Departure off R20 is obstacle limited with five trees fairly close-in requiring an emergency turn even for an ATR72. The new performance with the starter strip is a big improvement.

Noticed on FR24 post extension that most aircraft have gained considerably more height over Marlhill Copse that was/is causing the obstacle restrictions

I flew in from Venice to SOU the evening on KLM via Amsterdam and both flights were full almost which was good to see, although I was the only person in Business Class from Amsterdam to Southampton on the evening flight.
What I did notice though that Southampton will need to improve their ground handling for Arrivals as when there could be two or maybe even 3 180-190 seat aircraft arriving at around the same time when the airport would simply struggle to cope with the Arrivals, the Border Force check controls (which are time consuming) and then the Baggage Reclaim area, so they do need to look at that once once an airline decides to operate in to Southampton with larger aircraft on a regular basis.

Baggage Handling and the Loading at both VCE and AMS was a complete shambles and caused lengthy delays to both flight's departures.
My commiserations to both of Flight Deck crews who seemingly have to endure this on many flights these days.
If I had taken the later VCE-AMS flight I wouldn't have made the 'booked' 45 minute connection from AMS to SOU.

Ground handling on arrival at SOU was OK, apart from just 1 Border Force desk open initially - but once the line was almost out of the door then desk #2 opened.
I was in the first 5 off so was not really an issue for me.

Taking a quick look at easyjet schedules for W23, there should be no issues with overcrowding in baggage/arrivals etc as the majority of days only have 1 or 2 flights arriving although Saturday does have 3-4 flights, albeit at differing times so no major problem. However the first real test will be next summer when easyjet will be running a much larger program from the airport and could have multiple arrivals at once!

Im sure that if the airport management want to attract the likes of Easy next Summer they understand the need to up there game on handling both arrivals/departures quickly and efficiency.

Indeed and you would expect the airport to be properly resourced

I must have missed the announcement, where are they flying to from Southampton?

Other than the usual winter only flights from Geneva and the very short lived winter flights from Belfast International and Glasgow there has been NO announcement by EasyJet regarding any other destinations to Southampton.

I as much as everyone else on this forum are hopeful in EasyJet announcing further expansion from Southampton. But until the day that EasyJet make an official statement it's all theoretical.

There are certain individuals who claim that they have inside knowledge and there are those that enjoy the consistent rumours.

We are all hoping that EasyJet announce expansion from Southampton, but until it's made official it's just rumours and wishful thinking.

Unless the contributors are working directly for Easy's Route Dev department then it's just wishful thinking. Even if the airport are saying it, it means nothing. Airlines talk to many, many airports all the time and things change overnight.

Congratulations to the airport staff,as the airport is rated 3rd best for in the UK by Which.
Lets hope it brings in more PAX and airlines!

Alas it makes no difference. Southend was voted best airport year after year but now look at them with passenger totals so low they have been removed from the table, while the airports at the bottom of the list still maintain their high passenger numbers.

So you seriously believe SOU will go the same way as SEN? This time next year the airport will most likely be operating 30-40 departures daily and could be back at 1m pax annually again, give your head a wobble!

Maybe read what was said? The comment was about the impact of Which surveys - PR said they are no guarantee of success, using SEN as an example, there was no implication that SOU would go the same way. I doubt they have any influence on where airlines chose to fly.

In the past I have been one if a very few (or even the only) passenger departing on a public commercial airline flight from an airport in a windiw of a few hours. The airport in question was pretty much empty - functioning effectively as a private terminal - making it a very enjoyable experience and I would have happily give a 10 out of 10 rating. Not sure that kind of experience is good for the airport though...

I do hope the airport management will make an annoucement soon on Sun routes for '24,it seems Bournemouth are buiding up for '24 with further based aircraft,this could seriously impact SOU prospects for attracting additional med routes in '24.

The BOH thread has rumours of 4, yes 4, based RYR aircraft for next summer. That would be interesting with their current terminal setup, just like SOU with its limited terminal capacity. It certainly spices up the competition for market share on the south coast, albeit nothing is yet announced for SOU next summer. However we can expect something fairly soon and will no doubt draw away a certain percentage of BOH regulars, interesting times!

As discussed time and time again for many years SOU is not targeting penny pinchers paying a few quid to fly the awful RYR. BOH are probably getting peanuts from RYR to base there in the first place. It’s all just an ancillary operation for BOH to keep their business diverse and of course keep SOU in check. You could see from the extremely jealous and mean spirited letters BOH submitted to object to SOU’s runway extension that they know SOU with a low cost operator will be much more successful than them. Most importantly it looks like SOU will get the best low cost operator of them all in EZY who will not lowball SOU on charges and will be a better fit to the more affluent catchment. I also expect WIZZ to move their Eastern European flights to SOU given the huge Eastern European population there.

So I will say it again, BOH is completely irrelevant to SOU. It’s a poor airport, poorly located, with poor transport links that gets by with Poundland flights. SOU is an airport people actually want to fly from and can conveniently which is why for many many years people have paid a premium to do so. As a long standing poster and one of the few positive people I’m surprised by your post.

Not sure how you can say an airport attracting an airline and passengers to be diverse is ancillary to their business. Isn't that the very nature of their business?

Also, if all of Southampton's eggs are in the easyJet basket than I would fully expect easyJet to low ball them into paying peanuts. Seems Southampton need them much more than do they do Southampton.

And is Southampton's surroundings really any more affluent than Bournemouth's? You suggest people wouldn't fly Ryanair from Southampton as they're too seemingly too posh. Yet they would fly Wizz?

