News RSS Feed


Living Mobile news, sport and travel from the Daily Echo Read Chief Superintendent Matthew Greening's Blog Tweet with the Daily Echo

Southampton International Airport sees 20 per cent drop in passengers


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.

Click below to see a video of today's headlines in sixty seconds

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.



Your Say YourEcho

shilo, southampton says...
12:30pm Tue 10 Mar 09

BAA attribute falling numbers to snow and shorter month what a load of b****ks. Have then not heard of the recession then? Get real.

oange, Winchester says...
1:07pm Tue 10 Mar 09

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.

Miles Sway, Scotland says...
1:20pm Tue 10 Mar 09

oange wrote:
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.
Oange, quite agree, this with the recession is bound to impact.
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, Fareham says...
1:31pm Tue 10 Mar 09

Blame the snow and short month. We stay away because the whole airport experience is appalling. Queues, delays, security, overpricing.....I could go on. We haven't flown for a couple of years now which is a shame, but we opt for saving for a cruise out of Southampton now - a much better experience all round.

Iain, Lordshill says...
1:39pm Tue 10 Mar 09

So, 20% of the decline was due to there being one fewer day in the month.

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, Southampton says...
1:52pm Tue 10 Mar 09

Probably more to do with Flybe overpricing their flights. I go to Amsterdam regularly and Flybe always seem to be at least 50% more expensive then other low cost airlines.

Costa Baz, Southampton says...
2:20pm Tue 10 Mar 09

The problem at Southampton airport is that Flybe is the ONLY so called low cost airline to fly out of there, so they can price how they like.

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, Southampton says...
4:06pm Tue 10 Mar 09

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!

Georgem, Southampton says...
4:41pm Tue 10 Mar 09

Jayboy84 wrote:
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!
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

Stubs, Eastleigh says...
4:48pm Tue 10 Mar 09

We are in a recession. People are thinking twice if they are going to spend their extra cash on a holiday. People are not going to take a break if they cant afford to pay their mortgage or rent.

MR Southampton, Eastleigh says...
6:07pm Tue 10 Mar 09

Southampton airport does not want us general public.
They have always maintained they are a business airport and have always tried to price out the non business passenger.

planetf1, Chandlers Ford says...
8:55pm Tue 10 Mar 09

For a family of four around £200 on a holiday is about the most premium we'd pay for Southampton (£100 of that would be car park/fuel at gatwick, £100 for convenience), but sometimes the price difference is more, or more often of course there aren't the flight options.

When I do fly from southampton (rarely) it's a very enjoyable experience (relatively)...

OSPREYSAINT, Southampton says...
9:23am Wed 11 Mar 09

Southampton Airport are their own worst enemies, their blinkered view on what people want is now costing them dear. They have not enough room to cope with all who would like to operate from the airport, so they cherry pick the ones that will cough up to do so. They turn business away at an alarming rate using "full up" as an excuse. When there is bad weather elsewhere they can not handle diversions, they should look at Southend Airports record on that! They do not allow private or recreational use, too busy to cope. They don't allow spectators (a potential source of income) having let their greed remove the facilities that were agreed when the original rebuild was discussed. Finally Car Parking is a daylight robbery, I am moaning about that even though I don't have a car!


Comments are closed on this article.

Southampton Airport Southampton Airport

Video News Food & Restaurant Reviews

Local Advertisers

Local Information

Enter your postcode, town or place name

House prices »   Schools »   Crime »   Hospitals »