I am guessing then that if the plans are submitted in the summer, the council will sit on it for a month or so then

1 ) approve the extension and expansion of Southampton and give SOU the ok to go ahead, which could possibly mean work start in January? how long it would take i have no idea, but ready for summer 2020 ?

2 ) send it back or delay it longer while the council investigate more

You wouldn't be surprised FF, but hopefully SOU have done a lot of prep work and have already got a good idea of the councils concerns and have built them into the application. Given the current news agenda, doesn't look like great timing though.

I would seriously question the wisdom of bringing bigger plane s and more often to a runway whose over run / undershoot area is a busy 6 lane motorway. Sure as eggs are eggs one day the inevitable will happen and now is the time for the planners to show foresight and say "No"

bb

The big difference between SEN and SOU (identical runway lengths after extension) would be the ground obstacles. Hills, trees and rail depots.... it's even listed as a hazard in the airfield guidance from NATS.

If the aircraft needs to ascend more quickly to avoid obstacles, then the aircraft cannot be heavy. Meaning any flights over 2hrs would be economically questionable.

Please don't get me wrong RivetJoint - I support the expansion as I would benefit from it too despite being a BOH 'troll'. It's just not as simple as SEN's extension.

LBC will not like that at all!

Good luck to the planning application ,but realistically it's never going to happen,as stated if this was 10 years ago then maybe,but it's not and the climate has changed.
Expect major objections and eventual withdraw of the application.Where does this leave SOU?,well it certainly won't be around after another 10 years.
It makes sense to develop transport links to BOU,it has the runway,location and facilities to become a mini Gatwick!.Investment will come through. SOU had its chance many years ago,but poor management,lack of investment and oversight has silled it's fate.

You can't compare Bristol and Southampton/Bournemouth as they have unique circumstances.

Volotea 717
 

Southampton/Portsmouth/Bournemouth combined populations should be compared wth 'Greater Bristol' which includes cities and towns such as Bath and Weston-super-Mare. Furthermore, because of its physical location at the intersetion of two major motorways (M4 and M5) and a similar rail 'cross-roads' (London, South Coast, South West, Midlands/North, South Wales) the city region is easily accessible from most parts of the country, albeit once in the city area itself the traffic can be horrendous and the airport is poorly connected.

BRS attracts significant numbers of customers from South Wales, Devon/Cornwall and parts of the Thames Valley, which was one of the considerations that Barbara Cassani mentioned in her book when her airline Go set up its second base and chose BRS. That said, around 40% of BRS's annual passenger numbers begin or end their journey in the 'Greater Bristol' area, roughly analogous to the area covered by the short-lived county of Avon.

The South West and the Bristol area in particular still 'loses' several million passenger journeys to the London airports (mainly LHR) each year.

Having said all this, I agree that the South Coast airports should be handling considerably more passengers than is currently the case, having regard to the size and make-up of the cities and towns within the Southampton/Portsmouth conurbation. They are under-performing when compared to somewhere like BRS which might be thought to be punching above its weight at a physically constrained site with poor surface connectivity.

The Eurostat concept of larger urban zones is sometimes a more realistic guide to city region population sizes than municipal populations.