Re: Irishshamrock
 

Is this how they’re proposing to get around the airport operational hours?

I would be surprised if they do AMS-SOU due lack of available slots. Is the airport that stupid to allow them to compete against KLM:ugh:

Well that sounds expensive and in my opinion a ridiculous situation if true. Without aircraft overnighting in SOU would it really be a base as you have suggested. Does MAN even have the spare overnight stand capacity for another three A320s.

On the other hand hopefully these "mutterings" you have come across have some form of truth behind them.

Obviously if true it would absolutely fantastic news for SOU. But with AMS well covered by KLM from SOU, I would prefer them not to compete on the route. BCN would be a very welcome return to SOU. Hopefully MAN will be served as it's the missing link in domestic routes from SOU.

But we know what "crew rooms" are like. So until anything comes from these "mutterings," I'll remain silent on the matter.

Well Well Well, the 'infamous' LTNman was visiting SOU today and he never gave anyone on here a heads up. Shame as we could have all had the opportunity to have met you in person. The "real life" LTNman in person, a lost opportunity for sure.

But on behalf of myself and others on here we're pleased that you enjoyed the wonderful experience of Southampton Airport.

But don't use too much of that well earned pension of yours on expensive train journeys :)

Can we assume this basing rumour is easyJet as an airline has not been mentioned?

Do easyJet have any other bases with no night stopping aircraft? Any AMS/BCN aircraft would surely be operated by EJU (Austrian AOC) and not EZY (UK AOC)? Isn't that bending the post Brexit rules as UK crews can't cross fleet the Austrian AOC?

Incorrect and bending no "rules". A G- reg is more than welcome to park overnight in AMS or BCN. Just as an EU reg overnight in many UK airports. There is a bigger world out there than the EU you know. What do you think BA do all over EU destinations? The only thing is that it will fly back to a UK airport, wherever that may be in the schedule.

Why would a low-cost airline like U2 then go ahead and operate routes in the must expensive way possible? It makes no sense especially considering they have bases at AMS/MAN/BCN. Far more likely for these routes to be operated by AMS/MAN/BCN crews.

As for the comment about the airport "allowing" Easy to compete against KLM, it's not the airport's decision.

Indeed if this was EasyJet and this were to happen it makes little sense. You'd surely instead operate W patterns using AMS crew, say AMS-SOU-IBZ-SOU-AMS, in order to serve other non-base airports. Then you'd operate ALC, PMI etc. inbound from those bases as they do now, albeit maybe on higher frequency.

The added flexibility though with overnighting SOU crew in say AMS is you can then dedicate that aircraft to SOU for the entire day and make an afternoon crew change in SOU, which you wouldn't be able to do on a W pattern. That said you've then got an additional aircraft parked overnight in say AMS, or MAN that isn't then serving those airports any additional capacity during the day, which is little incentive to them.

Great photos LTNman,
glad you had a good sunny day and captured shots of the Terminal, and the Enter Air!

Enter Air have been doing stuff for both the MoD and HM Govt.
They have been flying out of EXT weekly to Tirana to return failed asylum seekers.
Not sure what it was doing at SOU though - It had flown OST- BRU for Brize via SOU.
It then flew Brize back to CDG as a 'P' flight, and is now off to sunny Chania today.

Yes, the SOU airport is a dream to arrive at by Train or park your Car, toddle across the road and check in without fuss and get away PDQ.
I love using the airport as much as I can.

This weekend re ''slow trains'', SWR had alot of engineering work that closed the line west of SOU and RRB (buses) ran for Bomo, Poole, Dorch, and Weymouth.
That meant trains into SOU were not running that 'fast' on the Mainline.
Yes, train fares are hiked for both SOU stations (Commuter route) and thus to/from London it's not easy to find cheaper tickets.
If you have a Railcard then the fares are less 35%, plus it is worth using the 'Split Ticket' websites and you can often save a chunk there.

Re the said rumour about a 3 aircraft Base at SOU for S25 (AMS, BCN, MAN?) but how can you have a Base with no aircraft ''Based there''.
You can have a Crew Base I suppose...
As AMS is well served by KLM, then having another AMS-SOU is a puzzling one, but if the airline (we assume it is EZY?) wants to fly the route then that would tie in nicely doing a W pattern, AMS-SOU-BCN-(or to MAN)-SOU-AMS but that would most likely give you crap times for one of the routes.
So who (what type of Passenger) would EZY be aiming at?

You can IIRC, see those sort of W's at SEN Southend with EZY this summer which have no EZY aircraft based there.
SEN's EZY routes are: Alicante Amsterdam Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Seasonal to:
In Summer: Faro Málaga Palma de Mallorca
In Winter: Geneva Grenoble
Balkan Holidays BH Air have a new charter SEN-Burgas (begins 17 June 2024)
Rumour is the new KM Malta airlines may restart the SEN-Malta flights.

The closest parallel I can think of is NCL with EZY operating multiple daily flights to BFS and BRS and this summer to PMI and ALC and from Sept to AMS.. All flights are operated by incoming aircraft.

EZY were doing that for some years at BHX until the 3 aircraft base opened in March this year.

Newcastle has had no EZY based crew since they closed the 3 aircraft base during Covid, likewise BHX had no crew base before they opened the 3 aircraft base recently. In both cases these airports are a dot on the map (ie not a base) with aircraft and crew based elsewhere and no night stopping crew whatsoever. What's been discussed regarding SOU isn't remotely similar.

They can of course simply operate incoming aircraft on EJU from their EU bases into the UK as is common practice.

There was a poster on the airport FB group a few weeks ago suggesting that an easyjet base was to be announced and they had heard this from crew at LGW who were being transferred down to SOU, we shall see!

So a few sources seem to be corroborating this rumour.

If this is indeed true it would be fantastic news for the region. Three fully utilised SOU based aircraft could be around 2m passengers a year which catapults the airport into major regional status if this was to come to pass. In additional to what the airport is currently doing that could mean a 2.5m - 2.7m passenger throughput in the 2026 calendar year.

Will airport infrastructure cope with that? Car-parking will need expanding and surely they will need to make some fast improvement to the capacity of the departure lounge. In Flybe days it was constant but only 78 max seats per departure whereas with this scenario it’s potentially bunched departures with 186 * 3 (or more) departures at once.

I'll bite. So if this rumour does become a reality, what routes could we see? I take it BA Cityflyer would be long gone by next year? Is this just a wild rumour because LS have announced something very well in advance from BOH?

If they keep the routes to 3 hour range or less, that should narrow the focus.

Search for airside ops manager Jeremy Edmunds on LinkedIn, he's posted three great pictures of the aircraft lined up. Unfortunately I can't post them here yet due to insufficient posts.

I think you need to do your maths again. Good news if true, but calm down, calm down.

3 aircraft base with say 15 routes would equate to more like 500k approx.

If we take our friend’s optimism then sprinkle on a little reality, then 3 186 seat aircraft operating at a healthy 90% l/f 18 sectors per day for 364 days a year will give you a little under 1.1 million pax p.a.

But you have to factor in it is unlikely all 3 aircraft will be fully utilised throughout the entire winter (or even the summer). Then there are the inevitable cancellations, diversions etc.

So in my view, 850k would be pretty damn good.