On the other hand, despite the competition from SOU, the BOH-GVA December pax figure of 4,441 was 8% up on 2016 and the second highest December figure on the route since it started in 2005, only surpassed by the 4,573 back in 2007.

Interesting stats and quite possibly the demand is there for both routes. Lets see what numbers the core ski season brings!

nutts mutts - are u sure about those stats re average per aircraft?

By my own estimates BOH-GVA was averaging 130 pax and SOU-GVA averaging under 100 after taking out Flybes SOU-GVA (assuming same as LY) even though some extra Flybe Saturday services were added.

So if any consolidation happens it will be to BOH’s benefit not the other way around?

SWBKCB it was reported in the media that Ryanair were carrying out a review of all their single aircraft bases. GLA apparently was a single base with the 2nd you mention being based at STN

However MarkEYD just pointed out that actually Ryanair seems to be adding to services especially to Palma in the Summer (two flights a day on some days)

Nakata- I'm highly confident of the numbers on the SOU-GVA route, although I think Flybe actually did better in terms of numbers than MarkeyD allowed for them, so in that case the EZY numbers will be slightly lower. My own figure for EZY SOU was an average of 124 pax per flight.
As for BOH, the service started on the 9th December and operated Thurs-Mon with two flights on Saturdays. That gave 21 departures (I counted Xmas day but I don't know for certain if flights operated that day). Double it gives the actual number of flights including the inbound legs, so 42 flights in the month. Total pax figure 4441 from CAA stats, divided by 42 gives 105.73 rounded up to 106 average per flight.

It's not a willy waving competition, I just find that SOU attracts a lot of negativity on here and ever since the EZY route from there was announced there have been a lot of comments about how the route didn't appear to be doing well, so as a SOU fan I'm happy to see that the first month doesn't seem to have been the total disaster that some may have foreseen.
I'm happy to see the BOH figures doing well compared to previous years in spite of the competition up the road, and I think there's a big enough market for both airports. For me the issue is stopping the leakage of pax to London from both south coast airports, there's a large market here waiting to be served correctly.

Nuts mutts - I believe the actual number of flights from BOH in Dec was 17 (34 returns) because although first flight was 9th (one flight) they didn’t operate the following Tuesday and Thursday only Friday 15th

SOU possibly gets negative reviews on here because this is the BOH thread (?)

Long story short, it's a mixed picture.

Ryanair's decision to close Glasgow and move the aircraft to Edinburgh was influenced by the fact that Ryanair's fares (and thus yield) were much lower on their routes from Glasgow than from Edinburgh.

When comparing the fares on Ryanair's 10 routes from Bournemouth with the corresponding routes from other UK airports, the picture is rather bleak.

The most important point to note is that it is considerably cheaper to fly Ryanair from Bournemouth than from one of Ryanair's other South West airports (BRS and NQY). From NQY, Ryanair fly to only two destinations that are also served from BOH (ALC and FAO), but fares are on average 39% higher from NQY than from BOH. Ryanair serves 9 of the 10 BOH routes from BRS, and fares are 18% more higher from BRS than from BOH. This shows that Ryanair are being forced to keep their BOH fares low in order to create demand, thus putting the airport in the exact same position as GLA. What is more worrying is that Ryanair face a lot less competition on their BOH routes than from BRS, meaning there doesn't seem to be enough high yield demand from BOH.

However, there are some positives from the figures. 6 of the 10 destinations are operated using the single BOH based aircraft. Assuming an average load factor, the four routes with the highest yield are operated by the BOH aircraft, and the worst performers are operated by away-based aircraft. This suggests that while some routes (namely ALC, KRK and AGP) could be axed, it doesn't necessarily mean that the base will close completely. It all depends on whether Ryanair find it more beneficial to operate a small network of 5-6 routes from BOH, or to close the base and move all operations to BRS.

Is this the same picture throughout the year? BOH is very seasonal

The figures above are for the beginning of August, so peak summer season.

