Covid-19: Southampton Airport to shut at weekends

The airport has shelved weekend flights amid falling passenger numbers

Southampton Airport will be closed at weekends until mid-March, its bosses have said.

The airport's operations director Steve Szalay said the pause "demonstrates the extremely difficult conditions we are currently operating in".

The temporary closure starts from 6 February.

The number of passengers using the airport has dropped by 90%, which Mr Szalay said was mainly down to the collapse of Flybe in March.

He added that Covid-19 had "exacerbated" the situation further, with the suspension of a number of routes and reduced demand due to travel restrictions.

The airport said its "critical lifeline services", including those to the Channel Islands, would continue Monday to Friday.

The airport plans to extend the runway by 164m (538ft)

In December, British Airways announced plans for summer flights from Southampton to holiday destinations including Ibiza, Mykonos and Malaga.

The carrier's BA CityFlyer subsidiary is expected to operate up to 17 flights each weekend between 1 May and 31 October.

A decision on the airport's proposed extension of Southampton Airport's runway has been delayed.

It wants to extend its runway by 164m (538ft) to increase the number of flights and allow the use of larger planes.

Analysis

By Paul Clifton, BBC South transport correspondent

This is yet another sign of just how far the once highly successful Southampton Airport has fallen.

In 2019 it carried two million passengers to dozens of destinations. The terminal was always buzzing, the car parks full.

Then came the collapse of Flybe. The airline carried 9 in 10 of the airport's passengers. The few flights that remained were hit hard by the pandemic.

Now the airport has just a handful of domestic services on weekdays, using small aircraft, and lifeline flights to the Channel Islands. On some days the airport sees fewer than 100 passengers.

The landing fees are nowhere near enough to cover the airport's operating costs.

Southampton Airport is pinning all its hopes on securing planning permission to extend its one runway, so it can take larger aircraft on longer routes.

It sees holiday flights to sunny beaches as its best hope for survival.

That decision could come in March. And as the local Eastleigh Borough Council has declared a "climate emergency" it is far from certain.

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