SOUTHAMPTON

[TCAS FAN]

SOU miss out again on this morning's LGW closure, see two BA A319s inbound BOH, no parking space at SOU?

[Jerbourg]

I was told that the Aurigny Embraer 195 diverted into SOU due to the runway closure at LGW..

[stewyb]

not sure that SOU will be too concerned on 'missing out again' on a couple of diverts. I'm sure they are already busy enough with regular traffic and lack of apron space!

[Wycombe]

I was told that the Aurigny Embraer 195 diverted into SOU due to the runway closure at LGW..

It did indeed, positioned to LGW early pm.

[Rivet Joint]

This is hilarious :D

Southampton head of operations: "oh no, we are so full of scheduled traffic that we can't be there for some speculative diversions".

I think you will find you have a problem if it's the other way around, ask the guys at BOH.

[RW20]

Unless I'm mistaken,hasn't Southampton handled BA diversions in recent times?
Surely at the time of the Gatwick /Bournemouth inbounds,there was apron space?
Or is it a management decision?
I can remember a BA 757 diverting into SOU a few years ago,when it could have easily gone to Hurn.

[canberra97]

The BA 757 that flew in to SOU on a divert a few years ago was actually on September 11th 2001 and arrived at approx 19.00, it had diverted to SOU from LHR whilst operating a flight from Geneva I believe. I can clearly remember seeing her flying right over my head whilst it was on approach to SOU heading from the south and the date will always stay in my mind for obvious reasons.

In the past we have also had several BA 737 diversions and in the late 70's and early 80's on more than a few occasions SOU had several BA diverts including 1-11's and Viscounts, I can remember being at SOU and seen by myself on one occasion in the early eighties where we actually had 6 BA aircraft on the apron at the same time, four Vickers Viscounts and two Bac 1-11's, although that was long before the new terminal and apron was opened in 1991.

[adfly]

Passengers down 5% in Feb, hopefully they should be on the up from this point. An 8th based Flybe Q400 started around the beginning of this month, plus Aer Lingus Regional have also commenced flights to Cork now. Incidentally bookings for the first couple of weeks look pretty good, with quite a few loads of 45-50+ pax.

Mixed results of the domestic front, although I have noticed Newcastle has had fairly significant month on month increases consistently for a while now, so maybe a 4th daily flight will be added soon if all remains well. I expect Guernsey will decrease when Blue Islands become a Flybe franchise, it is pretty inevitable that some 'consolidation' will happen.

Hamburg averaged about 11 passengers for a 22% load factor, numbers for Antwerp are not shown. Düsseldorf averaged 28 passengers, for a 36% load factor. Either is pretty poor, but given Flybe have kept the route going and VLM has not dropped SOU (cut from 5 to 3 weekly from the summer though) they must be getting reasonable yields and/or onward bookings.

Flybe have started to release their winter schedule as well, with Düsseldorf, Munich and Lyon all operating daily, albeit the latter does so from the start of the ski season in December.

[BAladdy]

Flybe have begun to release there W16/17 schedule. The following destinations are currently on sale at the frequencies shown. Info based on schedule for 14th to 20th November.

Amsterdam - 32 x weekly (Mon-Fri - 5 x Daily, Sat - 3 Flights, Sun - 4 Flights)
Belfast City - 19 x weekly (Mon-Fri - 3 x Daily, Sat & Sun 2 x Daily)
Bergerac - 3 x weekly (Tue/Fri & Sun - 1 x Daily)
Dublin - 25 x weekly (Mon-Fri - 4 x Daily, Sat - 2 Flights, Sun - 3 Flights)
Dusseldorf - 7 x weekly (1 x Daily)
Edinburgh - 32 x weekly (Mon-Fri - 5 x Daily, Sat - 3 Flights, Sun - 4 Flights)
Glasgow - 31 x weekly (Mon-Fri - 5 x Daily, Sat - 2 Flights, Sun - 4 Flights)
Jersey - 25 x weekly (Mon-Fri - 4 x Daily, Sat - 2 Flights, Sun - 3 Flights)
Lyon - 7 x weekly (1 x Daily)
Manchester - 30 x weekly (Mon-Fri - 5 x Daily, Sat - 2 Flights, Sun - 3 Flights)
Munich - 7 x weekly (1 x Daily)
Nantes - 4 x weekly (Mon/Wed/Fri & Sun)
Newcastle - 18 x weekly (Mon-Fri - 3 x Daily, Sat - 1 Flight, Sun - 2 Flights)
Paris CDG - 7 x weekly (1 x Daily)
Paris Orly - 12 x weekly (Mon-Fri - 2 x Daily, Sat & Sun - Daily)

Further Changes are likely in the weeks and months to come.

[adfly]

BMI Regional look to be continuing Munich over the winter, currently bookable until 16th Jan (can only book up to 10 months in advance). KLM also have Amsterdam on sale over the winter. Both routes appear to be operating 12 weekly, so unchanged from the summer although I wonder if the latter may see a frequency bump in response to Flybe upping Amsterdam to 5 daily for the winter.

As I previously mentioned Aer Lingus have Cork on sale over the winter operating 4 weekly, so they must be quite happy with bookings. Flybe also have Geneva and Chambery on sale from December, both seem 3 weekly for the most part although they have an extra Friday flight for some of the season. Limoges, Rennes and La Rochelle also have some flights over Xmas/New Year again.

It should be a better winter than the one we are at the end of by the look of how things stand currently.

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

Hi Adfly,

Thank you for the update.
I've just had a look on the KLM website and it doesn't yet show any flights bookable beyond the end of October.

May I also ask where you get your information about projected loads (ie when you posted earlier about decent loads on the EIR Cork flights)? I'd be interested to see that sort of information for myself but it doesn't seem to be readily available in the public domain for fairly obvious reasons. I assume you work in the travel industry and have access to booking system information?
A reply via PM would be welcome if you'd prefer- I can't send them yet as I'm still new here.

[adfly]

KLM does appear to be bookable for the winter, although the timetables may not be up to date yet: https://gyazo.com/839e45f9dfa0d3364fbe6fc5e99253e1

As for Aer Lingus, you can do a group booking for up to 25 people on their website, so I just tried that for a few dates in the first couple of weeks to see how the first flights were doing. Not the most scientific approach, but it gives a vague idea!

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

Thanks for letting me know! Great news that the three newest airlines are sticking around, hopefully eventually there'll be some others to join them!

[RW20]

Adfly ,with Southampton still recording a decline in passenger numbers,but many regional airports showing significant increases,is it a fact that Southampton is just not attracting the expected passengers or is the competition just undermining numbers?

[adfly]

I expect it is still feeling the consequences from Flybe's downsized base over the winter compared to previous years. Demand in the South East is not an issue at all, as you can easily see from the increases reported by the London airports where the catchment overlaps. SOU has been at the disadvantage where around 90% of its passengers come courtesy of one airline. While that airline offers a good selection of routes, the airport remains susceptible to any decisions they make, i.e. throwing toys out of the pram due to charges. These sort of moves have a fairly notable affect on passenger numbers.

Of course, the airfield limitations do not help either, as they significantly reduce the number of airlines who would consider SOU as a viable place to operate from. This is why it is good to see all these new carriers at SOU, as each one makes the airport less influenced by a single, dominant airline.

[Wycombe]

I think adfly has it spot on.

AFAIK SOU is currently an 8 x Q400 Base for Flybe, with one EMB appearing a few days a week to operate Sun routes (which stop again after Easter until June). A few years ago I think there were 6 or 7 x Q400 and 3 x 195's based (the 195's did a lot more than the Sun routes at that time).

The Summer is looking good, but I'd be concerned about over-capacity now on some routes, AMS being the one that springs to mind with KLM starting and Flybe upping frequency.

[Buster the Bear]

I have just had my KLM Saturday evening flight from Amsterdam to Southampton cancelled during August. Only booked it last week as well! Re-scheduled for the morning rotation which is acceptable.

£66 inc fees and bags return was cheaper than a Flybe single fare!

[Nakata77]

The SOU airport timetable for 2016 has been published but it doesn't look particularly accurate. Flybe daily to Munich and only once a week to Lyon for example? Many other errors too...

[MARKEYD]

Looks like Thomson are lining up Ibiza as a new destination in 2017 on a Friday with Palma continuing on a Tuesday and Saturday

[canberra97]

It's always surprised me that Ibiza wasn't reinstated sooner as it's obviously a very popular destination and the amount of people that I know personally that go to the island the local demand is definitely there.

I hope that Thomson along with Thomas Cook can add more destinations from SOU in the future, although personally I don't do package holidays.

[RW20]

What aircraft and airline will Thomson use for Ibiza?
Also any ideas on how violeta are doing with palma bookings?

[TCAS FAN]

Can anyone from SOU management, or with a contact to them, explain why they still have not introduced RNAV/GNSS instrument approach procedures to provide better than the current archaic offset VOR/DME and NDB IAPs. I flew into a UK GA aerodrome a few weeks ago via GNSS procedure, broke cloud (above OCH) and there was the runway straight in front of me - simples!

[destinationsky]

The GNSS procedure is still being worked through. When introducing a new procedure there are multiple layers to go through (some would call them hoops!) The CAP725 consultation is just the start of proceedings, you then need to get the procedure designed, validate the procedure, carry out further obstacle surveys and then work to mitigate against any issues that the regulator may come up with. Once all of this is complete you can then enter the procedure into the AIRAC cycle which takes another 2 months before the first aeroplane can fly it.

It's fair to say that following the consultation, the airport did not expect the rest to take as long as it has. It's still a work in progress and they are working through a number of items to complete the final safety case. You also need to make sure that your partner airlines have the technology to be able to fly the procedure!

