I've just been looking at the BA flights with a view to booking a family week in Ibiza next summer during the school holidays. Unfortunately, as we can only fly out on a Sunday we'd have to come back the following Saturday as there is no Sunday inbound flight from IBZ to SOU.

It all looks a bit confusing at this stage, with one outbound IBZ flight on a Saturday and two inbound, and then an outbound flight on Sunday but no inbound. Same with JMK, you have to fly out on Sunday but return the following Saturday, so if you fly from SOU you're limited to a six day holiday - I'd imagine this might put some people off and make them book a standard seven day trip from another airport.

Is there anyone with BACF knowledge out there who has any idea whether further flights will be added at a later date to fill in the schedule?

BA/CF aircraft effectively return to LCY on the Sunday via various destinations, this is why there are an imbalance of rotations/frequencies.

For instance LCY is closed for 24 hours over the weekend. It closes midday Saturday, opening midday Sunday. The aircraft leaves LCY Saturday for JMK and operates inbound to SOU. It will then stay at SOU operating a rotation or two before returning to JMK Sunday morning where it’ll return to LCY.

Same happens with IBZ on the Sunday, but the aircraft may not come from IBZ On the Friday/Saturday, possibly a different destination. This is how you get an extra outbound but no return;

Saturday;

LCY - XXX - SOU

SOU - XXX - SOU

Sunday;

SOU - IBZ - LCY

Hope the above makes sense.

Thanks for the explanation. It seems a little churlish to be complaining about the BACF operation already given that it's a great boost for SOU, but it's a bit of a pain that the schedule is so imbalanced due to all of the position flights and W-patterns. It certainly makes booking a holiday a little more complicated!

I do appreciate the misaligned days aren’t ideal, but BACF have done a better job at SOU than previous attempts.

For IBZ, yes the outbounds are Sat/Sun and inbounds Sat(x2), but that still allows a nice Sat-Sat holiday. You could argue the Sunday flight is an extra bonus.

The route where I see the biggest issue is JMK. Passengers will have to do 6 or 13 nights which isn’t ideal. I don’t envisage this route will do particularly well.

While the schedule isn’t exactly ideal, I will put money on the people complaining about it and booking a 7 day Greek holiday from LGW instead of 6 from SOU will be the first to moan when BACF pull out or don’t return in S22 due to lack of demand.

Crazy that anyone is complaining about frequencies. In the current climate anything is gold.

Spot on, I think SOU have done a great job in attracting BA in this current climate and their departures board is already shaping up to look better than many other regionals. Let’s just wait and look forward to this summer hopefully getting back to some sort of normality with decent loads on these new routes!

Mykonos is mainly a young persons destination. If I take my own early twenties offsping as an example they won't be too bothered if it's a 6 or 7 day holiday.

Ba city flyer flights 2021
 

Exactly a 6 or 13 night holiday is a 100 % more than what most have had this year .
We should all be grateful for what is being offered from our local airport ,rather than being ungrateful for what is not being offered .

Will hotels and villa rentals provide the same per-night rate on a 6 night stay as a 7 night stay ?

We are in the 2020’s.You can book any duration you like on most of the suppliers. Most of Mykonos is small hotels, B&B’s, the villa market on the island is minuscule compared to other places.

I actually think the 13 night option is great if you want to do some island hopping with some great islands within easy reach of Mykonos.

easyJet W21/22
 

easyJet flights are now on sale for next winter. GVA-SOU is bookable again Dec-Mar 3x weekly (Thurs/Sat/Sun).

Aurigny S21
 

Aurigny clearly want a larger slice of the Guernsey - Southampton route. I believe it is the only route that has been increased compared to what was planned for S20. It is now due to be 3 daily every day (21 weekly) next summer. Alderney is not on sale yet though.

With Blue Islands offering 29 weekly flights that means 7 flights every day, and 8 on a Friday. I expect it may overtake Gatwick as the busiest UK route from Guernsey, as that has been cut back to 28 weekly.

Let’s wait and see. With the current climate as is, this timetable will know doubt change throughout the next few months and will adjust according to how we are dealing with a pandemic exit and supplier demand that follows. In the meantime it’s nice to see route confidence

How on earth you are going to administer 100 million vaccinations before the commencement of the summer season? I agree with stewyb.

Since Ryanairs announcement that they are doing BOH-EGC, BACF have finally reduced their fares on their own SOU-EGC route. Will be interesting to see how this plays out given that the sort of people heading to EGC are affluent and probably want avios points over the horrendous experience that is Ryanair.

many who travel from the region are to their second homes down in the Dordogne etc. Quick check shows return fares midweek in August for BA is £140 v Ryanair £188

BA started running a sale on Thursday, could that explain the drop in prices you're seeing?

Pricing certainly seems to have been adjusted to become very competitive

Aurigny Alderney
 

Alderney is now on sale for S21, 14 weekly flights bookable all summer.

KLM and Eastern
 

KLM start date now pushed back to 1st March. 1 daily E175 initially.

Eastern to Dublin now pushed back to 28th March. Still planned for 12 weekly AT7 for now.