The threat is, easyjet do not like getting into direct competition with Ryanair. They actively avoid it. But I don't think there ia enough of a threat from their BOU operations to jeopardise potential easy ops from Southampton

I'm sure if Ryanair could get into Southampton the airline and the local public would welcome them with open arms as much as they will easyjet.

I agree about its location and transport links but the truth is that BOH is already spoiling the SOU party. Let’s not mention both airports opening hours. There is a clue there as to Southampton’s major problem and why no LCC will never open a base there.

Why surprised by my post? I have said nothing controversial and instead only pointed out that there will be interesting times ahead for both south coast airports

RJ is Basil "No riff-raff" Fawlty, and I claim my five pounds 👍

Definitely a strange post from RJ which rather contradicts ….
In one breath Ryanair is Poundland to BOH
but very happy to welcome Wizz air into the Southampton fold

I think SOU would “ NOT “ be jumping for joy if they suddenly rocked up to the party at the airport
Just have a read at how bad that lot are and the repercussions at the airport will follow

Its clear that BOH have got there act together and are doing well,the fact that they can base aircraft for operations is major plus, Ryanair etc can operate without restrictions ,often landing into early hours if delayed..This is where LCCs have a problem with SOU very restricted hours.For future operations and long term survival SOU needs to attract a Sun route operater that can operate within the restrictive hours,time will tell!

Not quite sure that is entirely correct as not many/if any flights land after 2330 into BOH and are regularly diverted if so. As for SOU, yes maybe restrictive hours but a large non based EZY operation will fit in well with their numerous scheduled services domestic and international. As for SOU long term survival, please don’t worry as they will be just fine!

I dont think you are correct with the the Boh diversion facts,for example in the last couple of days they have had two arrivals after 23-30,and one @ 00-15!

"As for SOU long term survival, please don’t worry as they will be just fine!"

I wish I could be so upbeat - its a small airport surrounded by developments- eventually the value of the land for building will far exceed any aviation business case. It's a sitting target for redevelopment - not this year, maybe not 5 years - but in 10 years........................... The Govt, the local authorities and the developers will be screaming for more land in the area

If AGS’s strategy is to ultimately sell off the site for non-aviation development why the recent large investment in a runway extension?

Without an extension a case could possibly have been made that the airport business was no longer viable and the land sold off. In such cases I understand that it may be considered as a brownfield site thereby circumventing many development constraints, making it very attractive to developers.

May not be their current plan - but times and shareholders (and even owners) change - especially when there are meg-buck to be made I'm afraid

Don’t you just love PPrune, the tarmac on a new runway extension has hardly had a chance to set and already a suggestion of the airport closing for alternative commercial means!

Hasn't there been an approved national relaxation of night restrictions in the days following the NATS failure?

well someone was saying it would last forever - TBH smaller airports are under increasing pressure just about everywhere in the world. All that space is very attractive to just about any other industry (or politician). I reckon its good for ten years - after that.... I doubt it

Mainly because it will stir up the BOH v SOU debate again and have the usual trolls rubbing their hands together and so it has proved correct. I know it wasn’t your intention but unfortunately so many trolls seem to be attracted to this thread.

Markeyd: Wizz is almost always the preferred airline for people from Eastern Europe. Many from the local area travel all the way to Luton to fly them. I doubt Ezy plan any Eastern European routes so Wizz could do those routes and not affect Ezy.

There are no trolls on the thread just people with a neutral stance who are not afraid to ask questions and to point out a few facts to those with deaf ears who keep spouting on about trolls.

Yes, let's not "stir up the BOH v SOU debate again" !​​​​​​​

Exactly- its not being a "troll" to point out facts that affect almost every Airport in Europe (and even the USA in places) - when you see the possibility of AMS being trimmed down you have to realise that not everyone thinks that airports are wonderful. The danger is that the anti- group is growing steadily in many countries. The smaller the airport the more likely that someone will decide to take a pop at it

Eastern now loaded ORY for winter season, assume this is only continuing because AF subsidise a large number of seats on each flight!

Is that so? So tell me, if I go and check all the other airport threads I will see you and the aptly named pain in the R’s posting the same dose of reality on those threads? Doubt it. I have never seen another thread on this forum abused as much as the SOU one. Fair enough if it’s reasoned debate but people talking about the airport being closed for housing at a time when they have just invested lots of money in a new runway has no logic to it. It’s just someone racked with insecurities and rather than addressing them tries to make everyone else feel as bad as they do i.e. a troll.

Are you suggesting the AMS route is potentially at risk because of it’s performance rather that the well publicised clampdown by the Dutch government on flights?

Which bit isn’t factual?

I actually point out BOH’s main strength and indeed the reason why both it and SOU can coexist very easily even when SOU has a low cost operator. SOU is a commercial flight airport, BOH does a little bit of everything and therefore will not live or die based on its commercial flights. TUI and FR will continue to do what they are doing regardless of SOU having low cost flights. Right, let’s move on.

Hopefully you will personally adhere to those last four words you have used in your latest rant 😉

Target markets
 

All the regional airports on the south coast, when looking to drive growth - which they always are - will seek ways to serve more of the demand currently using the London airports, especially LHR/LGW. These two airports between them in 2019 handled near 100 times the combined annual throughput of BOH/SOU today. And are almost back to 2019 traffic.

By grabbing just 1% of that LHR/LGW market, these south coast airports could double their passenger figures. The management focus will be there, not eating the lunch of their nearer neighbour.

I wish them both luck.

FF