British Airways drops flights from Southampton for Summer 2025

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• Jon says:

  21 Sep21 September 05:02

  What an excellent national carrier.

  • Dave1986 says:

    21 Sep21 September 09:31

    It’s a private company not a national carrier

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  21 Sep21 September 05:32

  Southampton lengthened its runway to be able to take A320s and 737s – so now there are other week-round options presumably.

  So that Saturday night niche has gone.

• Cheryl D says:

  21 Sep21 September 05:53

  That’s disappointing news. The City Flyer aircraft and service have been a pleasure to use for the Bergerac flight. It would now seem that my husband will be on the last Southampton to Bergerac flight today! The flights have been expensive ( today’s currently £271 ) and have been £500 + last minute at the height of the summer so must have been fairly lucrative for BA. Southampton is a great little airport with its excellent train connections especially compared to Bournemouth, its nearest rival, which is very difficult to reach by public transport . At present the modifications Southampton have made to the runway to facilitate larger planes don’t seem to have attracted a larger carrier to the airport

  • Rich says:

    21 Sep21 September 07:29

    And yet Bournemouth is well and truly on the up.

  • Paul says:

    21 Sep21 September 07:47

    It hasn’t attracted BA but then BA is often myopic and can’t see beyond anything that named London and preferably Heathrow. Perhaps Southampton need to rename its self as London South. That might get BA back…. But bottom line is it’s no loss to SOU.

  • Dubious says:

    21 Sep21 September 14:37

    Last minutes flight are expensive, but sadly I suspect your paid a premium for the SOU service over a LHR service when you originally booked.
    This is one of the annoyances with scheduled airlines but not much can be done about it.

• M3 says:

  21 Sep21 September 06:18

  Very disappointing to hear. Southampton is a great little airport, and a pleasure to travel though. We will miss our summer hop to Palma. I did hear that Jet2 and EasyJet were both looking at Southampton now the runway is longer. Not much use for us Avios users though.

• Alan says:

  21 Sep21 September 06:49

  Have I read this right they are offering to rebook you on another flight with them or another carrier – this sounds like they are offering to do so at BA’s expense? I say this as they go on to say if travel costs are higher you can claim this back. This all sounds like they are treating it the same as a short notice cancellation. I’m sure if it’s more than a month they could just cancel and give you your money back. If this is the case then whilst I think airlines shouldn’t be able to pull flights just because they want to (avoiding airspace for safety might be valid) this does at least have some morals behind it.

  • Paul says:

    21 Sep21 September 07:53

    No, once booked you are protected by UK261 and they cannot use extraordinary circumstances. You won’t be compensated but the operating carrier must off a refund, a re route on another flight or a re route on another carrier.
    If they cancel less two weeks before departure they must also compensate unless extraordinary circumstances, but even then reroute refund and duty of care apply.

    • Alan says:

      21 Sep21 September 08:23

      Ok thanks for clarifying.

      It’s still underhand that they are able to start selling tickets for something then cancel it just because they want to, but hey that’s how it works,

• Helen Claydon says:

  21 Sep21 September 06:50

  I’m not convinced BA will pay travel expenses between Southampton and another airport. They refused me earlier this year when they switched me from a Heathrow flight to Gatwick.

  • Andrew. says:

    21 Sep21 September 10:03

    LGW & LHR are both London though. There’s nothing in it price wise when you start your journey at Charing X to get to either.

    Even getting from LHR to LGW is a frequent direct coach for £20.

  • RH says:

    21 Sep21 September 10:11

    BA always pay my taxi when I have been diverted to LHR on the return leg from Faro. But they were on the day diversions.

  • Paul says:

    21 Sep21 September 12:46

    Perhaps not but there is CEDR post travel if they are intransigent. You could even try MCOL but I know they prefer that an arbitration route is followed first

• TimM says:

  21 Sep21 September 07:21

  I am sure there is an argument to be made for profitability from stability. Hotels know this – their repeat guests are their bread and butter. BA cancelled all their City Flyer flights in and out of Manchester also at relatively short notice a few years ago causing huge antipathy to the BA brand. How hated does BA want to be? A refund or reroute is in no way adequate compensation for the complex travel plans made months before.

  • JDB says:

    21 Sep21 September 08:18

    @TimM – so what compensation would you expect to get? Other travel providers such as hotels, Airbnb, airlines outside Europe, trains, ferries etc. can totally mess up one’s travel arrangements yet you will have very limited recourse and may be left to sort yourself out. EC261 offers extremely generous resolution and is balanced hugely in favour of the passenger. We are lucky both to have that and simple and cheap recourse to ADR or the courts if it isn’t applied properly.

