It has been revealed that British Airways has canceled its entire series of flights due to operate from Southampton Airport (SOU) on the south coast of England for the summer of 2025. The airline has said that it is “suspending 2025 operations” from the airport just as summer 2024 comes to an end and regular travelers from the airport look to rebook for next year.
British Airways served a total of eleven destinations from the airport during the summer of 2024 to European and domestic UK destinations. All flights were operated by its subsidiary City Flyer using its fleet of Embraer regional jets that de-camp from London City Airport (LCY) at weekends when that airport imposes movement limits.
The move will come as a surprise to many who use the airport, particularly as the two latest routes to be operated by the airline (Bergerac and Palma) only began just four months ago, in May 2024. As reported by The Independent, passengers already booked to fly on summer 2025 services from the airport with the airline have already been contacted by the carrier offering to rebook alternative flights or to request a refund.
It has been a year of mixed fortunes for Southampton Airport in 2024. Having been growing traffic steadily since the pandemic, and despite losing its largest airline in the form of Flybe when that airline collapsed in 2021, the airport has since attracted services from easyJet, Eastern Airlines, and Loganair to add to its mix of business and leisure destinations. It was also enjoying its first full year of operating with a long-awaited runway extension which it had been lobbying for for years.
British Airways’ growing network of routes had been adding to the variety of services on offer from the airport, and it will be interesting to see if the likes of EasyJet pick up any of the routes being vacated by the flag carrier for summer 2025.
A spokesperson for Southampton Airport told The Independent, “Clearly it’s disappointing when any route is removed, however, we are in constant dialogue with airlines regarding the introduction of new services and that includes backfilling the routes withdrawn by British Airways.”
With a thriving competitor in the form of Bournemouth Airport (BOH) just 30 miles along the south coast, Southampton will have a battle on its hands to replace the lost services. Although Bournemouth caters much more towards leisure travel (as well as cargo), its two strongest based carriers, Ryanair and Jet2 have built something of a low-cost fortress at the airport, making it even harder for Southampton to compete against.