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Flybe has reinforced Southampton Airport’s reputation as the UK’s ‘gateway’ to the near continent, by introducing several new routes to France. The additions, made at the end of May 2011, bring Southampton’s total number of routes for summer 2011 to 49 destinations.

Southampton Airport has enjoyed something of a popularity boost in recent weeks. The hub welcomed airline, Thomas Cook, to the south coast on May 29 2011, just a few days after UK domestic carrier, Eastern Airways, began promoting a new flight from Southampton to Dijon in France, due to take off for the first time next week, on June 6. Thomas Cook has already begun flying from the Hampshire hub to the Balearic Island of Menorca.

Flybe has forged links between Southampton and Clermont-Ferrand, Béziers, and Pau. The airline now offers 18 flights to France, including two to Paris.

Clermont-Ferrand is located in the very centre of France, close to a series of dormant volcanoes, the Chaîne des Puys. The city is heavily industrialised, and is even twinned with one of England’s most famous industrial towns, Salford in Manchester. The French commune is one of the oldest cities in France, and has both Gothic and Romanesque architecture within its limits.

Pau, a landlocked city on the Franco-Spanish border, is a popular destination for fans of motor racing. A race in Pau at the beginning of the 20th century was the first to carry the title, ‘Grand Prix’, and Formula 1 events have continued to occur on a yearly basis ever since. The city is also the site of Napoleon’s holiday home, Château de Pau.

Finally, Béziers, twinned with Stockport, is located on the opposite side of the Gulf of Lyon to Marseille. The city is home to a number of Gothic churches, as well as a prominent bull-fighting event, which takes place every year.

Speaking about Southampton’s new routes, Jan Halliday, marketing chief at the Hampshire airport, said, “The start of five new routes and a new operator joining the airport is fantastic news for the region”. The director hailed the additions as a sign that the summer season was “really getting under way”.

Tickets for Pau and Clermont-Ferrand begin at £52.99, taxes included, whereas a one-way trip to Béziers is priced at £68.99. Flights will operate "several times a week", according to the airport.

Eastern Airways, a predominantly domestic airline, is to begin offering flights between Southampton Airport and Dijon, a city in the wine-producing region of Burgundy, France. The thrice-weekly service, which begins on June 6 2011, will be the “only” way to access the south of England from Burgundy, according to Eastern’s marketing chief, Jan Halliday.

Dijon, while only a tenth of the size of the French capital, Paris, is rather well known in Europe. The city is located in the Côte d’Or (Golden Hillside) department, a region of France that produces Pinot Noir, Aligoté, and Chardonnay grapes. Pinot Noir, if carefully cultivated, can be used to create some of the most sought-after red wines in the world.

Kay Ryan, commercial director at Eastern Airways, said that the airline’s new route from Southampton Airport to Burgundy is “part of our wider development plans in Dijon”. The carrier established two domestic routes from the French airport in September 2010, travelling to Bordeaux and Toulouse, in order to “share our expertise” with the French people.

Eastern's route from Southampton to Dijon is unique, as it represents the first time that the BAA-owned airport has been linked to the French city. The Hampshire hub has carved out a niche as a provider of flights to France and the Channel Islands, and currently offers 15 routes to the near continent, many of which are operated by Flybe.

The Dijon route will depart every Monday at 11:30 GMT. Flights on Fridays and Sundays will take off from Southampton at 12:30 and 12:10, respectively. Tickets are available for booking on Eastern Airways' brand new website.

In a bid to become the ‘airport of choice’ for travellers in the south of England, Southampton Airport has launched a campaign to snatch customers away from Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, and the other airports in and around London.

Southampton, the smallest of the British Airport Authority’s six airports, offers flights to 50 destinations, including routes to ‘sun and sea’ spots, such as Palma on Mallorca, and Faro in Portugal. The hub is well known for its services to France and the Channel Islands, including the remote Isles of Scilly, and the winter sports haven, Chambery.

The ‘It’s My Airport…’ scheme, which began earlier this month, will attempt to convince people from Basingstoke, Guildford, Aldershot, and other cities in the M3 corridor, that flying from Southampton Airport is a “viable alternative” to travelling to London. “Heading south can often be a much quicker door-to-door experience”, explained Jan Halliday, marketing boss at the Hampshire hub.

A press release on the airport’s website notes that Southampton is within a minute’s walk of the nearest train station, allowing passengers to leave the car at home, and avoid the often-high fees charged by airport parking firms.

Whether local flyers will be swayed by Southampton’s newfound confidence is debatable, given that low-cost carrier, Flybe, operates more than half of the routes offered by the airport. The carrier’s popularity in the UK is not in doubt, but Flybe nonetheless offers some routes at more than twice the price of easyJet at the London airports. Departing June 2 2011, Flybe routes from Southampton to Faro, for example, cost just over £100 each way, compared to £55 with easyJet from Gatwick. The promise of “less stress” and convenience suddenly seems like a consolation, rather than a bonus.