One important point to note is that the minima will not improve greatly. The implementation of the GNSS approach is to provide a resilient and future proofed procedure following the national removal of the DVOR's by NATS.

[TCAS FAN]

destinationsky

Am more than familiar with the regulatory process, it's part of what I now do to keep the old grey matter active, and how ridiculous some of the hoops that you have to jump through invariably are. Furthermore I am totally aware of the obstacle environments for RWY 02 & 20, so never expected any improvements in minima, just having the aircraft aligned on the runway centreline at the MAPt is a major consideration to a successful approach.

From what you indicate can we now expect RNAV/GNSS procedures in the next few months? If so can we now expect attention to be focussed on the outstanding tree problem south of the runway to improve take-off performance on RWY 20 and make the RWY 02 approach lighting obstacle free areas CAP 168 compliant in order that I can see it on base leg?

[TCAS FAN]

destinationsky

......and I would speculate that you already have the required survey data, if you want a safety case speak to NATS they would dearly like to keep their contract.

As far as mitigation goes, you have Class D airspace, a luxury that GA aerodromes in Class G airspace/ bandit country do not have. Should be a walk in the park with the generic Safety Cases that are available.

Provide the procedure and the customers will fit the kit.

[adfly]

Thomas Cook are continuing to serve Palma for Summer 2017 on Fridays, again using Evelop Airlines from 26th May.

[LTNman]

I have been reading the 2006 master plan for Southampton where the forecast was that passenger numbers would grow from 1.84 million in 2005 to 3.05 million by 2015. So what went wrong seeing that passenger numbers are lower now than in 2005?:( Was it actually ever achievable or just a fantasy report based on wrong assumptions?

Also noted that the forecast from 2015 - 2030 was to grow from 3.05 million to 6 million.:eek:

Link to the 2006 master plan can be found here AirportWatch | Southampton Airport (http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/uk-airports/southampton-airport/)

[Expressflight]

LTNman

I would suggest that what went wrong was "events dear boy, events" as Harold Macmillan memorably said many decades ago A near doubling of predicted passenger numbers over ten years during a period, which 2005 certainly was within, of considerable growth in air travel doesn't strike me as being a "fantasy". I'm sure there were many other such predictions/assumptions around that time which were much more optimistic than Southampton's.

I've never placed much faith in growth predictions as they are subject to matters totally beyond the control of airport operators. Numerous time I have been asked to produce a three-year growth prediction on a new air route but have always balked when asked to extend it further to five years as I saw that as being meaningless.

[SWBKCB]

Probably all Flybe's fault... :rolleyes:

[MerchantVenturer]

I have been reading the 2006 master plan for Southampton where the forecast was that passenger numbers would grow from 1.84 million in 2005 to 3.05 million by 2015. So what went wrong seeing that passenger numbers are lower now than in 2005? Was it actually ever achievable or just a fantasy report based on wrong assumptions?

Also noted that the forecast from 2015 - 2030 was to grow from 3.05 million to 6 million.

Expressflight has summed up the difficulty very neatly.

Other regional airports in the south of Britain were also wide of the mark in their master plan predictions of a decade ago, which were prompted by the then government's 2003 White Paper The Future of Air Transport.

Cardiff Airport predicted 4.796 mppa by 2015 and 7.813 mppa by 2030. 2015 actually saw 1.158 mppa which, in fact, is over 40% down on that airport's best year, 2007.

Exeter airport predicted low and high case scenarios of 1.415-1.956 mppa by 2015 and 1.926-4.037 mppa by 2030. 2015 actually saw 0.821 mppa.

Bristol Airport predicted 8.075 mppa by 2015 and 12.476 mppa by 2030. 2015 actually saw 6.781 mppa.

All this seems to suggest that it's impossible to predict with any degree of accuracy airport growth over ten years let alone 25 years.

[Heathrow Harry]

It's in their interests to overestimate of course - for a start it looks better when you're looking for new airlines to come in

[Rivet Joint]

Someone Google the word recession. Might find your answer.

[MerchantVenturer]

Exactly. It's one of the events (see Expressflight's post above) that can intrude when trying to forecast airport passenger numbers years in advance, along with other negative influences such as high oil prices and terrorism, or positive factors such as the startling rise of low-cost airlines during the first decade of this century that have revolutionised some regional airports, and which few if any people would have forecast in the early 1990s. Because no-one knows if or when these events will occur, or what they will be if they do, it makes accurately forecasting/predicting next to impossible most of the time.

A better guide might be to look at how an airport has performed in relation to all the others in the country because major events usually affect all airports to a greater or lesser degree.

In SOU's case it's seen a reasonably consistent performance over the past 15 years.

Looking at Table 01 of the CAA stats, in 2000 SOU handled 0.5% of the total passenger numbers at all UK airports. In 2005 this had risen to 0.8% which was the same percentage in 2010. In 2015 the percentage had dropped slightly to 0.7.

[Pompeyfan]

It appears that there were some issues last night and this morning with flights cancelled or diverted to FAB, slightly unusual. originally believed it was due to weather last night but this morning it's cleared up nicely, certainly nice enough for the inaugural Munich flight to land.

[BOHEuropean]

Presumably (?) you're getting that information from Flightradar. The smaller aircraft tend to get lost on FR24 once they get quite low and the website plots an arrival airport based on where it 'lost' the signal for that aircraft. Thus, a number of aircraft have been showing as diverted to Farnborough when actually they landed at SOU.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-ecog/#96b39ef

An example, that says diverted to FAB, but if you look at the track, the aircraft was turning in for an approach into SOU when it's track got lost. It never diverted.

[Wycombe]

This is down to the way "MLAT" works (inaccurately) in FR24.

A scheduled commercial flight would never divert to FAB.

In other SOU news - the bmiR service from MUC started today.

[Pompeyfan]

1st post and I end up embarrassing myself. I did think it was very strange, considering the lack of commercial facilities at FAB as well as the fact BOH is closer. Looking at the play back it does appear to be holding. I've never noticed this issue before but I only tend to pay attention to BOH and SOU

[EI-BUD]

There was to have been a new Cork (reinstated) route by AerLingus Regional.. This is not appearing anywhere, ie not on AerLingus.ie or mention of it on the thread here, well not since it was announced.

Surprised this has not gotten a mention...

[Wycombe]

....service started mid-March and is operating up to 5 times a week during S16.

[canberra97]

EI-BUD

You could of checked the timetable of the Southampton Airport website or even googled it as there are pictures online showing the inaugural flight, it's not all about Pprune you know!

[Buster the Bear]

Just as long Aer Lingus Regional don't cancel my flights as KLM have recently done, I'll be happy.

[adfly]

Go back a few pages on this thread and Cork has been mentioned multiple times from when it was announced, when I made a S16 summary, when it was put on sale for the winter and when it actually started!

Thomson release their S17 schedules tomorrow so it will be interesting to see if the Friday Ibiza service that appeared a few weeks ago gets formally announced.

[Rivet Joint]

Are KLM just doing one daily flight now? If they are they might as well not bother.

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

Why do you say that Rivet? Flights are still showing as double daily (on weekdays) on their website, except for the school summer holiday period where they do drop to a single daily flight, but return to double daily in September. This has always been the case since the flights went on sale though. The only change to their schedule appears to be the Saturday evening flight changing to a Saturday morning over the school holiday period, as Buster the Bear posted about previously.

[adfly]

Thanks for the insightful analysis, I'm sure KLM bosses will follow the superior advice offered to them on PPRuNe and drop the route immediately!

Passengers down 0.5% in March, looking as though the airport should return to growth from this month.

Antwerp (23!) + Hamburg (572) = 14 passengers per flight = 28%
Paris CDG (433) = 43 passengers per flight = 55%
Dusseldorf (2287)= 37 passengers per flight = 49%
Cork (871) = 44 passengers per flight = 61%

Looks like a solid start for CDG and ORK, with DUS heading in the right direction as well. Surprised VLM are still operating their SOU routes, I can only assume the fares are helping to compensate for the very poor loads they are getting somewhat.

[EI-BUD]

Wycombe
Thanks for the info.

The flight is not listed on the Aer Lingus app. But it is on the website.

Canberra97,
Thanks for your advice, but I had checked the app. Hence my query...

[EI-A330-300]

EI-BUD, you need the new Aer Lingus app, the old one should prompt you to download it if you updated it in the last few weeks.

Very good start to ORK, if it's that good now (Easter may play a part) it should do very well in summer.

[adfly]

Palma continues the same as last year, Ibiza is new. Flight times from the latter suggest a SOU based aircraft from whoever is serving it, although given that the airline is not confirmed yet I would not read into that too much.

Palma - 2 weekly Tue/Sat Volotea
Ibiza - 1 weekly Fri 'Other Carrier'

Nice to see Ibiza return.

[Wycombe]

Indeed so re. Ibiza, remember when this was operated overnight by Flybe - 146 that sat on the ground in IBZ for 3 to 4 hours in order to make the timings fit with SOU's opening hours.

[EI-BUD]

Just downloaded the new app, ORK SOU not on the list, perhaps it's just my phone. Anyway, enough about all that, since of the relevant people will pick up on this and then update the info..

[Rivet Joint]

Capt: That will explain it! I was looking in the school holidays. I expect the Asian student market is going to be a big part of their customer base.

[canberra97]

RiverJoint

It took you 18 days to reply to Capt post!

When I noticed there had been a post added today on the Southampton thread I thought it might have been a new route announcement or some news regarding SOU not a late reply to a trivial point.

