UK’s Southampton Airport: part one – no airport ‘has right to exist if it can’t make money’

The demise of the UK's Doncaster-Sheffield Airport must have set many municipal authorities' nerves on edge. Now Southampton Airport on the English south coast says it will need to build back up quickly to at least 1.2 million passengers annually if it is to survive - while it will lose GBP4.5 million this year.

Candidly, the management admits it doesn't deserve to survive if it cannot make money.

The remedy appears to be a runway extension on which work should begin in 2023, the usual objections having been overcome in the courts.

But supply doesn't necessarily equate with demand, and with competitors for its catchment area - including the two London giants that are Heathrow and Gatwick, as well as Bournemouth, 30 miles to the west - there is much work to do just to get Southampton back to pre-pandemic levels.

This is part one of a two-part report.