports are currently maxed out, but one rotation a day seems to be frought with issues as it is, so a base would be a daily disaster.

3 months or thereabouts until Flylolo are supposed to commence their summer schedule and still no word on airline operator. Was told at end Feb the plane had been secured and a joint launch with the airport was going to happen, we still await!

Sorry if i’m being dumb but why does this thread keep banging on about curfews. Airport opening hours roughly mirror those of SEN and they dont seem to suffer problems with out of hours EZY traffic. Their first and last arrivals are not dissimilar to SOU so why should any based airline be at a disadvantage here!? Cheers

Stewyb

Difference is SEN is technically open 24hours and can therefore accept late arriving flights, although I do believe there is a penalty imposed in certain cases.

Twitter

No idea, was told from the horses mouth that a E90 had been secured and a promotional launch with the airport was being arranged. An A319 will be performance limited and will need to have seat capacity reduced dramatically and i cant see that it would be financially viable, however i dont believe the airbus will eventually be the plane of choice. Agreed that i think we would all like to see flylolo succeed but there just seems to be too much uncertainty with aircraft operators changing, destinations being removed and advertising very hit and miss!

I find their twitter feed really really unprofessional it reminds me of Firnas Airways. They’re spending all their time arguing with people who leave comments and posting rubbish/retweeting about other companies… this is an embarrassment to Southampton and the potential the airport has