Fuerteventura will be exclusive to Jet2 as well. Alicante, Faro and Gran Canaria in S25 are also not served by TUI, but probably will be by Ryanair. That may change of course by the time it launches, but anyway I digress... I'm aware this is the Southampton not the Bournemouth thread.

If you look at the destinations, many are beyond economically viable loads from SOU, even with the Neo. It appears to be merely a case of the increased options available with BOH’s longer runway.

Jet2 may well operate a double BOH and SOU base in the future. There is no reason why Jet2 can't put two A320's into SOU when they are delivered and operate to some of the places that are more economically viable from SOU's runway.

I would be very surprised if easyJet did not respond defensively by opening a SOU base now with 2 or 3 A320's and serving some obvious routes that BOH are not doing such as Croatia, Poland, Austria, etc.

This may mean AGS needing to unlock the flood gates and allowing easyJet to do AMS, CDG, EDI, JER too.

Is there any evidence that EZY regard SOU as a significant market to take such action? And what's this about AGS 'allowing' EZY. If they wanted to, they could be operating those routes now

If I was easyJet I would want to defend my LGW operation and consolidate there. SOU is a costly airport to operate from (having no other sources of commercial revenue) BUT easyJet Holidays do seem to compete well with Jet2 Holidays at other bases. Look at BRS for example.

Jet2 does not operate from LGW so easyJet has a strategic advantage there. Is there any advantage to easyJet purposely loosing £m's by basing aircraft at SOU in order to defend LGW? Crazier things have been done so perhaps one should never say never.

Replicating what they do at SEN at SOU? They operate from SEN because they do not serve STN in any significant way, so we can't really draw comparisons there.

I'm sure they are not actively encouraging easyJet on to AMS because of the harm it may do to the relatively new and recently expanded KLM service to AMS. Airports always try and control what airlines do through their airports with incentives or lack thereof. I can guarantee you that nobody wants a repeat of the Flybe debacle. Different airlines on different routes has been the way they have shaped the airport post COVID and its served them very well thus far.

Could those routes sustain a large Easyjet presence without the current carriers scaling back or even stopping the services? Southampton is close enough to London its a good overspill, but its also close enough to London that your competing with those airports catchments too, especially easyjet to Jersey. 3 x ATR flights a day from SOU v 3 or more Airbus flights a day from LGW and a similar number from LHR.

Jet2 is a good fit for Bournemouth and is no doubt looking to compete heavily with TUI. Would a similar operation even make sense from SOU? Doubtful. Bournemouth offers bucket and spade / leisure and Southampton offers Business / Commuting and a small amount of Leisure. Both airports compliment with a similar 'central' catchment with BRS / EXT to BOHs west and LGW and LHR to SOUs north / NE.

Since Covid, the business market isn't what it once was. Not sure the demand is there in quite the same way.

EasyJet are operating leisure oriented routes out of SEN because they can no longer compete with the frequency offered at STN, and SEN is seen as a differentiator in that market. Their retrenching against Ryanair as a low-cost competitor made their STN base stagnant for years before closing it during Covid. Now EZY have gone down the package holiday avenue, where Ryanair is less of a threat, and left a void that allowed Jet2 to expand there on a huge scale.

They chose to consolidate at LTN/LGW only to prove they then couldn't cope with the LGW operation last summer, neither can they hold on to the LGW slots they leased, so are now forced to cut their market share in London whilst competitors are growing. EZY will need to find a way to address that and find a way to differentiate. SEN or SOU are both viable candidates for that - They could both act essentially as a London overspill.

EasyJet also have to return a further 140 weekly Gatwick slots to BA next year. That is equivalent to 10 round trips per day.

Doesn't look like this will be a consideration, it looks like Jet2 have demarcated a pretty large catchment area between BRS and STN for BOH to serve.

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/jet2-b...rnemouth-45518

So Jet 2 have all the ingredients at BOH to be a big success,a suitable runway for all destinations,no opening time restrictions,a vast holiday catchment area,a progressive management team. I can't believe that Easy at SOU will be able to complete with Jet2,Ryanair and Tui, or even want to.

Southampton builds a runway extension and is left with a few crumbs. It was not what I was expecting.

Flying from SOU with the easyJet brand is still a very attractive option to many and do not underestimate this. Question is however will they expand?

As big a boost as it is for Bournemouth, the frequencies offered by Jet2 from there aren't massive.

Still plenty of potential growth for easyJet out of Southampton. I don't see it necessarily as one or the other....yet. However, I'm not sure they can afford to give Jet2 too much of a head start as they're a very canny, very well run operation and will no doubt will flood the local radios etc with marketing campaigns.

Easyjet do sell package holidays but they do not have the loyalty nor the brand power of TUI and Jet2 Holidays, but they are a good solid flight product.
so,
Easyjet may respond to Jet2's new BOH base with more leisure routes from SOU, but they can only be flown to destinations that will not be limited by SOU's runway performance, which could eliminate the Canaries, Cyprus, Turkey and the Greek Islands.


Ryanair of course do not sell traditional Package Holidays (in the true sense of the word).
That is the difference at BOH.

TUI Holidays and Jet2 Holidays (now the UK's #1 Holiday Operator) at BOH will be competing for the package holiday market (which is strong here in this area).
Folk will not now have to trek to LGW or to BRS.
EXT with TUI is a pretty small base with just one 737, but used to be much busier in the past.

Staying positive for the airport there are still plenty to go for from existing Orange bases, Nice, Bordeaux, Lyon, Barcelona, Lisbon, Malaga, Naples, Milan, Berlin and Manchester. All have a decent mix of sun, city culture and ski and would be a welcome alternative to bucket and spade from BOH, could do well!

It's still a big blow for SOU though- I know that Jet2 were one of the airlines they were actively courting for operations from the new extended runway.
To finally get the extension in place only to see Jet2 set up a base down the road at their local rival airport is going to sting a bit, particularly if Jet2 are saying that they've now closed their coverage gap along the south coast- it looks like SOU has, once again, missed the boat.

It's a great little airport to fly from but it really is a case study in stagnation and missed opportunities. I've got no doubt it'll continue to plod along serving a few domestic and European routes but I think that'll be all. Whereas down the road at BOH they've expanded their cargo operation, increased scheduled flights and now gained another based operator with a large and loyal following. This is all in addition to their large number of ancillary aviation services, again something that SOU lacks (apart from Signature and Jetworks) due to a shortage of available space, compounded by poor decision-making and a lack of investment over the years.

Think it rather helps who the operator/owner of the airport is.

Spot on. AGS seem uninterested in growth and developing a pro-active approach to airport ops and customer experience, also borne out by the same grumblings of people associated with ABZ/GLA. Rumours of a sale would back this up!