Agreed RW20 that 2025 will be a pivotal year although I don’t see Nice/Bordeaux being pie in the sky. Quite the opposite, these French regionals have always sold well from SOU and in addition to some easyJet summer sun are exactly what the airport should be targeting. Sun routes will always be limited by the fact that EZY med bases only total 5 (including Faro/Barcelona in this) so the hope must be that these weekly frequencies will be increased to add a little more capacity. It will then start to look a great deal more promising and all of which is not unrealistic. However what I don’t foresee is Greece, Turkey etc being added any time soon.

Having previously listed the former French destinations previously flown from SOU I thought that I would add all of the other destinations that were previously operated from SOU.

I previously listed these destinations in a post from a couple of years ago.

AUSTRIA 🇦🇹
Innsbruck
Salzburg

BELGIUM 🇧🇪
Antwerp
Brussels

BULGARIA 🇧🇬
Varna

CROATIA 🇭🇷
Dubrovnik
Split

CZECHIA 🇨🇿
Prague

GERMANY 🇩🇪
Berlin
Dusseldorf
Frankfurt
Hamburg via Antwerp
Hannover
Munich
Paderborn

GREECE 🇬🇷
Mykonos
Skiathos

IRELAND 🇮🇪
Cork
Galway

ITALY 🇮🇹
Alghero
Milan Bergamo
Milan Malpensa
Verona

MALTA 🇲🇹
Malta International

NETHERLANDS 🇳🇱
Rotterdam

SPAIN 🇪🇸
Barcelona
Ibiza
Lleida
Mahon
Murcia
Tenerife

SWITZERLAND 🇨🇭
Bern
Zurich

UNITED KINGDOM 🇬🇧
Birmingham
Bristol
Cardiff
East Midlands
Exeter
Gibraltar
Humberside
Inverness
Isle of Man
Leeds
London Stansted
Liverpool
Newquay
Norwich
Plymouth
St Mary's
Teesside

Current destinations flown from SOU.

FRANCE 🇫🇷
Bergerac
Caen
Chambéry
Paris CDG

IRELAND 🇮🇪
Dublin

NETHERLANDS 🇳🇱
Amsterdam

PORTUGAL 🇵🇹
Faro

SPAIN 🇪🇸
Alicante
Malaga
Palma

SWITZERLAND 🇨🇭
Geneva

UNITED KINGDOM including the Channel Islands 🇬🇧
Aberdeen via Newcastle
Alderney 🇬🇬
Belfast City
Belfast International
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Guernsey 🇬🇬
Jersey 🇯🇪
Newcastle
Stornoway via Glasgow (edit)

​​I'm sure many reading this will be fully aware of the current destinations flown from Southampton but I wanted to add them to give a better comparison to the previous ones.

Not forgetting Stornoway via GLA

Air France
Aurigny
British Airways
Eastern Airways

Although obviously the majority of those former French 🇫🇷 destinations were previously operated by Flybe.

I overlooked Stornoway. I will edit my post to include it.

I hate to do this and maybe it is time for me to get a life but can I point out that the Channel Islands are not part of the UK.

I worked for British Channel Island Ferries for eight years, and I am fully aware of that fact. But for arguments sake, it was easier to include them under the United Kingdom. The same applies to the Isle of Man which I also listed under the United Kingdom banner.

Edit..regarding my previous post. I have added flags attached to the destinations in the Channel Islands.

I appreciate your efforts. I promise not to be such an a-hole for a couple of days at least.

I think Turkey is operational out of range even with the extension ,however I think SOU management need to focus on Corfu,MaltaGenoa as they are not hugely developed from BOH. As stated before not being able to base A/C at SOU due restrictions is always going to hold back the airports development.

A couple of days is only two days. Can you at least make it a few days which is three day's or at the very least even more, maybe a week. But of course I am joking with you. But keep on track as I will be counting the days.

"As stated before"

That's a huge understatement as it's included in almost 90% of your posts.

Genoa is a great city indeed, but with British Airways, EasyJet, and Vueling ceasing flights from London to the Italian city over the last couple of years, I certainly can't see it being offered from Southampton.

Corfu and Malta, I'm in total agreement as both destinations are within reach of SOU.

Any discussions regarding destinations in Turkey 🇹🇷 should be instantly closed down due to the fact that the country is way beyond the operational limits of SOU.

