Southampton-3
 

unfortunately a future with just those small regional carriers will not be enough for SOU to survive long term and therefore it’s essential they entice carriers that also add a few sun/city destinations. If you honestly believe the likes of EZY will continue to downsize once this pandemic is over, you are very much mistaken as pent up demand for short haul travel will be enormous and our nation will want to travel abroad to warmer climes again. In fact MOL stated recently that he expects demand to return to pre COVID levels during 2022, albeit with yield levels taking further time to recover!

This fixation with easyJet and Southampton keeps coming back. It’s not happening - certainly not within any time frame that any of us can foresee.

There may be other developments. But this isn’t one of them.

Red Four

An answer to your last sentence may be shortly forthcoming.

Albert Hall

not saying it is but how on earth do you know otherwise? Ryanair are happy to add ALC and
PMI at MME with route duplication just up the road at NCL so why not something similar at SOU. This extension and the millions being spent is certainly not to entice a watered down version of Flybe to come back!

Red Four

That's certainly the way I see it.

Whats 15m between friends!😃

The fixation with attracting Easy to Southampton with the runway starter strip by certain contributors to this blog seems to have reached a new high!
The runway plans which are shortly to be assessed by EBC are at best a small improvement to the airports capabilities.With the Covid on going situation and potential long recovery process , all that SOU can hope for is survival at a much reduced operating time. The chances of Easy or any other LCC coming to SOU are very small at best. It's difficult to see with even the runways possible extension an international future for the airport,to survive short time the best bet might be domestic flights with a selection of training,light movements and limited opening hours.

Deja vu
 

And so once again this thread resorts to armchair experts spouting absolute nonsense off the back of bits and pieces they can find on the internet. All of which of course is completely negative. If any of you seriously think any company, let alone one owned by a pension fund(!), would invest millions of shareholders money without a sizable business case you are a moron. God forbid a thread dedicated to an airport that is making a multi million pound investment during one of the biggest downturns of the aviation industry is talked about positively(!).

I always view this thread from a distance and comment occasionally on the airport and its goings on. SOU has clearly had its setbacks recently and will take a while to climb back up. However if the runway extension is built, I don’t understand why the airport can’t have its own ambitions and with the considerable investment being made, look to attract some of the more popular carriers. Other regional airports seem to provide the regular holiday destinations so why can’t SOU. A large base set up by a LCC will always be limited due to apron space available but it’s definitely feasible for a select choice of profitable routes, just my observation from a far

Rivet Joint

While not quite the language I would use, I'm inclined to agree. Not that private companies never do anything stupid, but it seems unlikely that SOU would spending the money without an expectation of pay-off. Certainly training and light a/c movements won't pay for the infrastucture required for an airport used for scheduled services.

Anybody know how long the planning permission would be valid for - I've got 4 years in the back of my head?

Oh I don't know... As an aviation professional I was staggered to watch how SH and COW destroyed FBE over its last 5 years with ridiculous plans that were never going to work. A public company (admittedly handicapped by JF's mad strategy) still choosing to write, and implement crazy business plans, with public and pension fund backing throughout. The chairman should have stopped it but he let it escalate. Picking a fight with LM on their home patch, where they could be relied on to fight to the death wasn't smart. COW rejecting a serious offer for FBE was the final curtain. The destruction of shareholder value was of its own making.

SWBKCB

Anybody know how long the planning permission would be valid for - I've got 4 years in the back of my head?[/QUOTE]
3 years I would say, unless business/commercial is different from private/residential.

SWBKCB

Agreed there are exceptions to the rule, but very rarely when it comes to largescale pension funds. The amount of hurdles and due diligence involved is extensive, and lets not forget SOU was up until recently known for being massively tight when it came to investing in it's airside operations. It is pretty daft therefore to suggest that they are now loosening the purse strings on a whim. Clearly that is not how they conduct their business. Light aircraft and general aviation is also clearly not of interest to SOU, in fact if I recall correctly the flight school that was based there was asked to leave and ended up at BOH. I believe planning is valid for 3 years usually, but seeing as the MD is on record as stating that £15m is already set aside for the works, hopefully that means they will get on with it straight away.

V12

Very good point, although I think BE are a special case. They are also small fry compared to the billion dollar companies that own SOU. As you say, the individual egos of JF and COW would appear to be the architects of BEs demise, I am not sure individuals have as much control at companies like the ones that own SOU (you would hope).

The big event i think is on the 17th!

Noting Wizz have opened a one aircraft base at CWL with 9 routes, this could be a decent option for SOU with a few sun routes post runway extension (assuming approval). Wizz have already stated they want UK expansion with more bases added so wouldn’t rule it out!

Would SOU runway be long enough for an A321/A321 neo to say Tenerife?

Southampton airport owners have milked the profits and now the cash cow has has been euthanised. All a bit to late this runway extension stuff and if the local Council are not backing it, trying to gain planning permission might well be too late? That is the problem with disconnected multi national owners. Terminal, apron and runway extensions should have been in place years ago, but whilst the cow was producing cash, why bother?

Good points
The runway application will be rejected and frankly it would make little difference in the short to medium term considering the impact of covid on aviation.
Other contributors have proposed old chestnuts like Easy and now Wizz coming to the airport,I'm afraid these are non starters.Even with a runway extension the sun routes would be limited to the Med,Tenerife would not be reachable with a full load.The airport owners missed the bus years ago for airport expansion,with capacity opened up at other regional airports Southampton future looks very uncertain.
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