Leeds Bradford and Manchester resumptions now 15th Feb. Teesside 29th March, although a Sunday flight via Belfast is bookable before then.

Manchester frequency dropped from 16 to 11 weekly for the summer, with just morning and evening flights now. Schedules still require 3 based AT7, all rather sparingly utilised...

Manchester now going x 2 daily tells its own story with regards to reduced business demand and can be said across the entire domestic network. Doubt we will ever get back to pre pandemic levels of business movement as a new way for UK plc working remotely has become the norm. With regards to SOU, this reduction makes it even more essential that they get the runway extension in place soonest in order that leisure travel to sun and city destinations can take up some of the slack that will undoubtedly be back in vogue once we are out of this crisis!

With respect, this is speculation - we don't know what the situation will be if/when restictions are eased.

A new way of working is already being discussed in the corridors of all major companies up and down the land, including my own. As a way of reducing financial overheads, be that in the reduction of office space, removing unnecessary travel expenditure, employers carbon footprint and employee wellbeing, I think it’s safe to say we will never be going back fully to the rigid office 9-5 with all meetings being carried out face to face with clients based across the country. This therefore, in my eyes at least will have an adverse effect on business demand within our domestic air network!

Whilst I agree what you say is true, I suspect the changes won’t be as radical as they envisage. I think a lot of people have found working from home quite difficult, as it brings its own challenges which make the commute not as bad as once thought. Productivity at home is a lot less than in a workplace, and video calls are a pain and no substitute to meeting face to face. I also think the social aspect of being able to interact with colleagues in a workplace is much more appealing than working from home. I suspect the 9-5 will stay, but with agile working arrangements adopted, staff will be able to work designated days at home. This will help employers reduce their office space as desks can be shared. Domestic travel will return but frequencies might not recover to same levels. This is fine if a low cost operator comes along and does a morning and evening MAN rotation for example, rather than BEs 4/5 daily rotations of the past. Of course like a previous poster has said the runway Extension is absolutely key to facilitating survival going forward in these new times.

Lufthansa
 

I see the Lufthansa UK website is offering Southampton as a recognised airport and also, although none available, is an origin point for special fare offers. Something brewing?

Bristol, East Midlands, Gatwick and Stansted (none of which currently have regular flights with Lufthansa) seem to be treated similiarly by the Lufthansa website as Southampton

A hangover from old BMI Regional codeshare flights and dropped Lufthansa routes?

Drop down menu of flight offers for 2021 on their website has SOU included within only those active U.K. airports operating with Lufthansa, may be something in it?

GAXLN

I guess the relevant question here is whether SOU has been left on the Lufthansa website ever since the BMI Regional to Munich days, or if it's recently re-appeared?
If the latter, then that would be a lot more interesting.

Seems interesting that the airport is showing in 2021 offers!

It didn't for me, nor did BRS. I was looking on mobile though so I could have been looking at a different area of the site.

EDIT: Sorry, I've looked again and you're right. All of Lufty's current UK airports appear in a drop down menu in the 2021 holidays feature on the homepage, along with BRS and SOU. Those two currently unserved airports don't have any specific destinations showing when you select them, whereas a list of suggested holiday destinations appears if you choose one of the other airports.

BRS was scheduled to commence earlier last year but was suspended, think Munich and Frankfurt have been flown before from SOU with BA Connect & BMI regional

LH
 

More than likely an overnight year date change glitch...maybe?

Can’t see them committing to such routes after all the cuts they’ve made in staffing and aircraft levels.

Let's see.
What with the RWY extension hanging in the balance there are a couple of big movers taking seats at the table and gently asking if they can be dealt in.
Interesting times. . .
Nothing's on paper yet but. . .intersting times for old Beastly Eastleigh Airport.

I'd not be surprised if Lufthansa group added Southampton Berlin in due course, given easyJet were going to and now Lufthansa are planning sizeable enough operation at the new airport, it's conceivable.

The Isle of Man thread is saying that Loganair will be setting up a three aircraft base there for summer 2021. SOU is reported as being one of the new routes, among others. Nothing on the Loganair website yet though. Good news, it'll be nice to see another new destination on the departure boards.

EI-BUD

I really don't see BER being operated by LH to anywhere in the UK outside of London. It's not a business destination in the same way FRA and MUC are, and isn't a major hub for LH. It is still essentially a weekend break destination, though I really don't understand why; there are many other German cities I'd much rather visit ahead of Berlin, but each to their own.

EI-BUD

Lufthansa group has a tiny operation at BER. Lufthansa proper only serves its hubs at MUC and FRA, Euowings is focused on three domestic routes, PMI and some ethnic routes. This despite Berlin's status as the nation's capital and Eurowings operating sizeable bases at DUS, STR, CGN etc. So I'd say SOU will happen when hell freezes over...

The airport is building back up a nice departures board with IOM being added and rumours of Lufthansa to Munich. Only obvious routes missing are CDG and ALC of those being popular prior to BE’s demise. No airport is faring well in the current climate yet SOU should see a decent recovery once life starts to return to some normality!