[RW20]

There have been weather diversions( blue island and aurigny) recently into Hurn.
As both of these Airlines are users of Southampton, why don't they land there?

[kcockayne]

There have been weather diversions( blue island and aurigny) recently into Hurn.
As both of these Airlines are users of Southampton, why don't they land there?

Anything to do with the parking capacity at Southampton ?

[BAladdy]

Anyone have any information on what the loads have been like on BM's MUC service?

[canberra97]

Today Monday 16th May saw the resumption of KLM at Southampton the third new airline to start operations from the airport after Aer Lingus and BMI Regional, Volotea commence their first scheduled flights to Palma from the end of May.

I wonder who will be the next airline to announce flights from Southampton, maybe Air France or HOP to CDG.

[uptoncol]

Remember also end of May ,we have the evelop A320 in on a Friday morning being chartered by Thomas cook .
Cheers Col .

[canberra97]

uptoncol

I was actually referring to new airlines with scheduled flights rather than charter flights although I am aware as many others are of the weekly Evelop A320 flights operating every Friday to Palma on behalf of Thomas Cook that will soon commence from SOU.

[SOUSpotter96]

*First post*
Summer is looking good for Southampton, hopefully the 2mill pax numbers will be reached. Canberra97, hopefully HOP do, but would also like to see Aer Lingus (depending on performance and demand), bring A320's to SOU.

[canberra97]

SOUSpotter96

With reference to Aer Lingus bringing in A320's to SOU I very much doubt that seeing the flights are operated by Stobart Air under the Aer Lingus Regional brand and nothing to do with mainline Aer Lingus operations.

[stewyb]

However, I do believe its plausible that we could see the likes of HOP and Lufthansa Regional start up some routes feeding in to CDG/FRA/MUN!!

[adfly]

Sorry to be sceptical but HOP! seems unlikely given the effect recent events in Paris have had on tourism (nothing drastic, but probably not the best time to add loads of capacity to a route). MUC is basically served by LH through BMI Regional, and I guess there could be a chance they may start SOU-FRA in the future is MUC works for them.

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

I'd also be surprised to see Hop arriving on the scene, especially given that AF and Flybe already codeshare on the Orly flights. Then again, KLM and Flybe had a codeshare to AMS (and still seem to according to the arrivals board today), and we're now seeing KLM flying their own services to SOU so you never know.
The only way we'll be seeing Aer Lingus A320s is if they decide to launch a mainline DUB service in competition with Flybe which I believe to be unlikely.
Two 73s in today in connection with the Harmony of the Seas cruise ship, one XL France 738 and a Maleth Aero 733 which visited twice.

What do people think are the chances of seeing Wizz at SOU? Would their aircraft be drastically limited from the runway? It seems to me that there's a fairly large unserved market from the Central South Coast to eastern Europe. Flybe haven't gone there yet, I wonder if Wizz could make an attempt?

[Groundloop]

It seems to me that there's a fairly large unserved market from the Central South Coast to eastern Europe.

RYR will be serving Krakow from BOH starting in November.

[055166k]

If you're trying to stimulate business.....Survey Polish community in greater Southampton catchment area......which would be their preferred Polish hub?....LOT might be attracted...especially as they have a varied Embraer 170/175/190 fleet......could be worth a couple of flights a week as a tester.

[RW20]

There's a very big polish population in and around Southampton, so surely there is possible route ready to be tapped?,Bournemouth have a service starting,but is it runway restrictions or Flybe objections stopping Southampton implication of a service?

[davidjohnson6]

Presumably a Southampton-Poland route has to aim at a price conscious crowd, although perhaps not quite so price sensitive as maybe 5 or 10 years ago.
Does an E190 have the economics for such a market compared to a B737 / A320 ? Would a Dash 8 be considered viable and likely profitable for such a long route ? Furthermore, Flybe have had a troubled time over the last few years and only just turning the corner - is Southampton-Eastern Europe a market they want to enter or will management and shareholders want a year of stability first ?

[shamrock7seal]

It might be a branding & awareness issue.

The Polish market is likely to be heavily inbound which means the Flybe brand would be completely unknown in Poland and require a huge amount of advertising to spread the word.

Wizz Air and Ryanair don't have this issue.

[darren1]

Should a Polish route not have started 5-10 years ago if it was worthwhile?

[LTNman]

If you're trying to stimulate business.....Survey Polish community in greater Southampton catchment area......which would be their preferred Polish hub?....LOT might be attracted...especially as they have a varied Embraer 170/175/190 fleet......could be worth a couple of flights a week as a tester.

There is a big Polish population everywhere in the UK. Southamapton's is no bigger than anywhere else which means if Southampton could support a route so could practically ever other minor and major airport in the UK.

Wizz at Luton now has 668 movements a week arriving and departing this summer from Eastern Europe as more and more migrants choose to live in the UK so the demand will continue to increase as the UK growth rate for Wizz is a massive 24%. No doubt many of those migrants and their visiting families will be heading for the south coast so as time goes on the viability of new routes say from Southampton will increase with time.

[shamrock7seal]

How are the new services doing in terms of load factor?

KLM AMS
EI ORK
BD MUC
BE LYN

It will be interesting to see how the KLM AMS route develops. I'd imagine that going to 3 or 4 daily easily.

EI should be doing Dublin at least twice daily together with ORK.

[SOUSpotter96]

I hope KLM increase to 3 or 4 daily, maybe they will start to vary on what they bring with the EMB's and F70's if they do increase flights. I think Wizzair or LOT should definitely atleast try Southampton, same with Lufthansa, maybe they could introduce more German routes with their EMB's.

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

The first week of the KLM seems to have gone fairly well- outbound loads on the first day were roughly 70%, no data for the inbounds. Inbounds through the week were a bit weaker with about 40-50% loads as an average, (no data for outbounds) but from Thursday through to today loads have been above 70% and into the 90s on some flights. As always it's about yield not LF but if the loads are anything to go by then there seems to be some potential there. It'll be interesting to see how the route develops over time.

[Una Due Tfc]

EI should be doing Dublin at least twice daily together with ORK.

Do Flybe not codeshare with EI on the route?

[Buster the Bear]

We booked on March 1st 3 Amsterdam return fares travelling August for £85 each. Take APD, VAT and the airport taxes away from this, I doubt if they'll be making much of a profit from us. I hadn't planned on travelling, but at this price (during the school holidays) and from my local airport, then why not?

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

Great price Buster, particularly during school hols. From your username and photo I'd never have guessed that SOU was your local airport!

[Buster the Bear]

It still doesn't feel right, but yes it is.....now.

Flying out later week from Southampton to Cork as well!

[David Sharpe]

Not that the Evelop Airlines flight is due tomorrow morning from Palma.


Is tomorrow the first week of operation or did it commence last week ?

[stewyb]

I think it starts a week tomorrow (03/06). I notice that the Flybe Palma and Alicante routes are currently being operated by the Dash and hope that passengers are sitting comfortably during the flight, not the best experience I would imagine, bad enough to Geneva. Any idea of Volotea bookings to date for PMI as they start this weekend and must be so much more attractive on both price and jet comfort!

[Janet Spongthrush]

[QUOTE=stewyb;9389. Any idea of Volotea bookings to date for PMI as they start this weekend and must be so much more attractive on both price and jet comfort![/QUOTE]

Am on the first Volotea on Sunday, will report back.

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

First Evelop flight is today.

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

The Evelop flight yesterday was operated by an Orbest Orizonia A320. First Thomson Palma flight today operated by Volotea, and first Volotea scheduled service to Palma tomorrow.

[Buster the Bear]

Yesterdays departure to Cork was surprisingly nearly full, not bad for a route only started a month ago.

[055166k]

Shame that the airport arrival and departure website seems unable to cope......it has omitted large numbers of commercial passenger movements in the last few weeks. As I write, there is no mention of Volotea.

[Ringwayman]

What, like this?

18:40 V73934 Palma Scheduled

V7 is Volotea

[055166k]

Thanks for heads-up....there now.....wasn't earlier. regards .

[SOUSpotter96]

So whats the schedule pattern on Volotea and Evelop flights?, wouldn't mind going up there to get some photos.

[Buster the Bear]

From touchdown to car park including waiting for bags was an unbelievably quick 15 minutes today. Not a brilliant load on the Cork flight, but well impressed with this new connection.

[canberra97]

SOUSpotter

The full schedule is on the Southampton Airport website.

[Bournemouth Air]

Southampton to charge £1 for drop off near terminal

I think they should read the negative response to Bournemouth drop off before they start that

[zantopst]

Bournemouth Air, I think you need to read the full article in the echo. Yes, the airport is creating a new drop off area near the terminal and will charge £1 for 10 minutes to pick up and drop off, BUT they are adding a 30 minutes FREE drop off and pick up area in the long term car park, so unlike Bournemouth they still allow free parking to pick up and drop off.

[Buster the Bear]

A number of changes are being made to the parking and pick-up and drop-off facilities at Southampton Airport, as part of a full review of all facilities on offer.
The existing free pick-up and drop-off area at Southampton Airport is moving to the long stay car park and will offer 30 minutes of parking for free. Passengers can catch the airport shuttle bus down to the main terminal which takes around 3-5 minutes and runs every 10-12 minutes.
Passengers looking to be dropped off closer to the main terminal can choose to be dropped off in the Priority pick-up and drop-off area in the short stay car park where there will be a £1 fee for 10 minutes.
Between 2010 and 2015 the airport invested over £20m in redevelopments and in the last year alone, has invested significant amounts in its security, arrivals and departure areas as well as new shuttle buses.
The money raised from these parking changes will be reinvested and support future investment of Southampton Airport as it looks to the future and reaching the 2 million passenger milestone.
We are due to implement these changes in September 2016.