‘It’s My Airport…’ will be advertised on four radio stations in the southeast until late autumn, including Eagle FM and Reading 107 FM. The campaign has also been given its own mini-website, which presents the user with a list of Southampton’s credentials, before yielding to the airport's homepage.

From February 17 2011, Eastern Airways will increase capacity on routes from Southampton Airport to Aberdeen in the northeast of Scotland. The expansion will add a later service from Aberdeen, departing at 18.55 on every weekday evening, and arriving in Southampton two hours later, at 20.45.

Eastern, like Air Southwest and the ill fated, Highland Airways, is a relatively unknown airline outside of the cities it serves. The carrier flies to and from 14 UK hubs, including Durham Tees Valley, Bristol, and Leeds, and operates direct flights from Aberdeen to Bergen and Stavanger in Norway.

Despite its lack of renown, Eastern Airways is attempting to take on the likes of BMI, Dutch airline, KLM, Flybe, and Thomas Cook, by introducing extra flights from Aberdeen to the South of England. The enduring popularity of the route is no coincidence; the Dyce hub supplies the London airports with passengers, many of which are natural resource barons on their way to North Africa, Russia, or Kazakhstan.

Roger Hage, Eastern’s boss of ground operations, said that the capacity boost would benefit those “travelling to do a day’s business,” as the air route is “significantly quicker than by road or rail.” Derek Provan, new managing director at Aberdeen, referred to Eastern’s route as a “vital link for our business passengers,” given that the airline has been flying from the Scottish city for the past 13 years.

Eastern Airways maintains fast-track security channels at both airports, and a special business lounge at Aberdeen. The carrier also offers a Sunday service from Scotland, departing at 16.10, and returning from the south coast at 19.00.

Low-cost carrier, Flybe, has stopped flying from Southampton Airport to Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport in Paris, France. The airline will instead travel from the Hampshire hub to Paris Orly, the second-largest airport in France, located 11 miles from the city centre, and 27 miles from CDG.

The airline’s flight from the south coast is now the only UK-France route hosted by Flybe to travel to Orly. Whilst the airline has not given a reason for the switch to Orly, Flybe has entered into a codesharing agreement with flag-carrier, AirFrance, at CDG, which may have required a sacrifice in aeroplane slots, specifically those planes flying to Southampton.

Codesharing is the process by which two cooperating airlines sell tickets on their partners' aircraft. For example, as part of the airline alliance, Oneworld, British Airways (BA) is allowed to sell seats on Qantas-branded flights, and vice-versa. More simply, the two carriers are sharing each other’s aircraft on certain routes. The advantage of such an agreement is that BA will be able to reach destinations offered by Qantas, which may have been beyond the UK airline’s means.

With regards to the Flybe-AirFrance codeshare, the letters ‘BE,’ a unique code used to identify Flybe in booking systems, will be affixed to AirFrance planes travelling from CDG to Budapest in Hungary, Sofia in Bulgaria, and Vienna in Austria, among others.

Similarly, the Paris-Southampton route, operated by Flybe, will be branded with AirFrance’s ‘AF’ code, allowing the French carrier to pull out of the Hampshire hub completely. Other Flybe flights, such as Birmingham-Avignon and Gatwick-Bergerac, will also bear AirFrance’s call sign, expanding its market in the UK.

Flybe has intimated that the Southampton-CDG route, which ended on October 31 2010, may return in the future.

At the end of October, Southampton Airport, the smallest of the British Airport Authority’s six UK hubs, unveiled an 'instant customer feedback service,' designed to help staff deal with traveller gripes before they leave the airport.

The service, which echoes a system implemented at London Gatwick in August this year, requires users to send a text message to 80800. The message, which must begin with the word, ‘talkback,’ will then be sent to the relevant department for processing. For example, if a customer discovers that one of the airport’s toilets has flooded, the individual could inform the airport’s management via the new feedback service, and potentially have the problem solved very quickly.

Southampton boss, Adrian Cameron, noted that the 80800 number was more than just a gimmick, and something that could “help the airport be even more proactive in terms of our customer service.” Aggrieved travellers could even be met in the terminal or telephoned by a duty manager, if their concern is complicated or particularly serious in nature. Of course, airport staff will be hoping that the feedback service will collect compliments too, rather than a barrage of criticisms about submerged urinals.

