Yet another good news story that the usual individuals are desperately trying to turn into a negative. We would all love to know why you pea brained arm chair experts think the Government, who are probably quite busy at the moment, would spend time on freeports if they achieved no results. Last time I checked Singapore, which is smaller than Hampshire, is doing alright. Of course as has long been demonstrated on this thread there is no reasoned debate to be had with people who are just spreading hate as a result of their own deficiencies. The fact that you are belittling the prospect of thousands of jobs creating opportunities for families who are suffering in these awful times must mean that you are truly hateful to the core. I suggest all of you go away any seek help. Mods please take note, there are some frequent offenders here.

On a positive, lets hope this opens up better opportunities for the land on the north east side. Surely land with runway access that benefits from this new status would be wasted on more storage sheds for road hauliers. The new status will also presumably make the Council more confident that investing in the new link road will be money well spent. Meanwhile turning to the cruise industry, which i'm sure the arm chair experts would tell us is even more doomed than aviation, I note that the construction of a fifth cruise terminal is well underway and looks like no expense spared as well. Amazing what you can do with a bit of optimism.

River joint,your comments are offensive and show just how extreme you are!! "Of course as has long been demonstrated on this thread there is no reasoned debate to be had with people who are just spreading hate as a result of their own deficiencies. The fact that you are belittling the prospect of thousands of jobs creating opportunities for families who are suffering in these awful times must mean that you are truly hateful to the core. I suggest all of you go away any seek help. Mods please take note, there are some frequent offenders here. course as has long been demonstrated on this thread there is no reasoned debate to be had with people who are just spreading hate as a result of their own deficiencies. The fact that you are belittling the prospect of thousands of jobs "
Mods take note of this offensive contributor.
The runway extension will go to the wire,but does the airport need it know with the radical changes brought on be covid?​​

Maybe because they are a subject the Chancellor has been promoting for a while - see his paper from 2016, then some of the counter arguements from the FT

https://www.cps.org.uk/research/the-...s-opportunity/

https://www.ft.com/content/7ee9e853-...9-f7e20cdae3c0

Freeport status is a game changer for the airport, watch this space!

Genuine question for the Freeport supporters. Why were the last lot scrapped in 2012?

The legislation was time limited and wasn't renewed.

EU membership restrictions meant the Freeport status had marginal benefits. Free from the shackles of Brussels, there are massive investment opportunities. For our ports and airports.

What are the differences?

EU membership restrictions? You mean the freedom of trade we had as members?

yeah we need Free Trade Port because we've just left one of the worlds biggest free trade organisations.............. and that applied across the whole country

Asturias makes a valid point......I would add that Free Trade Ports when set up could well disadvangage other non FTP's in England which formerly enjoyed free single market access, now a thing of the past. Nevertheless, good luck to Southamptons port and airport with their new status.

Looking at other airports in the UK right now it becomes really clear that SOU has one of the most significant recoveries of any airport with a whole range of new routes and airlines coming on stream - just look at the wikipedia pages of each to get a feel for it. Pretty striking and I for one can't wait to use the BA Cityflyer services!! How the airport is not viable with all of this beggars belief.

Agree to some extent and believe the airport has done a great job in recovering certain routes and airlines, however when you strip out that BA are only flying summer weekends and all UK regional services are going to be operating significantly reduced frequencies for some time, it then starts to look less substantial. There is no doubt the upcoming runway decision will have a huge impact on the airports future and the recent Freeport decision will create big opportunities!

BACF have added a weekly service to Alicante from 26th June to 30th October.

BA2905 SOU 07:30 ALC 11:00 6
BA2906 ALC 11:50 SOU 13:15 6

SOU-ALC
 

Just booked 😂

Hope local people will support these new routes by BA Cityflyer - this is the right airline for SOU!

Good luck for the future

Hello Boris Johnson! Had no idea you frequented these forums...

There's a simple answer to that; they didn't (and don't) work. They are a gimmick that government used after a previous recession. Why don't they work? To understand that you have to understand what the purposes of a "freeport" actually are.

Import and storage of goods free of liability for customs duties and VAT

Really does what it says on the tin. Importers can bring goods into the UK and hold them without paying import duties and VAT until they are sold in the UK, and at that stage the duties and taxes are accounted for. Those same goods can also be re-exported perhaps to the EU, and in that scenario when the shipments is released from the freeport it is shipped directly to the destination country without paying UK customs duties and AVT, so import duty is only applicable in the country of final destination. This could prove advantageous for businesses that were set up in the UK as distribution centres for the EU, when the UK was a member, and certainly there is the potential for some benefit to be derived by business in the Brexit era, as if they continued to act as a DC serving EU countries without going down this route (of storing imported goods without payment of UK duties and taxes) the good arriving, say, from China would be subject to UK duties on arrival here, and then, because the UK / EU (not) free trade agreement requires goods to have originated in UK they would be subject all over again for customs duties on import to the destination country - double customs duty, and totally uncompetitive. All that said there are alternatives where companies can take any secure warehouse and apply for it to be bonded, say, a distributor could take their current warehouse, outside of any freeport facility, and bond all or part of it and achieve pretty much the same as they could in the freeport. Many of the remaining larger distributors may go down such a route, time alone will tell.

Importing goods and further processing them before delivering them on.

In this scenario part completed products could be brought into the freeport warehouse, and further engineered (processed) to make completed, or new products then be delivered either domestically or internationally, exactly as with the distribution model, with no UK duties and taxes payable until the products leave the freeport area. If they are exported then no duties and taxes are paid in UK.

For the new freeports so much is going to depend on the size of the freeports, be they in Southampton or East Midlands Airport. If as they were in the 1970s / 1980s, hey are on too small a scale, while they may benefit a few smaller businesses they will be irrelevant to large traders, and as it is many of the large European distribution businesses have moved their facilities on to the European mainland before Brexit finally happened.

It is very difficult to see how SOU will benefit in any way shape or form from a freeport in Southampton; the container port may well gain some benefit, however chances are bureaucracy and red tape will make freeports too much hassle to operate from. I remember trying to get in and out of the pathetic excuse for a freeport at BHX back in the day, the security was ridiculous. The real issue for freeports is that almost everything you can do in a freeport you can arrange outside one, rendering them largely superfluous, as I mentioned at the top, a political gimmick.

Question - IF the BACF summer schedule is a success, do we think they would consider a year round base from SOU (inc week days) what with LCY probably behind with capacity for some time to come?

ATNotts wrote:
But, for some strange reason 53 countries operate some 250 Free Zones worldwide. But they don't work, so all 53 countries are wasting their time...