[TCAS FAN]

We've all been waiting a long time for the 2 million PAX, hopefully the revenue can be channelled into the airside external infrastructure, a northern taxiway and 20 starter strip would be good for starters, might even help with reaching the 2 million mark!

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

Asking as I've never been sure- does the number of passengers per annum for an airport relate to only the number of departing passengers from there, or the total number of arriving and departing passengers that pass through its doors over a 12 month period?

[davidjohnson6]

Ron - generally one counts both arriving and departing passengers when reporting statistics

[arthur harbrow]

Does anyone know how the KLM to Amsterdam flights are doing, please?

[adfly]

Sad but not unexpected news, VLM have declared bankruptcy and ceased all operations as a result, including SOU-ANR/HAM.

Hopefully BMI will look into the likes of HAM and BRU from SOU, they would be a better suited and more recognised company for the routes.

Would be nice to see how the new carriers are doing, but we are still waiting for the CAA stats for April and May!

[virginblue]

We should not forget that VLM has gone under for some reason - despite operating dirt cheap, written off props in times of low fuel costs. Certainly not because they chose routes that were a licence to print money....

[Buster the Bear]

Possible strike action and airport closures.

Southampton airport firefighters ballot to strike over pension changes (http://www.pensionsage.com/pa/Southampton-airport-firefighters-to-ballot-to-strike-over-pension-changes.php%20.php?)

[SOUSpotter96]

Volotea used an A319 for the PMI flight this evening. Could be a sign of good pax numbers or just them fading out the B717

[anna_list]

Hello,
Sadly it wasn't a sign of good passenger numbers (at least not on this occasion), as less than 70 were on board. The aircraft swap was due to a fault on the B717 that had been planned to operate the service.

[RW20]

Other posts have quoted average passenger numbers,can this new service survive it's first year?

[canberra97]

There needs to be far more advertising of Volotea from SOU and the same could be said for the Vueling BCN route a few years ago as the local catchment area are unaware of where they can actually fly too from SOU.

I have just returned from BCN with BA from LHR and I spoke to three couples from Southampton as well as two couples from Bournemouth that were using the flight, surely there is a demand for a flight to BCN again as its a very popular city especially as I visit it for work as well as for leisure at least six times a year.

I would like to see Vueling have another go at SOU and hope that Volotea return for next year as SOU needs some variety regarding airlines and destinations especially considering the wider affluent catchment area of the airport.

[stewyb]

I don't think a load of circa 70 is disastrous for June and this should ramp up considerably come mid July and August with school holidays etc!

[adfly]

70/125 is 56% which is pretty poor by LCC standards. A look at their booking engine reveals that quite a few flights over the holidays have 100+ booked on them which is good to see. Volotea have done a better job of promoting this route than Vueling did for Barcelona a few years ago to be fair.

[aer lingus]

Any update on the pension ballot? I'm due to fly to Southampton at the end of July.

[Buster the Bear]

I live 30 min away by car from Southampton and I have heard or seen nothing about Volotea apart from reading about it here and on other aviation forums.

[Jn14:6]

Wave 105 carries regular ads for Volotea.

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

Flybe sun routes have been extended through winter 16/17. Not sure of aircraft type or schedules as I haven't looked through the website timetable.

[adfly]

Looks like they are all operated on an E195, Alicante and Faro and 2 weekly each and Malaga is 3 weekly. Judging by the flight times they are doing the same as they are this summer with an aircraft flying MAN-SOU-ALC/AGP/FAO-SOU-MAN. Good to see them return although I can't help but wonder if Flybe would perform better on these routes if they released them earlier.

[adfly]

After quite a delay they are finally out.

Total passengers are down 0.5%, hopefully the summer months will be strong enough to prevent another year on year decline in passenger numbers. I suspect the decrease came almost entirely from the significant reduction in the 'sun' routes during this month as everything else seem to be fairly stagnant or growing according to the stats.

BMI Regional carried 771 passengers to Munich, which works out to be an average of 16 passengers per flight, for a 33% load factor based on there being 3 cancelled flights due to ATC strikes (there may have been more). Some flights were also operated by an E135 (37 seats) rather than the E145 (49 seats) my calculation is based off so the actual percentage will be a little higher. It isn't an awful start, but hopefully the route will have grown to more sustainable loads in more recent months, especially with the competition from Flybe they have now.

Dusseldorf has improved, averaging 38 passengers for a load factor of 49.5%. Finally Cork did well for such a 'new' route averaging 40 passengers per flight, meaning a load factor of 55%.

[Buster the Bear]

Any update on the pension ballot? I'm due to fly to Southampton at the end of July.

Union have agreed a way forward and this will be put to the membership shortly, so sounds promising.

[aer lingus]

Great news, thanks for the reply.

[SOUSpotter96]

Any reason a Jota Aviation RJ85 just departed Southampton?, possible new airline or just a one off?. Any info would be great.

[zantopst]

The Jota RJ85 was Southampton FC going to Holland on a pre-season tour.

[Expressflight]

It's a charter, with both Jota 146/RJs being kept extremely busy this month by the way.

[canberra97]

SOUSpotter96

Jota are an ad hoc carrier based at Southend so we won't be seeing them as a possible new airline only the odd charter or flying on behalf of Flybe maybe!

[M858]

I'll do a full post later as not all flights are currently released. As it stands ALC, AGP and FAO run until 3rd April.

AVN, MXP, BIA, PMI, PGF all appear to be dropped.

AMS and DUB are now ~4 daily, GLA and MAN are back to 5 daily, BOD is now 2 weekly.

DUS continues, as does the double daily GCI.
Sorry to pick up on an old post - but do you have any more information regarding SOU-MXP? Were passenger numbers so low that they dropped it for 2016?

[BOHEuropean]

MXP isn't served from Southampton.

[adfly]

MXP was served a couple of times a week last summer, likely aimed at Lakes & Mountains package type customers. I can only assume it didn't perform well enough and so did not return this year as a result.

[adfly]

Flybe seem to not be starting Munich until 1st September now, was originally meant to begin at the end of June.

[MARKEYD]

Thomas Cook have cancelled there Palma 2017 programme from Southampton with Evelop airlines . Possibly due to the high number of flights this year with Volotea and Flybe in on the route

Remains to be seen if Volotea return next summer as no release date yet for next year

[MARKEYD]

Southampton ski routes seem to be going through a bit of a turmoil for next season

Inghams ski have cancelled the Innsbruck season with Austrian Airlines and are now operating just 3 flights over Feb half term 17

Ski Total were to have used Small Planet A320 to Chambery this winter season in place of Germania A 319 , however this has now changed again and they are down grading to good old Flybe DHC8 400 albeit a charter on Sundays at 0800

[Heathrow Harry]

Expect demand has cratered - at £1 < 1 Euro a lot of people are rethinking their holiday plans - sure as hell not committing right now

[RW20]

Are we seeing a downturn in Southampton fortunes?
It seems that other airports I.e Cardiff are making big strides forward,even Bournemouth are on the up.
Is it simply the runway is not quite long enough to take London overspill,what are it's prospects?

[Buster the Bear]

No doubt airlines are making use of nice subsidies from the Welsh Govt at Cardiff? Time will tell once those funds are exhausted, if the number of flights currently available actually continues.

[SOUSpotter96]

Has anyone got an explanation as to why there are currently 5/6 Flybe Dash 8's circling in and around Southampton airspace. Is this just late night traffic?, never seen it on such a scale.

[Buster the Bear]

They are landing now. Emergency, blocked runway, runway breaking up, just guesses of course.

[SOUSpotter96]

They are landing now. Emergency, blocked runway, runway breaking up, just guesses of course.

I'll keep an eye out to see if anything pops up.

[destinationsky]

Undercarriage issue with the GLA flight. A/C landed safely and dpeartures/arrivals resumed soon after

[Buster the Bear]

Another quality experience departing Southampton this evening and the Fokker 70 was full!

[Buster the Bear]

Landed back at Southampton this morning from Amsterdam with KLM. I reckon the load was over 50 and the bmi flight which arrived ahead also appeared to have a good load. Steps of Fokker to car in the short term was 11 minutes! Fantastic!

[stewyb]

Is there any information on the success of this route with Volotea over the summer and likelihood of returning next year?

[arthur harbrow]

I hope they return, used them last night from PMI.Flight left spot on time and was overall very impressed.
Have used SOU three times now this year, Flybe, KLM and Volotea, what a great change from LGW and LHR.

[SOUSpotter96]

I see Flybe have decided to rival BMI with a Munich route... Wish a bigger airline such as EasyJet or similar would barge Flybe out the way, their getting boring now.

[TartinTon]

Hardly a rival product....twice a day with a jet on BMI vs once a day with a dash on Flybe...I can be out of the airport on my way before Flybe have even landed as it takes 35 mins longer on the inbound with Flybe!!

[adfly]

Flybe are undercutting BMI on the route though, so that will likely draw away many of the leisure and more cost-conscious passengers which could lead to the route not being viable, which would be a shame as BMI offer a very good product and schedule.

As an aside, the May/June CAA data for SOU appears to be very late!

[yeo valley]

a lot of airports may/june caa stats not out yet.been lots of talk about it in other forums.

[GCILover]

I watched both flights board last Sunday. BMI 26 pax, Flybe 55

[Reversethrustset]

I see Flybe have decided to rival BMI with a Munich route... Wish a bigger airline such as EasyJet or similar would barge Flybe out the way, their getting boring now.