For winter season (6 routes), the picture is less bleak, but this is mainly fuelled by a large increase in fares on BOH-KRK and large fall in fares on BRS-KRK. Overall, flights from BRS are 5% more expensive, but the 5 sun routes average at 12% higher than from BOH.

So essentially this means that while BOH performs relatively poorly compared with BRS and other UK Ryanair bases, the airport performs a little less poorly during the winter season.

Correct me if I’m wrong but all Ryanair routes are to other (larger) bases than BOH, except MJV. Therefore RYR could (not saying should or will) close the base at BOH and maintain the same frequencies and destinations (just different schedule)

Social media responses from the airport during the snow event have been non-existent, while many other airports including Bristol, Southampton and the London and Scottish ones have been truly fantastic keeping everyone up to date. Seriously NOT impressed with the new airport owners so far. No clue as to how important digital communication is in 2018.

No excuse I know but its hardly surprising when you only have 3/4 flights departing daily. You only have to travel through the airport, of which I find it to be a pleasant enough experience, to understand that operations are working on a part time basis!

Their website says airport is closed due to the weather- what else are they supposed to say?

Rigby haven’t completely taken over yet so early days..

Eghh 021220z 08010kt 8000 ovc014 m01/m03 q0989 snoclo 2018-03-02 12:20:00

Passenger figures are finally out for December and I have included Jan as well

December 2017 saw 31 , 870 passengers exactly the same as the previous year !

Santa flights

Enontekio 189 pax Enter Air B738

Kittila 186 pax TUI B738

Pajala 189 pax Enter Air B 738

Ivalao saw 2 flights by Small Planet A321 177 pax per flight ( was scheduled originally on a A320 , 180 seater )

Ryanair and TUI averaged mid 85 / 90 % loads except the Turin ski flights which was only about 60 % full

Barbados went out full 299 pax on B 787

Geneva operated by Easy jet saw 18 flights start the Dec ski season with 4441 pax giving an average of 124 pax




January 2018

31 , 379 passengers passed through the airport down 5 % , I think this was mainly down to 1 less Ryanair flight being operated , LPA being cut

Ryanair and TUI saw flights averaging about 175 pax per flight except again the Turin ski flight that only saw about 123 pax per flight

Easy Jet to Geneva saw 6094 use the flight averaging about 122 pax per flight

The Southampton service saw 4697 pax to Geneva
Flybe operated 12 flights , so giving them say an average 65 pax per flight that leaves Easy Jet with 13 flights operated and an average of 121 pax per flight

12-month rolling total is 3.3% up at 692,000 (Feb'17-Jan'18)

Paphos added twice weekly with Ryanair for W18

Still seems to be based aircraft flying available for a Spanish-type sector length on days 2,3,4,6,7 for Winter 18. More to be announced?

Summer '18 Summary
 

As usual, if anyone has more information on any one off charters etc then please let me know and I will update this post. TUI are identical to last year and some of Ryanair's seasonal increases have not carried across, so there is a couple of weekly flights less in the summer peak compared to last year.

Easyjet

Geneva - 4 weekly 319 (until 21/04)

Freebird

Dalaman - 1 weekly 320 (for TUI)

Ryanair - 1 738 based

Alicante - 4 weekly
Faro - 4 weekly
Girona - 4 weekly
Las Palmas - 1 weekly
Krakow - 2 weekly
Malaga - 6 weekly
Malta - 2 weekly
Murcia - 4 weekly
Palma - 6-8 weekly
Tenerife South - 1 weekly

TUI - 1 738 Based

Corfu - 1 weekly
Ibiza - 1 weekly
Lanzarote - 2 weekly
Las Palmas - 1 weekly
Mahon - 1 weekly
Naples - 1 weekly
Palma - 1-4 weekly
Paphos - 1 weekly
Rhodes - 1 weekly
Tenerife South - 1-2 weekly

Overall:

45-52 weekly departures
6-7 daily departures

Look forward to SOU analysis 👍