Southampton’s foray into customer interactivity does seem a little dated compared to the service operating at Gatwick Airport, involving the social network, Twitter. The London hub has been asking travellers to ‘tweet’ their grievances to the @gatwick_airport Twitter address, via their mobile phone or personal computer. However, the success of Gatwick’s project hinges on the number of concerned Twitter subscribers passing through the Crawley hub, whereas the same service at Southampton is supported by the ongoing popularity of mobile phones – “over 90% of the public own a mobile phone,” Adrian Cameron explained.

Southampton’s instant customer feedback service began operating on October 20 2010. Text messages (to send and receive) are currently free of charge.

In what has become an annual event, budget airline, Flybe, has announced its summer routes for next year almost 12 months in advance, long before the present ‘sun and sea’ season reaches its climax in October.

The carrier has added a ‘preliminary’ selection of 21 new routes, flying from three UK airports – Gatwick, Southampton, and the frequently unlucky, Exeter Airport, which was drowned in 3ft of water on Thursday, last week.

Southampton, the smallest of the British Airports Authority’s six UK airports, behind Aberdeen, and the 20th largest in the country overall, will receive at least eight routes: Alicante and Malaga in Spain, Majorca's capital, Palma, Faro in Portugal, and four routes to France – Avignon, Bergerac, Rennes, and Nice.

Exeter Airport, which relies on Flybe to provide 29 of its 30 available flights, gets just three new routes, to Alicante, Malaga, and Faro.

Gatwick Airport has a much more eclectic selection of flights heading its way, with all but two routes travelling to domestic locations – Aberdeen and Inverness in Scotland, Belfast in Ireland, the two Channel Islands, Jersey and Guernsey, and Newcastle, Leeds, and Newquay on the mainland. Flybe will also add flights to Nantes in France, and Dusseldorf in Germany to its Gatwick schedules.

Mike Rutter, Flybe’s Chief Commercial Officer, noted that the new routes were part of a “first wave” of additions, which would culminate in an “extensive and affordable choice” of flights for travellers in 2011.

Prices begin at £27 for a one-way journey, taxes included, and tickets for travel between March 27 and June 30 2011 are already available online.

Continuing Flybe’s bonanza of new flights, the carrier will supplement its Belfast City base with three extra routes, to plug a scheduling gap caused by a complete Ryanair exodus. Flybe will travel from Belfast to Bristol, East Midlands, and Liverpool airports from October 31.

Throughout 2010, Southampton Airport will be celebrating its centenary with a series of special events. The Hampshire hub was founded on the site of North Stoneham Farm, the location of one of the first powered flights.

Southampton, which is one of six UK airports owned by the British Airports Authority, traces its history back to 1910, when a local man named Edwin Rowland Moon performed a ‘series of hops’ in his homemade monoplane. ‘Sadly, it didn’t end the way that he had hoped,’ explained Colin Van Geffen of the Solent Museum.

‘When he was landing he struck a tree, damaged the plane's undercarriage, and landed in a rather inelegant manner.’ The aircraft, dubbed Moonbeam II, is widely known as the first plane to take off from Southampton Airport, despite the fact that no hangers were built at the site until during the First World War, in 1917.

Southampton continued to gain prominence over the next few decades, hosting a test flight of the famous Spitfire in 1936. Local scholars also claim the compact Skeeter helicopter as a Hampshire creation, cementing the county’s place in aviation history.

Eleven unique events are planned in Southampton between June and the end of 2010, ranging from jazz nights at local nightspot, The Point, to a 100-mile car rally, featuring the first and only supercar to be built at the airport, the Gordon Keeble. The celebrations end with the unveiling of Southampton’s redeveloped departure lounge in November.

Airport bosses hope that the celebrations will bolster links with local businesses, and attract investors to Hampshire. A full list of events is available on the Southampton Airport website.

With all the negative publicity surrounding airports across the country and their controversial expansion plans that have been causing such a stir, it is good to see that the staff at Southampton Airport are keeping their spirits up and making headlines for a very different reason.

It has just been announced that the staff have been given the award for being the most courteous at any airport in the whole of Europe. And this is something that they seem to be pretty good at, as it is the second year in a row that they have been recognised by the award.

The award was provided by ACI (Airports Council International), which conducts a quarterly survey of over 100 airports across the world. Globally, over 200,000 passengers took part in the survey, which not only looked at staff courtesy but at all aspects of the airports, such as the boarding experience and the ease of checking-in, in order to find the winners in each category.

The courtesy category was not the only one that Southampton did well in: it was also voted the second best airport in Europe, being beaten to the top spot by Zurich. On top of that, the south-coast airport also came a fantastic fifth place in the global best airport category for airports which deal with fewer than 5 million passengers a year.

It was a case of smiles all round for the staff and management upon hearing the news. The managing director of Southampton Airport, Kevin Brown, said that they aim to place “great emphasis” on a “quick and easy experience” and “friendly service” for the passengers who pass through.

