p24 air Apr24 21/4/09 12:23 Page 24
Air
Chris Gray
020 7921 8003
cgray@ttglive.com
For the latest news about flights, airlines and airports, visit
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Profile Southampton airport
has the shortest “train to plane” distance of
any European airport, with the platform just
99 steps from the terminal. Next year a covered
railway bridge will be added, and the terminal’s
catering area will have a £6 million revamp.
Lees is particularly proud of Southampton’s
unique traffic information display, which allows
people waiting at baggage carousels to see
up-to-the-minute information about the next
stage of their journey by road, rail or ferry.
Developed at the airport for just £45,000, the
system is the first of its type in the UK.
New routes
Lees hopes those improvements will be followed
by the start of new routes picked to win over
Old and new: A Spitfire aircraft at Southampton airport with a Flybe Embraer 195 aircraft in the background some of the three million people who live
within one hour’s travel time of Southampton
but who often travel to Gatwick or Heathrow.
Southampton sets
Ten years ago 60% of traffic from the airport
was to the Channel Islands but that figure has
fallen to less than 20%, as routes to mainland
Europe have been added. And Lees wants to add
more European city-break destinations to give
out centenary stall
people in the catchment area a local choice.
Cruise crucial
There are also plans to capitalise on Southamp-
ton’s cruise industry. Lees believes the airport
can become a “hub and spoke” for people taking
BAA’s smallest airport plans to celebrate its 100th anniversary
ex-UK cruises who fly in from Europe, as well as
cruisers from North America who may prefer to
next year by emerging from the downturn with new routes, a
transit through Amsterdam and Paris rather than
refurbished terminal and improved rail access. Chris Gray reports fly to Heathrow and through central London to
catch a train down to the cruise terminal.
S
OUTHAMPTON airport may be small, But operation director David Lees says changes Cruise is part of the lifeblood of Southampton,
but it has a big place in UK aviation planned for the airport next year will fuel but so is the airport and aviation, and not just
history. One of the first flights in the passenger growth when the economy revives. because of past pride in the Spitfire. Local MP
UK left from the airport site in 1910, Last month its staff won an award for being Chris Hulme pointed out at the launch of
and 25 years later the Spitfire was built and the most courteous of any airport in Europe, and its centenary preparations that much
tested at the airfield. promoting the pleasant nature of the experience of the area’s prosperity depended on
These days, Flybe’s modern, fuel-efficient at Southampton – in contrast to some of BAA’s aeronautical industries and the city’s
Embraer 195 aircraft are more common than larger airports – will be a key marketing ploy. university’s expertise in the field, which
Spitfires at Southampton, but the iconic Second Transport links will be another. Southampton both depended on good transport links.
World War fighter will loom large in the
airport’s centenary celebrations next year.
Got a Southampton story? Agents in the south to be produced next year recounting 100
Courtesy in tough times are being asked to volunteer their memories of passengers’ journeys from the airport.
Preparations for the celebrations are taking Southampton airport to help it mark its centenary. The airport is also offering a bottle
place at a difficult time: passenger numbers for The airport wants to hear about agents’ own of champagne and a teddy bear to
the first three months of the year fell 14.6% to experiences of flying from the airport over the the agent who sends the happiest
349,000 year-on-year, and 2009 is set to see years and about customers they have booked to or funniest memory.
the first drop in passenger numbers since 2002. fly on holiday from Southampton. Email your story to
It’s a sharp change in direction from 2003-07, The best stories will form part of a newspaper
debbie_chalk@baa.com
when passenger traffic doubled to 1.9 million.
24 24.04.2009
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