Bournemouths objection to the SOU runway extension has been thrown out. No surprise - it was more of an academic exercise surely?

The future for BOH surely is the Airbus A321NEO with 220/230 seats - the likes of which easyJet, Wizz Air and Jet2 will be using. Ryanair may possibly explore this aircraft - who knows!

With the runway extension at SOU, they will be able to offer their incumbent carriers payload free operations - finally. In my opinion, this poses no threat to BOH whatsoever.

dixi188

You may find these useful old chap, but be mindful that they stay up to date -

FYI -
TUI only fly BOH to ACE, LPA and TFS during this winter from both BOH and EXT, and Easy Jets 3 new domestic flights just launched from BOH to BFS EDI and LPL and now all ending next week...Shame as I was about to book for LPL and EDI...

For BOH routes W2021/2022 and one also for EXT (also local - ish if you live in West Dorset) here are the flight guides -- NB: Ryanair have added some more destinations since these were done --

https://www.bournemouthairport.com/c...-12_07_214.pdf

https://www.exeter-airport.co.uk/con...2-Schedule.pdf

Sharklet_321

Quite possibly you have answered your own question.

BOH's catchment, unlike SOU, has and still is attracting mostly holidaymakers. For many years that client base was as you say, perhaps older and discerning and likely in part still is.
Bath Travel had it once sewn up at BOH, but TUI came along and the WWW, then Ryanair, and it all changed. No one is to 'blame' here.

I went for a jolly to Bounemouth a week ago on Wednesday from Liverpool. 30 plus passengers on the flight, left on time, very easy. Travelled back in the afternoon BOH-BFS about half full, then BFS-LPL full , actually they operated two aircraft BOH-LPL at the same time. Sun came out for me while I was in Bournemouth so enjoyed sitting by the beach. Very pleasant day. Aircraft size is too big, but if Loganair or similar operated LPL-BOH, it would be about right.

But surely the smaller aircraft would mean higher seat mile costs which would surely mean fares being jacked up and fewer people going for "jollies"?

ATNotts - haven't you heard, the normal rules of economics don't apply to airlines. Any airline should be able to fly any aircraft on any route at rock bottom prices. Otherwise they are just greedy :mad: trying to rip off hardworking members of the public. :ok:

BOH-LPL is clearly unsustainable, big plane or small and was only added for this staycation summer. Believe BFS/EDI operated decent loads but don’t hold out much hope for their continuation!

Its highly unlikely it will be here next year, and was for "staycation folk " their timing were not great for that to be honest. If things are better next year it will be flying from Liverpool to one of the usual Med destination .

Then you rule out most regional UK domestic routes.

Which is probably true in a lot of cases

Bournemouth managed the following passengers on their domestic services in Sep'21:

Belfast 1,782 Pax roughly 70% load factor
Edinburgh 2,441 Pax roughly 95% load factor - should see this route back for S22
Liverpool 772 Pax roughly 30% load factor - no surprises

Interesting little statistic on passenger throughput from the CAA in August 2021:

Bournemouth 38,489
Southampton 40,745

So although SOU has 24 departures and 24 arrivals each day, BOH is handling almost the same number of pax on far fewer flights given the size of the aircraft.

Malta and Paphos removed from RYR website and app

Shamrock - your data tells me that BOH focuses on larger aircraft (eg 189-seat 737) taking people both arriving on holiday (particularly UK holidaymakers wanting Bournemouth's beach when Covid made foreign travel more difficult) and also going on holiday while Southampton which lacks a beach of its own focuses on smaller aircraft which are probably more business-centric and thus less in demand in August

Data for September 2021 would be useful to see what happens when the UK is not in its annual period of beach mode

P@O cruises have added another 4 flights for the 2023 season taking it to 6 cruises to Barbados to pick up a ship with TUI B787 aircraft

Hays travel have already sold out there exclusive charters for 2022 so will no doubt add some more for the 2023 season later

A good comeback to some long haul charters

Surprised to see Ryanair remove the long standing Malta and Paphos flights for summer 2022
There are some gaps still in the based aircraft’s flying program so it’s possible they might return

Argh yes the Ryanair regional airport route dance..... 3 steps forward, 2 steps back. Fares and loads were always very strong and steady on this route so it's highly surprising.

Turkish Airlines Rumour
 

Apparently Turkish is sniffing around SOU and is considering them once the runway extension is complete. I personally don’t think any 737/320 variant would be able to use SOU’s extended runway for Turkish ops.

I wonder if BOH is talking to them. People would seriously drive a considerable distance to catch that flight in my opinion given their fare levels and worldwide connections.

TK also have Airbus - they are using a 321 into Edinburgh

Doesn't TUI already provide a couple of Turkey destinations from BOH?

Large Turkish community in and around Portsmouth.