They're getting boring now? If it wasn't for the boring Flybe your little airport at Southampton would be nothing more than a GA airfield or prime real estate territory.

[SOUSpotter96]

They're getting boring now? If it wasn't for the boring Flybe your little airport at Southampton would be nothing more than a GA airfield or prime real estate territory.

I understand that, but it's just they're dominance at the airport, theres not enough diversity, I could be feeling like this and saying this because I have just come back from a spotting trip at LHR.

[Wycombe]

The reality is that unless other operators equip themselves with a/c that are more suitable for SOU ops, and/or the Airport grows some more apron space and a wider/longer runway, then the current situation will continue.

BEE have a decent niche at SOU and tend to adopt predatory behavior when others come in on their territory (as we are seeing now on the MUC route).

[Reversethrustset]

Don't all airlines do that though? There's not an airline on this land that'll roll over and just say "oh go on then, you can have the route". Saying that though flybe did just that on a couple of the routes out of BHX a year or so ago, namely Keflavik & Porto, but it was only when they realised they didn't have a chance in hell of competing.

[HeartyMeatballs]

Oh but there is. I can't think of several airlines and several locations who've just let competitors come in and take their business. They've let competitors take routes and have let competitors take entire bases too.

[Wycombe]

Don't all airlines do that though?

Yes, of course, but we've also seen cases at SOU (BRU springs to mind), where BEE came onto the route (which Eastern were on at the time), forced them off with cheaper pricing, then dropped the route as commercially unviable.....which is of no use to anyone.

SOU-LBA has seem the same happen in the past, but Eastern have been back on that route for a while now and seem to have made it stick.

[stewyb]

taken from the airport website:

Southampton Airport has enjoyed a record breaking summer after almost 430,000 passengers travelled through its doors during July and August, representing an increase of 14.6% compared to the same period last year.
August proved to be the airport’s busiest month on record with 219,757 passengers whilst 207,631 passengers used the airport in July. Prior to this year, the airport’s busiest month had been in August 2007 when 205,500 passengers took to the skies.

Strong numbers indeed!!

[adfly]

The May CAA stats for SOU are finally visible, with the airport recording a 1% decrease compared with last May. Nearly all the primary domestic routes showed some good growth (BHD, EDI, GLA, MAN, JER, NCL) and the busier European destinations (CDG/ORY, DUB, AMS) performed well, with the latter showing a 51% increase, presumably owing to a certain new arrival. I suspect the overall decrease has come from most of the leisure focused international routes being operated in a more 'seasonal' manner this year by Flybe, as most are showing significant decreases.

DUS performed pretty well, averaging 42 passengers per flight, for a 54% load factor. MUC was off to a slower start, averaging 17 passengers per flight for a 35% load factor. It is worth noting that this is based on all flights being on a E145, whereas in reality some were E135's, plus I believe there were also a couple of cancellations, so the actual value is likely a bit higher than the one I've worked out. ORK did well, averaging over 45 passengers, meaning a 63% load factor, which is pretty good going for a route in its first few weeks.

Good to see record numbers for July and August!

[MARKEYD]

Ibiza flights are on hold at the moment as Thomson are trying to source an airline and aircraft to operate the route which has the right capacity for them

Flybe ???

[stewyb]

or Volotea surely!

[Pompeyfan]

If it was busy enough could they not just rotate a B738 from BOH - IBZ - SOU - IBZ - BOH and then just continue its rotation to Turkey, Greece, Majorca and so on?

[TCAS FAN]

Pompeyfan

Is a non-starter as a B738 will be severely weight restricted with a wet runway at SOU. Air Europa tried it many years ago and ended up diverting flights when runway was wet.

[Pompeyfan]

Oh right, okay thanks, as you can tell I'm a novice in such things. Do A319s/320s not suffer quite as bad then? They seem semi regular for charters etc.

[TCAS FAN]

Due to their lower weight the A319 and B737-700 are best suited, but few carriers operate them in Europe, the former often being displaced by the heavier A320. IMHO the best aircraft to permit significant route expansion at SOU, and finally achieve/exceed 2 million PAX per year is the Bombardier CS100. Unfortunately it would appear that the only European carrier to have as yet bought them is Swiss.

[stewyb]

Alternatively SOU could just get on and build the starter strip at the northern end that they promised within 5 years!

[TCAS FAN]

stewyb

Not so much a starter strip, more a runway extension so that it can be used as part of the LDA for 02. Part of the penalty incurred with a wet runway affects the landing weight so every extra metre helps, albeit not for 20 as the rail sheds and some houses at the west end of Campbell Road necessitate use of the current 20 displaced threshold.

And don't forget the northern taxiway that has been proposed many times.

The party line put around by BAA was always that the Section 106 Agreement with Local Planning Authority prevented a runway extension, not the case (unless the original has been changed), if a planning application is put in the runway shall not be extended to more than 2000 metres.

[MARKEYD]

Thomson are busy sourcing another airline as Volotea are not being used for next years Palma flights from either Southampton or Southend

Flights are still on sale to Palma though but on hold to Ibiza at the moment

Volotea are still operating from Jersey to Palma and Tenerife so not sure what the problem is exactly

[stewyb]

Could it be that Volotea want to increase the SOU - Palma route to four weekly and take over the Thomson charters with their own scheduled service?

[RW20]

With this in mind,can we expect volotea to pull out of the schedule services to palma next year,if so then what a shame after so short of time!.Can anybody operate package deals from Southampton with current aircraft fleets?

[Buster the Bear]

BA Cityflyer and their EMB fleet?

[canberra97]

Ive said it before and I'll say it again, BA Cityflyer would be a very welcome addition to SOU especially if they offered a similar network to LCY.

[Buster the Bear]

With City being closed from lunchtime on a Saturday until a similar time on a Sunday, one would guess that there is some spare capacity to facilitate a small operation to the 'sun' from somewhere like Southampton, just like their limited Stansted operation?

[davidjohnson6]

Why would BA choose to put their spare aircraft in Southampton when they could put them in Stansted ?
Not saying SOU shouldn't happen - just that BA will pick which ever airport gives most profit for moderate risk

[gkmeech]

A320 has been flying from SOU to PMI for some years now, Evelop this year. Plenty of A320 operators around.

[uptoncol]

So Thomson have put the Ibiza flight back on sale for summer 2017 but it's changed to a Thursday ,still no mention of which carrier being used .
Col

[Rivet Joint]

Are you familiar with stansted? Basically a low cost carrier punch up. BA's presence in Stansted is just weird. It's clearly to fill a few rotations for idle aircraft but as some posters have pointed out, Southampton fits BA's profile and aircraft very well. There is real demand for these routes not to mention other routes that the affluent catchment area want to be able to fly to on their doorstep. Provided you have the right aircraft, Southampton is a a perfect place to exploit.

[Buster the Bear]

davidjohnson6, I was just suggesting that tour operators might make use of the spare capacity, just like Humberside, Aberdeen etc.

[davidjohnson6]

Rivet - I've flown through STN approx 200 times. Yes it feels cheap, but a lot of cash has gone into it over the last few years to tart it up. Stansted's airport infrastructure is fundamentally quite good.
If BA can offer fast track security, there are plenty of people in STN's catchment area who work in London and earn well who would happily pay to avoid Ryanair and live too far from Heathrow or Gatwick to make BA normally viable.

I used to live in Swaythling, about a mile from SOU and want SOU to succeed, but still don't see a compelling reason as to why BA would do better financially from SOU compared to STN.

[Keyvon]

PMI confirmed by Volotea for S17, 4 times weekly Tu-We-Sa-Su from May, 27.

[adfly]

Excellent news! Suspect Thomson will sell seats on those scheduled flights next year, seems to me a win-win situation, some bulk purchased seats helps Volotea and there is also more choice for Thomson customers.

[RW20]

Has it been confirmed that evelop to palma on Fridays for 2017 has been dropped?

[stewyb]

I see my post of 1157 has come true, not bad eh!

[MARKEYD]

Looks like Thomson are indeed using Volotea on the summer routes to Palma on Tuesday and Saturday as the flight times more or less tie in with the scheduled flights and Ibiza is also operated by Volotea on a Thurday departure

[canberra97]

DavidJohnson6

I don't think SOU was mentioned instead of STN but in addition to!

There are plenty of spare BA aircraft not flying over the weekend from LCY and that's not including the ones deployed at STN so SOU in my view and also of others that a SOU weekend operation could be viable.

And BTW Swaythling is actually in Southampton not one a mile way as you suggest as its a suburb of the City of Southampton, its approximately one mile from Southampton Airport though just a five minute drive up Wide Lane from Swaythling!

[inOban]

If there are plenty of LCY assets not flying over the weekend, then why do BA need to fly two planes into Edinburgh every summer weekend, for charters? (One from Zurich, the other from Geneva). I think these unemployed assets are a myth.

[Buster the Bear]

I cannot believe that all 21 Cityflyer airframes are employed from Lunchtime Saturday, to a similar time on Sunday? My guess would be more of a crewing issue than availability of spare capacity.

[AirLCY]

All the 190's were used on charter if not at LCY or STN, looked like 2 were parked at LCY for 24 hours sat - sun, the rest flying charter from EDI and GLA, 170's looked pretty unused.

[Capt. Ron Swanson]

I've just tried a dummy booking for TCX to Palma for next year, and they're showing holidays available on Thursdays next summer, airline not specified but it's an 0800 departure from Southampton so I'd guess the flight originates in SOU. Any ideas as to who it'll be?