Nice to see Caen added.

Daft commnet by the new Ops bloke re ''bigger planes'' LOL.

The majority of those former French leisure and ''second homer'' destinations as mostly previously operated by Flybe, were seasonal (Summer only)
In the Winter season some Ski resort airports are very popular as we currently see with Lyons and Chambery, and to nearby GVA.
Grenoble is another one.

Other routes notably missed are Verona WEDS and SUN (Summer) Flybe flew it twice weekly and Inghams Lakes and Mountains Holidays filled the planes.

Corfu (and Malta) could work if flown on a W pattern - say BRS-CFU-SOU-CFU-BRS, plus both Aegean, Sky Express and KM Malta Airlines fly a number of summer charter flights (with A320)

Skiathos and Mykonos were both a missed opportunity; Flybe's JSI charterer were a nightmare, and BAs JMK began in the throes and woes of the Pandemic.
Had they been properly marketed and the routes handled far better then they would have been winners.


If TUI Holidays had some guts and push then they could offer way more from SOU than just 2 flights a week to Majorca.
Any TUI expansion at SOU would not IMHO, impact their BOH expansion and could well set them apart from Jet2's start up at BOH by offering more holidays from 2 local airports.

Trouble is, and here's the thing, (which applies to both SOU and BOH) apart from winter flights to the Canaries and weekend SKI flights then the rest is all summer only.

because that's when the good people of the Southampton/Bournemouth area want to fly?

The whole area is (relatively) well off financially - but it's very much leisure based, and Euro-centred

For all those who have said the 737-800 can’t operate from SOU, an Enter Air 737-800 operated in and out effortless today. Albeit on a short hop.

never said it couldn't it's done it in the past but not with an economic core charter load to the likes of the Mediterranean Greek Islands or the Canaries but fine for football charters or short hops perhaps with no luggage so you answered your own question


Enter air have also flown into Gibraltar 🇬🇮 but with a limited load a sports team

GIBRALTAR cannot accommodate regular loaded 737 800 operations
The old classic versions could though no problem

'short hop' is a bit of an under-statement lol

Regarding the Enter Air Boeing 737-800 that arrived at SOU today.

It arrived from Brussels, and after a couple of hours on the ground, it later departed for Brize Norton.

Does anyone have any other information regarding these flights?

This morning, Saturday, 20 April 2024, there was an EasyJet A319, EasyJet A320 plus the Enter Air Boeing 737-800 on the ground at the same time. Hopefully someone took a photo of that.

As always, Sotonsean, an interesting post, but in the interests of objectivity I'll point out that comparing the destinations that have ever been served from an airport with the destinations served at one moment in time (i.e now) is probably always going to make things look bad now - the equivalent lists for Heathrow would probably show something similar. I agree, though, that SOU has taken a hit in a way many UK airports haven't.

I’m hearing a 3 aircraft base from March/April 2025 is on the cards. Mutterings in the crew room.

It apparently includes night stopping for the SOU based crew at AMS, MAN and BCN. There wouldn’t be overnighting aircraft in SOU.

Southampton is not a great airport for taking photos of some of the stands so this is the best I got.
https://i.postimg.cc/kGhznSjc/Enter-air.jpg

So today I called into SOU twice via train. After taking out a mortgage for the fare lets just say SOU with never benefit from London passengers using the airport as an alternative unless they are wealthy and don't mind a long train journey.
https://i.postimg.cc/MHBDyn06/Sou1.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/RV8ZqGXx/IMG-2770.jpg
I watched the easyjet depart using just half the runway, once it disappeared into the blue yonder the only sounds came from birdsong from the car park roof. As for the terminal, it is a delight and reminds me of Inverness.
https://i.postimg.cc/8z7CwLJm/South-3.jpg
Just 14 check-in desks plus 3 self service from Easyjet.
https://i.postimg.cc/nz2ZnL9L/South-4.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/rpqPMN1S/South-5.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/L6dHphXm/IMG-2773.jpg
So plenty of space with few passengers. Not what Southampton fan boys want to hear but from a passengers point of view it doesn't get much better than this. 10/10 for me.

Finally, I am sure the last time I called into the airport, part of the first floor was land side. This would be 30 plus years ago.