The main airline operating scheduled flights from Southampton Airport is FlyBe, with 36 destinations across the area served by the airport. The airline with the next highest number of destinations, Eastern Airways, has only eight destinations – Stavenger plus UK and northern Europe destinations. Other operators tend to be single destination operators or tour operators: Aurigny, Aer Arann, Air France, Brussels Airlines, Flyglobespan, Blue Islands and Skybus. Flybe is in direct competition with Eastern Airways, Air France and Brussels Airlines in flying planes to some of the same destinations. Air Berlin planes have recently been seen flying into the airport, which is puzzling as they do not appear on the airport's list of operators, and they had announced they were moving flights to Bournemouth in 2005. It is possible that these were only diverted flights.
FlyBe are one of the biggest low-cost carriers in Europe, and are a particularly good target for campaigns. On 5 June 2007, FlyBe took out an advertisement in the Times with the subheading 'FlyBe – leading the way in responsible low cost flying'. The advertisement went on to boost their green credentials – a eco-labelling scheme based on that already used for domestic white goods; the introduction of more efficient aircraft (Q400 and Embraer 195 - a topic for later in this guide); a commitment to noise reduction; a commitment to regional airports to reduce car travel to bigger ones; and a commitment to carbon-offsetting.
Leaving aside the dubious nature of the above pledges, on 17 July 2007 they sent an advertisement by e-mail to their customers: 'Rail fares soar by 30%. Ditch the train and fly from £19.99 one way.' They have signed main club and shirt sponsorship deals with four football clubs – Southampton, Exeter (HQ location), Birmingham, Norwich and Inverness. In January, the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority, announced that FlyBe was one of three companies who now had 'awarding body status' to provide work-based qualifications equivalent to GCSE, A-Level and degree.
As mentioned before, there are also special flights chartered by tour operators. Inghams are the main tour operator with flights from Southampton to Switzerland, Austria and Finland. The other two are Canterbury Travel (to Enontekio, Finland) and Thomson (Palma, Spain). Flights to Varna, Bulgaria, were chartered by Balkan Holidays. It is hard to find out which companies provide the flights for them.
You can also charter a private jet from Executive Jet Services Ltd, currently trading under the name Club328 (http://www.club328.com/). An executive jet from Southampton to Paris will set you back around 5,000 Euros (£3,700).