[Pompeyfan]

Any idea if there's an incident at Southampton this afternoon (as at 14:15) there's 2 Flybe Dash, a FlyBe E-jet and a blue island ATR all holding in various locations.

[MARKEYD]

Thomas Cook are not operating next summer from Southampton with Evolop Air A320
They are more than likely using the scheduled service of Volotea to Palma instead which would make sense with their 4 flights a week ( like Thomson are about to do )

The Thu flight and other mid week flights that are showing with Thomas Cook are with British Midland but via there Munich operation , long way round !!

[BAladdy]

If there are plenty of LCY assets not flying over the weekend, then why do BA need to fly two planes into Edinburgh every summer weekend, for charters? (One from Zurich, the other from Geneva). I think these unemployed assets are a myth.

Because these aircraft operate charter flights from ZRH and GVA on behalf of a Swiss Tour Company the company offers 8 day tours from EDI around Scotland. During the peak summer months

[DP.]

Is there a staffing problem with ATC today? Currently at JER, Flybe with a long delay and a cancellation, and this is what people seem to have been told (off elsewhere myself, but obviously a fair few unhappy passengers here).

[Buster the Bear]

NOTAM-SOUTHAMPTON / EASTLEIGH-EGHI (http://www.rocketroute.com/airports/europe-eu/unitedkingdom-gb/notam-southampton-eghi.html)

Looks like staff shortage and closing for regulation beaks?

[DP.]

NOTAM-SOUTHAMPTON / EASTLEIGH-EGHI (http://www.rocketroute.com/airports/europe-eu/unitedkingdom-gb/notam-southampton-eghi.html)

Looks like staff shortage and closing for regulation beaks?

Thanks for that. Looking like a lot of knock-on problems for Flybe.

[bad bear]

I assume the airspace reverts to Class "G" while not being used by ATC

bb

[RW20]

It's absolutely pathetic that a airport of Southampton status has to close due to ATC shortages!
There are many delays tonight on inbounds that will surely be diverted to Bournemouth.Incidently Bournemouth will be open to all inbounds 24/7!

[BOHEuropean]

Gents,

Sorry if this has been covered before; however I can't find any flight information for charter flights this winter.

Are flights by companies like Austrian Airlines and Germania not operating this coming winter? If they are, could anyone provide the details.

Many thanks

[MARKEYD]

Covered a bit in post " 1123 "

cheers

[BOHEuropean]

So it was, that's a shame that they're not operating. Thanks Mark.

[TCAS FAN]

Just checked NATS AIS website (which is the official source for UK NOTAM), the only outage is the DME "ISN" which is co-located with the 20 ILS glidepath site. If this is U/S the "SAM" DME can be substituted by aircraft wishing to fly an ILS.

The NOTAM link given (which is not NATS) refers to withdrawal of Instrument Approach procedures, which is not the case, and secondly there is no mention of ATC staff shortages or temporary closures to accommodate SRATCOH breaks. Who dreamt that one up?

Mention in quoted NOTAM of "DOD" = Department of Defense (USA)? Have they declared war on SOU and imposed an instrument approach ban?

[gkmeech]

RW20 wrote ... It's absolutely pathetic that a airport of Southampton status has to close due to ATC shortages!

Everyone is entitled to vacation, and if there is then unforeseen sickness of a couple of controllers, what would you suggest?

[Groundloop]

The link only gives currently active NOTAMs. Therefore of you did not use it on the day in question you will not see the NOTAM for 30th Sept.

[TCAS FAN]

Groundloop

My error, was forgetting that the link was to a live site. Although still very mystified about their withdrawal of instrument approach procedures.

[Groundloop]

The DoD reference could mean that the restriction may only apply to US military aircraft who may operate to different requirements, etc.

[destinationsky]

Groundloop has it correct. The DoD NOTAMS only appear on certain NOTAM sites/Apps as the data is taken from US sources and the DoD only relate to US military flights. The DoD NOTAMS do not appear through the AIS website which is the official NOTAM site for UK ops.

[Buster the Bear]

The European Regions Airline Association (ERA) Airport of the Year Award celebrates the achievements of ERA member airports and recognises their positive impact on the European aviation industry. This year, the awards ceremony took place in Madrid on Wednesday 12 October during the association’s General Assembly. The award is judged by an independent panel comprised of senior industry experts, including past CEOs of European airlines, highly respected aviation journalists and academics.

Simon McNamara, ERA Director General, said: “Southampton Airport, the winner of this year’s Airport of the Year award, has demonstrated extraordinary involvement with the local community, linking up with schools, introducing a new assistance desk and a seating area for passengers with reduced mobility and reducing its carbon footprint, while at the same time growing and expanding in a highly competitive market. What a great achievement – huge congratulations to Managing Director David Lees and the whole team at Southampton Airport.”

David Lees, Southampton Airport’s Managing Director, said: “We are over the moon to have been chosen as ERA’s Airport of the Year. It is a true testament to all the hard work that the team at Southampton has put in over the past year. We would like to thank ERA for this wonderful award and all the passengers who continue to travel through the airport, this award could not have been achieved without you.”

[davidjohnson6]

I'm sure the team from Southampton had a fun evening at the annual industry black tie dinner wining and dining. Only 2 problems - what to do about the embarassing photos soneone took on their phone, and deciding where to put the new door stop to hold a door open.

Neither airlines nor passengers will give a damn about this award and the fact that SOU received the award won't have the slightest impact on operations or passenger numbers. The whole industry awards thing is just a chance for a corporate jolly.

[canberra97]

davidjohnson6

Now are you being a DebbieDowner!

Well I think it's excellent that Southampton International Airport won the ERA Airport of the Year award in the same week that the Port of Southampton won Best Port in the World award so we in Southampton must be doing something right to be acknowledged in this way and says a lot for all the hard work and effort made by the Airport and Ports management and it's excellent facilities and you say it will go unnoticed by airlines or passengers.

Here's a story.

My partners a hairdresser and only yesterday a customer was chatting about the award given to the airport, so it does strike a chord with individuals and I myself was chatting about it to port officials at work in the Port of Southampton so step down a bit and let's be pleased that both the Airport and Port have been acknowledged in the way they have as it can only be good for business.

[LEEDS APPROACH]

Southampton is an airport I have flown in to many many times and I love it. It would be a fantastic airport for not just Dorset and Hampshire but would also hugely serve the London area (being on the rail line / motorway).

Unfortunately (similar to LBA) the runway is too short - which vastly restricts operations. In a dog eat dog civil aviation world any restriction is bad bad news!

Extend that runway and SOU would boom.

[Steviec9]

Well deserved recognition.

I live in SW London and am a converted SOU user - it's just 50mins/hour away on a fast train and is my airport of choice now where the destination allows. Plane to train time is a winner - quicker even than LCY. A bit of maximum impact PR at Waterloo wouldn't do any harm.

[Wycombe]

Yep, I live almost exactly equidistant between LHR and SOU, and for the domestic routes they have on fairly high frequency it's the latter that's quicker, more convenient and just easier overall for a day trip (eg, BHD 3 times in the last year).

I can be driving out of the Car Park 10 mins after landing, which is just not possible at LHR.

[BOHEuropean]

Flybe today placed on sale routes from Southampton to; Bastia, Biarritz, Bordeaux, Bergerac, Limoges, La Rochelle, Nantes, Lyons, Perpignan, Rennes and Verona.​

According to social media, the remainder of the flying programme will be placed on sale by the end of November.

[adfly]

Looks like the route to Ibiza next year will be a scheduled one operated by Volotea from 25/05 every Weds. Imagine Thomson will sell holidays using this flight as they will do with the Palma route.

Southampton Airport launches route to Ibiza with Volotea | Southampton Airport (http://www.southamptonairport.com/news/news-press/2016/10/20/southampton-airport-launches-route-to-ibiza-with-volotea/)

[RW20]

Good news,will there be any chance of 319s for this?

[canberra97]

Well I am in IBIZA as I write this and it's my first visit to the island since 1983, sure it's out of season and not a lot going on and although Ibiza old town where we're staying is quite quaint it's nothing special and the trip by taxi from the airport gave it a rather run down look, nothing special especially as I prefer city breaks with Barcelona being my favourite and how I wish Vueling had made a success of their SOU to BCN route.

Sure Ibiza is a very popular destination and I get that for lots of reasons.

Besides that I am pleased that Volotea have faith in SOU and have added Ibiza as a scheduled destination and hopefully we can look at further expansion by the airline at SOU to other destinations with Venice and Milan being examples.

[canberra97]

RW20

Well Volotea did operate at least one flight with an Airbus 319 over the summer to Palma and with them increasing their fleet with the type so the possibility of seeing them at SOU in the future is rather strong.

[stewyb]

Will Volotea eventually take over all other sun routes as not convinced Flybe are fully committed to these?

[canberra97]

Let's not get carried away it's only two seasonal destinations by Volotea so no one can actually answer that question!

[adfly]

Doubt there will be any more changes this late, so I'll try to put together a summary. Let me know of any inaccuracies and I'll update the post!