Southampton airport has launched a live travel information system, which is the first of its kind to be installed in a British airport. The system, which has cost approximately fifty thousand pounds to install, will provide information about public transport services, including live updates on rail networks, bus services, ferry services, and road networks across the southern region of the United Kingdom. It uses the internet to provide live data feeds, which update the information displayed to passengers arriving at the airport on a continuous basis throughout the day.

Chris Huhne, the local MP, believes that the live travel information system will “improve the passenger experience” at the airport greatly. This is not to say that Huhne had a negative opinion of the airport prior to the installation of the innovative system. Rather, the MP thinks that the airport is the “most traveller friendly airport” he has ever travelled through. Furthermore, it is extremely important to the local economy since it employs so many people in the Southampton region.

Huhne’s words were echoed by David Lees, the director of planning and development at the airport. He believes that the live travel information system will provide the passengers at Southampton with accurate and up-to-date information, which will “make it easier than ever before to breeze through Southampton Airport”.

The live system was developed by numerous organisations and agencies working together with Southampton airport. Officials working for Southampton City Council, the Highways Agency, and South West Trains were just some of the individuals involved in the scheme.

John F. Kennedy, John Lennon, George Best and Charles de Gaulle have all had airports named in their honour – even the childhood hero Robin Hood has his airport in Doncaster - but could the footballer, Matt Le Tissier, be the next to join the ranks?

Such is the power of social networking site Facebook that you just never know. A petition set up to gain support for renaming Southampton International Airport in honour of the former Saints player, Le Tissier, already has over a thousand signatures, three hundred of which were added in the space of a week. 28 year old Saints fan, Jay Limburn, is behind the move and although the airport itself does not seem to be interested in the plan, he is confident that with the rapidly growing support for his petition they will eventually have to sit up and take notice.

Le Tissier himself, although no doubt feeling flattered, has said that he finds it a little bizarre and that whilst a block of flats and a pub have already been named after him, he feels that renaming an airport after him is going a bit too far.

Le Tissier’s relationship with the city goes back a long time. He was spotted by a scout for Southampton whilst playing for an under 15s school side. He joined the Saints as an apprentice in May 1985, turning pro in October 1986. For seventeen years he played a key role in keeping Southampton in the Premiership, retiring in 2002.

Southampton airport continues to grow as more and more people see the benefits of travelling from their local airport and receiving a fast, trouble-free and friendly service, whether travelling for business or leisure.

Southampton Airport played host to an annual conference of airport chaplains in May this year with twenty eight chaplains from airports across the UK meeting together to be briefed about airport developments and to exchange chaplain news. The chaplains also received a talk from Carry Taylor, of Bournemouth airline Palmair, about a new fear-of-flying course, and took part in a training session specifically designed for airport chaplains.

Southampton Airport itself has three airport chaplains: Reverend Neville Jacob, Reverend Richard Davies and Reverend Martin Poole, who provide counselling and support to passengers as well as to the airport’s 1200 staff. Fellow airport chaplains travelled to the airport from Heathrow, Newcastle, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Shoreham and even as far as Aberdeen.

Event organiser Reverend Neville Jacob said of the conference that all the chaplains thoroughly enjoyed the day, and that their presence at the airport was a great boost to the work of the chaplains already at Southampton. He added that “having such a large group of chaplains together at one time must have been quite surprising to passengers waiting for flights”.

The annual conference follows recent reports that airport chaplains have requested clearer rules regarding tasks, responsibilities and guidelines for chaplaincy ministry due to the increased demands on their time over the last few years. With the rise of terror alerts since September 11, airport chaplains have been faced with ever more frequent requests for chaplaincy support, and have as such requested further guidance on their role at UK airports. Following the alert in August 2006, for example, when a number of arrests were made after a plot to use liquid explosives was uncovered, chaplaincy teams across the country were required to put emergency plans into action, providing passengers with round-the-clock assurance, prayer and emotional guidance.

The new Southampton Airport masterplan was publised in July this year.
The plan, which outlines how the airport plans to expand to meet increasing demand, predicts that in 25 years time, passenger numbers will have grown to around 6 million annually, compared to the 1.5 million that currently travel through the airport's gates every year.
To accommodate this huge growth, the airport will have to expand somewhat, and BAA predicts that to achieve this, 4,000 jobs will be created.
To keep up to date with recent news stories check the official Southampton Airport News Pages

After a £5 million investment into renovating it, Southampton Airport's departure lounge was opened to the public in July.
The lounge is now twice the size it was, and the attractively designed interior houses new catering and seating facilities.
BAA have also invested in extra measures to conserve energy whilst heating a lighting the building.