Southampton International Airport sees 20 per cent drop in passengers (From Daily Echo)
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Southampton International Airport sees 20 per cent drop in passengers
12:16pm Tuesday 10th March 2009 in
BAD weather and a ''shorter'' February have been blamed for a sharp decline in the number of passengers using Southampton Airport.
In February 2009 owners BAA handled 20 per cent fewer passengers than February 2008, which contained an extra, leap-year day.
BAA said that roughly half the decline last month could be attributed to the heavy snows and the ''shorter'' month.
The number of passengers using all of BAA's seven airports fell last month.
Heathrow passenger numbers were down 9.5 per cent, Gatwick 14.4 per cent, Stansted 16.2 per cent, Glasgow 17.4 per cent, Edinburgh 11.8 per cent and Aberdeen 16 per cent.
Comments(13)
oange
says...
1:07pm Tue 10 Mar 09
Miles Sway
says...
1:20pm Tue 10 Mar 09
oange wrote:Oange, quite agree, this with the recession is bound to impact.
It may also have something to do with the increase in flight prices from FlyBe at Southampton over the last few months. I'm a regular flyer and now drive to Birmingham to fly as my company cant justify spending more than twice as much and sometimes four times as much on a flight from southampton. I used to be a regular flyer from there and would still like to be but the additional costs make it impossible.
Interesting point though - Plane Stupid were campaigning to decrease flyer numbers; I wonder how much more/less you've added to GW by driving instead of flying with others?
Gadgetgeezer
says...
1:31pm Tue 10 Mar 09
Iain
says...
1:39pm Tue 10 Mar 09
Leaving aside the fact that my calender had predicted well in advance that there would only be 28 days in February this year, this represents only a 3.4% decrease in days, as opposed to a 20% reduction in passengers.
With spin like that, combined with their head in the sand approach, if BAA go bankrupt I'm sure there'll be a job for them in the Labour party.
JTW
says...
1:52pm Tue 10 Mar 09
Costa Baz
says...
2:20pm Tue 10 Mar 09
Last year I visted the UK, twice. The first time I found it cheaper to use Easy Jet to Gatwick and train down from there.
Much cheaper but so inconvenient, adding several hours to the journey.
The last time I flew in I went straight to Southampton as the inconvenience of waiting for trains to and from Gatwick outweighed, IMO, the extra cost of flying in to Southampton.
What would be interesting to know is just WHO decides what airport taxes are charged as Southampton is hugely more expensive than Gatwick, and what at first sight looks like a cheap flight can quickly double in price, once taxes are added.
And whoever first came up with the idea to charge for cases (probably Ryanair) deserves a kick up the @rse.
Jayboy84
says...
4:06pm Tue 10 Mar 09
I was looking at flights to Dublin and to fly from Southampton would have cost at least £40 - £60 more BEFORE I added on the taxes.
Drive 40miles down the road and the flight was 1/2 the price!
Weather and one less day? Oh come on... recession and cheaper flights elsewhere is the actual reason!
Georgem
says...
4:41pm Tue 10 Mar 09
Jayboy84 wrote:Drive 40 miles each way down the road, and also pay to park your car there for 'x' days, don't forget. Last time I flew from Bournemouth, by the time I'd added in the parking charges, and petrol, I'd saved about £10 compared to getting to and flying from Southampton. Hardly worth it. Of course, it's not always going to be the case, but it's best to add up the total cost of the trip, rather than just the cost of the flight. Plus, I hate Ryanair. But that's just me
I fly from Bournemouth everytime rather than Southampton. The difference in price for the same flight destination is sometimes ridiculous!
I was looking at flights to Dublin and to fly from Southampton would have cost at least £40 - £60 more BEFORE I added on the taxes.
Drive 40miles down the road and the flight was 1/2 the price!
Weather and one less day? Oh come on... recession and cheaper flights elsewhere is the actual reason!
Stubs
says...
4:48pm Tue 10 Mar 09
MR Southampton
says...
6:07pm Tue 10 Mar 09
They have always maintained they are a business airport and have always tried to price out the non business passenger.
planetf1
says...
8:55pm Tue 10 Mar 09
When I do fly from southampton (rarely) it's a very enjoyable experience (relatively)...
OSPREYSAINT
says...
9:23am Wed 11 Mar 09
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shilo says...
12:30pm Tue 10 Mar 09