Aer Lingus Regional

Cork - 4 weekly AT7

Aurigny

Alderny - 14 weekly D28

BMI Regional

Munich - 12 weekly ER3/4

Eastern Airways

Aberdeen - 10 weekly S20 (Via LBA)
Leeds/Bradford - 18 weekly S20

Flybe

Alicante - 2-3 weekly E95/Q400
Amsterdam - 32 weekly Q400
Belfast City - 19 weekly Q400
Bergerac - 3-7 weekly Q400
Chambery - 3 weekly Q400
Dublin - 25 weekly Q400
Dusseldorf - 7 weekly Q400
Edinburgh - 32 weekly Q400
Faro - 2 weekly E95
Geneva - 3 weekly Q400
Glasgow - 31 weekly Q400
Guernsey - 29 weekly AT4/7 (Blue Islands)
Jersey - 24 weekly AT4/7 (Blue Islands)
La Rochelle - 1-2 weekly (20/12-02/01)
Limoges - 1-2 weekly (17/12-04/01)
Lyon - 7 weekly Q400
Malaga - 3 weekly E95
Manchester - 37 weekly Q400/E95
Munich - 7 weekly Q400
Nantes - 4-7 weekly Q400
Newcastle - 18 weekly Q400
Paris CDG - 7 weekly Q400
Paris Orly - 12 weekly Q400
Rennes - 4 weekly Q400 (16/12-02/01)

KLM Cityhopper

Amsterdam - 12 weekly F70

Ski Charters/Lapland Trips

Chambery - 1 weekly Flybe Q400 Ski Total
Innsbruck - 1 weekly Austrian F70 Inghams (25/02-11/03)
Lapland - (10/12 Transun), (13/12 Santa's Lapland), (20/12 Canterbury Travel)

Overall

Flybe weekly departures: 312-324
Other airlines weekly departures: 60-61
Overall weekly departures: 372-385
Overall average daily departures: 53-55

[RW20]

Looking at the list it seems a downturn in ski routes from last year,no Germair319?
Obviously Hurns winter programme has some impact!
Can we expect any further routes for Summer 2017?

[adfly]

There is certainly a drop in the ski charters this winter, although I suspect on the whole there is an increase in flights, since last winter was a relatively quiet one. It is also worth noting that Flybe are continuing to operate Lyon daily over the winter, so I imagine this may be a popular choice for those going to hit the slopes, and I would think the abundance of flights to Munich will also appeal to them.

As for Summer 2017, its fairly early days so I guess we'll have to wait and see! :)

[Rivet Joint]

So yet more cancellations this morning because of fog. When is SOU going to get its act together? Clearly investment is needed airside and none more so than its instrument landing system. I mean it's quite pathetic that BOH has better facilities. All their investment was made without the benefit of large base of airlines. SOU really has no excuse.

[TCAS FAN]

FOG

The ILS is relatively new equipment, the Localiser having been upgraded in the past few years. The current ILS is possibly capable of at least CAT 2 standard signals but the runway lighting and obstacle environment, both on the 20 approach and/ or take-off/climb areas, currently prevents upgrading to CAT 2 ops, and the lower minima that would bring.

Lighting could be upgraded to possibly reduce the current RVR minima (800 metres?) down to something nearer the 550metre CAT 1 minima. The obstacles (rail sheds, Townhill Park etc) will need to be taken out of the equation for anything better.

The 20 runway threshold needs to go north into the rail yard and a scorched earth policy adopted up to somewhere near the Eastleigh/Botley rail line to remove approach obstacles, including demolition of some Campbell Road houses. This would then move the take-off/climb (go-around) area away from Townhill Park/Bitterne Park hill. CAT 2 ops would then probably be viable, plus significantly improving take-off distances with the increased business that would result.

As ever it's a case of investment, investment, investment, plus getting planning consent to take the noise closer to Eastleigh - sorry, doubtful it will ever happen!

[Rivet Joint]

TCAS FAN: An informative post. Please explain why obstacles play any part. Surely it's a case of aircraft (that are already able to land during clear conditions) being able to land with limited visibility I.e rely heavily on a comprehensive ILS. That would just mean investment in a better ILS and maybe lights. Not the removal of buildings?

I think the problem is SOU is owned by a pension fund and the chances of any investment above what is needed to tick it along is unlikely. BOH meanwhile is owned by a company that's business is airports which is why they invested in a new category 3 ILS and terminal of the back of little financial reward. SOU cannot even stretch to a bit of Tarmac to prevent back-tracking on the runway. Pathetic. Never mind, whilst it ticks along making a small but reliable divident to its investors everything is fine.

[RW20]

TCAS and Rivet joint,very good points,but its been obvious for some time the the owners of Saouthampton Airport have no intention of airside development.Simply upgrading rw20 approach lights to full cat 1 ILS specification i e 650 rvr ,would have avoided a lot of diversions to Bournemouth over the last few years,the cost cannot be that much!.Due to the touchdown and approach obstacles I cannot see cat 2 ILS being viable. There is still no decisions on 02 approach aids,with VOR dme shortly to run out!.I'm afraid Southampton is seriously lacking in approach aids for a airport of its status,and to illustrate this, there radar is one of the oldest of regional airports kits!.

[Flitefone]

This is complex and expensive for the airport, quite apart from aircraft equipage and crew competency. This is not just about the airport.

Airport requirements here (not trivial as already noted):

http://www.icao.int/safety/implementation/library/manual%20aerodrome%20stds.pdf

For an airport like SOU, and the aircraft types using the airport, it is unlikely to make financial sense for many years yet.

The airport has done well to achieve the precision arrival capability that it now has.

FF

[TCAS FAN]

Rivet Joint

The minimum descent altitude ("decision altitude" for a Precision approach) is determined by any obstacles that penetrate through a complex series of 3D protected surfaces on the approach to the runway, either side of it and at the upwind end of it. Unfortunately SOU has many, so much so that they, along with SEN and others, previously they had an "Un categorised" ILS. This was a UK CAA invention. It gave a better minima than a non-precision approach, due to height guidance, but not as low as CAT 1. In SOU's case this resulted in a decision altitude around a 100 FT higher than is now available. This resulted in far more diversions than is now the case.

The CAA dinosaurs that originally called the tune refused to accept ICAO computer based technology, permitted as far back as 20+ years ago. This proved that the obstacles present could safely permit CAT 1 operations. Consequently SOU soldiered on with the decision altitude penalty for around 20 years.

It was only following pressure for the UK to fully comply with ICAO standards was the computer based technology accepted and the height penalty removed.

Whilst somewhere near to the lowest CAT 1 decision altitude is available, those obstacles present will not permit CAT 2 or 3 operations, which additionally also require approach and runway lighting upgrades.

In foggy conditions it is invariably the visibility that determines whether a successful approach and landing can be made. Visibility also determines whether an approach can be started. As has been previously noted, provided sufficient lighting is available (which SOU does not) an RVR at or close to 550 metres will permit a CAT 1 approach to be flow. If my memory is correct 7-800 metre RVR is required at SOU.

In BOH's case I believe it was "simples". FR simply laid it on the line, no CAT 3, no flights!

[adfly]

The June CAA stats for SOU are finally visible, showing a healthy 8% increase compared to last year.

Dusseldorf averaged just over 35 passengers, with a 45% load factor. Munich averaged 18.5 passengers for a 38% load factor, but again this is based on a 49 seat E145 only. Cork continues to do well averaging 45 passengers for a 62% load on average.

[Rivet Joint]

Thanks TCAS FAN, very informative. It does make you wonder why the airlines that use SOU have not kicked up a fuss about the endless cancellations whenever there is the slightest bit of fog. Yes SOU cannot control the weather but clearly they have options to improve the situation. Meanwhile the likes of Spain build airports in the middle of nowhere with no demand with better facilities than SOU.

[SWBKCB]

It does make you wonder why the airlines that use SOU have not kicked up a fuss about the endless cancellations whenever there is the slightest bit of fog

Are there any figures for the number of diversions? Perhaps the airlines actually don't see it as a big deal, especially as any additional costs will probably be reflected in additional charges. All airport locations are a compromise.

[Flitefone]

Are there any figures for the number of diversions? Perhaps the airlines actually don't see it as a big deal, especially as any additional costs will probably be reflected in additional charges. All airport locations are a compromise.

CAA publish the diversion data for each month:

https://www.caa.co.uk/uploadedFiles/CAA/Content/Standard_Content/Data_and_analysis/Datasets/Airport_stats/Airport_data_2016_01/Table_07_Airport_Landings_Diverted.pdf

[shamrock7seal]

If an LCC wanted to base 4 A319's at SOU - could it be done?

[Harry Wayfarers]

It does make you wonder why the airlines that use SOU have not kicked up a fuss about the endless cancellations whenever there is the slightest bit of fog

Hell ... Just take the likes of BRS and LBA as examples:

If weather diversions were a problem then who the hell would fly to/from, or risk flying to/from, either BRS or LBA?

Commercial aviation is what is written on the label, it's a commercial business, and if any particular route, or routes, don't provide for a viable profit then the operators would surely pull the plug.

Clearly routes to/from SOU are holding their own and SOU is fortunate enough to have such an alternate as BOH close by, this isn't about spotters, it isn't about monthly statistics, it's a commercial business and, somewhat fortunately, for the owners of SOU it appears to be viable.

[TCAS FAN]

Shamrock7seal

If my aged memory is correct they could be accommodated on Stands 2-5, and Stands 7-12 and 13-14 if they are pushed back onto the Stand, parking nose out. Practically speaking the latter two options are doubtful as turnarounds would be a nightmare, plus there will probably be weight limitations on 7-14 as the apron has a lower strength. Additionally if the aircraft have winglets this may limit parking on adjacent Stands due to wingtip clearance issues.

Other problem is where are BEE E175/195s going to park? BEE will not be too impressed if they have to park nose out on 7-14.

All this is a result of a lack of planning by the then world class BAA airport group, and one of their Airport Directors who refused to listen to his technical experts and built the multi-storey car park too close to the boundary fence, thereby preventing lengthening of Stands 7-12 to accommodate longer aircaft.