    • TimM says:

      21 Sep21 September 08:27

      I expect for the airline not to cancel booked flights only for the reason of a change in business model.

      • Jake says:

        21 Sep21 September 09:26

        @TimM:

        So you allow no flexibility for BA to alter their business model?

        What if the fundamental market situation changes?

        What is the difference between BAs flights to Tehran, Tel Aviv and Colombo. All used to run and all for three somewhat separate reasons were cancelled due to the realities of the market.

        Do you really want BA to keep flying those even if they are losing money?

        • Steve says:

          21 Sep21 September 13:10

          BA don’t offer me that same level of flexibility if I suddenly change my mind aka ‘business model’ . Why should it be reciprocated by passengers?

    • Paul says:

      21 Sep21 September 12:52

      Obviously there is no compensation but the requirement to reroute can be onerous on the airline as it may come at a cost. I know that I once cost BA around a fortune when they cancelled my F seats on Avios and had to reroute on a commercial basis on QR.
      As for other travel businesses impacting plans. Hotels in particular are a problem. Chains can get rid of hotels with very limited notice and reward booking won’t be honoured. The O2 IC cancelled thousands of room to become a highly profitable covid isolation site and IHG washed their hands. U.K. 261 needs to be extended to other forms of transport and to hotels

  • mkcol says:

    21 Sep21 September 08:30

    A refund or re-route for something that’s not going to affect anyone for several months gives them ample time to be prepared and/or make alternate arrangements.
    What more do you expect?

    • TimM says:

      21 Sep21 September 09:19

      @mkcol. It is quite simple. I expect an airline to stick with its duty to provide the flights booked and not hide behind their opaque T&Cs. Regardless, consumer law forbids this. No T&C not individually negotiated may be used to disadvantage the consumer.

      Many arrangements, not least hotels, are made many months in advance. To cancel and rebook can often incur a charge and a much higher rate. Airlines should not be allowed to behave like this. If they do, then the full financial penalty plus compensation for the inconvenience should be laid upon their doors as a mater of law. Then perhaps they would not routinely cancel flights because they have not sold enough seats or because they have not maintained an aircraft as they should have etc..

      Consequential losses should be written in to the legislation.

      • JDB says:

        21 Sep21 September 09:32

        @TimM – it’s apparent that you don’t come from the world of commerce, but your suggestion that a passenger doesn’t a) receive compensation for inconvenience and b) doesn’t already have recourse to further compensation beyond UK261 is plucked from where? Article 12 expressly provides for a passenger to make additional claims and airlines will pay for consequential losses including lost pay in many circumstances. You do of course need to prove actual loss. This was the law long before EC261 which adds to it with some simplified remedies and fixed sums for liquidated damages.

• Swiss Jim says:

  21 Sep21 September 07:42

  Having moved north out of London, more BA Stansted flights would be great.! With apologies to those down South (who already have to cope with a very mediocre football team…).

  • Richie says:

    21 Sep21 September 08:40

    My guess is STN will get some more BACF flights at the weekends.

  • TimM says:

    21 Sep21 September 09:29

    Swiss Jim, having lived all over England, I can safely tell you that ‘North’ and ‘South’ are relative concepts. South Yorkshire is South to me, not least because of the clue in its name. Anything South of the M62, joining the Mersey and Humber estuaries, is South. If Stansted is remotely convenient (it is a very difficult airport to get to except from the South), I am afraid you are still a Southerner 🙂

    • max says:

      21 Sep21 September 11:08

      Definitely relative. Stanstead is the frozen North to me!

      • Nick says:

        21 Sep21 September 12:33

        Stanstead is in Canada, so ‘frozen north’ more apt than you think.
        Stansted is an airport in Essex.

        • Clayton says:

          21 Sep21 September 12:59

          As an expat Canuck we politely ( as is my people’s way) decline your kind offer of placing Stansted in our country. It’s not that we haven’t got the space. It’s due to it being a woeful hole good only for, happily a non occurrence these days, terrorism suspected and non Comms – non compliant flights.
          Yes I seem to remember in a previous life it being endless fun speeding through tunnels in land rovers criss crossing the airfield during combined exercises but that’s nowhere near enough to make the place an appealing gift.
          As a Brightonian I can however firmly agree Stansted is North – North, if not practically Icelandic adjacent

    • Swiss Jim says:

      21 Sep21 September 12:30

      Thank God for that ! 😀

  • mvcvz says:

    21 Sep21 September 21:29

    Which mediocre football team in the south? There are plenty to choose from.

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