[RW20]

TCAS FAN
I'm not sure about limitations of weight on stands 7-14,having seen a Airbus 321 on stand 13/14 I presume the weight is lower then a laden 319?.Also in years gone by I have seen Spanish 757 student charters fully laden on what is now stand 11/12.

[TCAS FAN]

RW20

I was part of the airport re-development project team and saw the design Spec' for what was to be the "new" apron. If you check the UK AIP EGHI AD 2 entries you will see bearing strength drops from PCN 40 to PCN 23 from Stand 5 onwards. If my memory serves me correct the change in strength occurs diagonally from the.SE tip of the Terminal SE across Stand 5. Presumably the lower of two PCNs is declared Stand 5.

You mention fully laden B757, may have been a full PAX load but with only around a two hour flight, a very light fuel load. All B75' ops out of SOU are very weight limited due to runway length, they rely on the brute force of two RB211s to get out with a full load, remember the Tenerife flights?

As for the 321, seem to remember that was an empty aircraft overnight parking.

[Rivet Joint]

There was a 737-800 on stand 14 during the week with winglets. They could always build the apron to the west of the airport that was suppose to be built by 2015? Taking a bus to a plane is not that much of a logistical nightmare.

[stewyb]

If SOU were serious about extra apron space, this would seem the ideal time for negotiations to be happening for the Royal Mail to relocate across to the new business park on the old Ford site. An opportunity for a close by relocation will not present its self again and the airport should be having discussions to this effect. However i'm sure this won't even be on the airport owners radar!

[EK77WNCL]

Why is it that the aircraft would have to be parked nose out?

[Wycombe]

I believe it's due to proximity of those stands to ILS critical area.

[TCAS FAN]

EK77WNCL

To protect aircraft landing and taking off there are a number of obstacle limitation surfaces which project out from the runway centre line. Firstly a flat surface extending out to 150 metres (the runway strip), then a 1:7 inclined surface extending up from the edge of the strip (the transitional surface). The latter is the problem as it should not have any obstacles penetrating it.

A Q400 tail fin is low enough to permit parking nose in on 6-14, E195/A319/B738 are not. The latter parked on Stand 5 slightly penetrates the transitional, but CAA have issued an exemption to permit it.

[zantopst]

I know not strictly a Sou question but I would have though in relation to the transitional area and height of park aircraft tails, that London City would have a problem with the A319's and E190's. I know they park sort of tail in at LCY but the distance between runway centreline and parking stands appears to be significantly less that that at Sou.


Steve

[TCAS FAN]

Steve

The dimensions of the protected surface are dependent upon the available take off run (which may be less than the physical runway length) and whether or not it has instrument approach procedures.

Runways are grouped into four numbers, referred to as codes starting with the lowest Code 1 covering runways with a take off run of up to 799 metres. Next is Code 2 (which includes LCY). SOU is a Code 3.

As LCY is Code 2 the runway strip is only 75 metres wide with the 1:7 transitional surface starting at its edge. Hence the ability to have the apron closer. Nose out parking is possibly required to keep tail fins below the Transitional Surface, especially the E190s and A318.

[RW20]

TCAS FAN
Thank you for the detailed description of the apron restrictions,surely with Flybe operating only 1Emb195
On a daily basis ,there is opportunity for 3 -A319 to be based ,the rest of the Dash 400 using 6-14 stands.
I suspect however Flybe stranglehold of the management would make any other airline a non starter.

[TCAS FAN]

RW20

I would suggest that any A319 operator would be looking at different destinations that would not upset BEE. If the airport wants to crack 2 million PAX per year and grow further they cannot let BEE rule the roost.

IMHO BEE shot themselves in the foot when they opted for the E175 with down rated engines, thus losing the opportunity to expand their SOU operations due to take off weight restrictions caused by the limited runway length.

[adfly]

TCAS FAN - Completely agree with you, remember Flybe putting out a press release in 2010 shown below suggesting they were going to base 4 or 5 at SOU to boost the city routes and launch various new European destinations, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Milan and Stuttgart were mentioned.

Flybe's new investment a major boost for Southampton International Airport (From Daily Echo) (http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/8284059.1_000_new_jobs_thanks_to___3bn_airline_deal/)

Don't think SOU has had any E175's based for any length of time actually...

[adfly]

Finally available for SOU, passengers up 11% to 206,717 in July and 16% to 218,792 in August meaning the rolling year is now just 0.2% down on last year. I have based the French routes on them operating for all of each month, although the actual loads may be slightly higher if this wasn't the case. I have based the BMI load factors on an all E145 operation as usual.

New routes (Jul/Aug):

Biarritz: 40 pax & 51%/59 pax & 76%

Cork: 53 pax & 73%/59 pax & 82%

Dusseldorf: 45 pax & 57%/ 47 pax & 60%

Lyon: 34 pax & 44%/27 pax & 35% (Both seem very low...)

Munich: 21 pax & 43%/20 pax and 41% (Do wonder if there is room for two carriers on this route)

Toulon: 46 pax & 59%/71 pax and 91%

[jensdad]

adfly, re. that old story in the local paper (7th Nov. : sorry, just seen it now). That seems to have been a regular tactic that was used by Flybe to get press coverage. Here in Newcastle they launched something as insignificantl as a (from memory...) twice or thrice weekly service to Aberdeen a few years ago and they got themselves on the front page of the local rag by adding the bit about possibly adding destinations in Germany, Scandinavia Italy etc. Those routes never materialised but it got them on the front page of the paper.

[RW20]

Adfly
Considering the poor figures on the Munich route,I wonder how long BMI will continue to do battle with Flybe.Can you confirm that we will not see Austrian airways this winter?
It seems that ski routes are well down on last season.

[Buster the Bear]

Cork appears to be doing very well considering it had only been operating for less than 6 months when these figures were released. Being available on the Aer Lingus booking engine is obviously helping the figures and the ability to walk over the road and be in London rapidly as well. I met some travellers when we used the route that had done just that as it was easier and quicker than using Heathrow or Gatwick to their final destination. The Channel Island flights are also popular for this reason. Having a rail link on your doorstep is a massive advantage to any airport.

[benm345]

Does anyone have a rough idea of how long SOU is to see the f70's on the AMS route?

Am aware that they are all due to go by the end of next year and SOU is NOT listed as one of the last destinations due to be swapped with the E190.

So does anyone know when they are scheduled to be swapped? Looking on the KLM website it's still showing F70 next March but i guess this could be changed.

thanks in advance

[Rivet Joint]

The F70s are being replaced with E175s. Expect the route to continue on E175 and upgrade eventually to E190. KLM are strong in Asia and must be making a killing with all the Asian students that study in Southampton.

In terms of BMI, I flew the Munich route in July and I counted 29 odd people. This was before BE started on the route so not sure how that is affecting them. On the way back most of the other passengers in Munich had Lufthansa tickets so they must be benefiting from that. The lady in front of me was routing from Greece. It shows how much of an advantage code sharing with a big carrier can be. Personally I hope BE stop serving the route and all this teritorial nonsense. They have a history of pushing other operators out of SOU and then stop serving the route a few months later. Brussels anyone?

[BOHEuropean]

KLM Cityhopper is set to retire the FK70 on 29 October 2017 - albeit a dutch spotter site claims the last retirement is as late as February 2018 (standby aircraft maybe?) - so you've got a while yet for the FK70 at Southampton.

Re: Munich, In defence to Flybe, didn't they apply for funding for a Munich (and Lyon) route before bmi ever announced it was launching it? I may be wrong?

[RW20]

BOH European

Thanks for that update,however hopefully with the service doing well we may see e190's by the end of 2017!

[SWBKCB]

Re: Munich, In defence to Flybe, didn't they apply for funding for a Munich (and Lyon) route before bmi ever announced it was launching it? I may be wrong?

No - you are right.

[MARKEYD]

Volotea are going to be using the A319 150 seater on the Palma schedule next summer , Ibiza remains on the B 717 at the moment

[MARKEYD]

A quick glance at the Flybe routes to the Med which have gone on sale today show the following

Alicante EMB 195

Tue 0830 1405
Fri 0830 1405

Malaga EMB 195

Mon 0830 1435
Wed 0830 1435
Sat 1450 2055

Faro EMB 195

Sun 1535 2130

Palma DHC8

Sun 0800 1445

The EMB 195 operates down from Manchester first thing and then back up in the early afternoon although that aircraft is showing as the EMB175 at the moment , bit strange and I suspect there will be some definite tinkering of the flights later on as this is well down on last summer

[stewyb]

Big reduction at present in Flybe S17 routes on last year:

Palma reduced to x 1 weekly although been absorbed by Volotea
Malaga down to x 3 weekly from 4
Faro has been cut from x 3 to 1-2 weekly
Alicante culled from daily to x 2 weekly

E195 may pick up extra capacity on those flown by Q400 last summer but any chance of Volotea operating another route or two (in particular ALC that really stands out)?

[canberra97]

It's a good opportunity for Volotea to add further routes from SOU especially to Alicante along with other routes, it's a crying shame that the sun routes have not been expanded and other airlines including Volotea have not exploited this as the demand is there.

[RW20]

Canberra 97
Would Volotea have the capacity to expand Southampton operations? , Surely it's time to break Flybe stranglehold on the airport and management to seek other airlines to service the sun routes!
Is Munich continuing with Flybe after March 2017?

[canberra97]

I am sure Volotea could find the extra capacity if needed by acquiring more 319s and keeping on some of the 717s for a while longer.

But I agree the management at SOU need to attract another airline that can successfully operate a decent amount of destinations out of the airport including those sun routes operated by Flybe and also the discontinued ones such as MXP and NCE.