Southampton Airport has surpassed the two million passengers in a rolling year mark, welcoming 2,029,873 passengers between May 2016 and April 2017 and marking the highest number since commercial flights began nearly 100 years ago in 1918.
In 2016, the airport welcomed four new airlines, including KLM with worldwide flights via its hub in Amsterdam; bmi regional, which launched a new service to Munich; and Aer Lingus, which has direct flights to Cork.
It was also the first airport in the UK to offer scheduled flights with Europe-based airline, Volotea, flying to Majorca and then Ibiza for 2017. Flybe alone announced five new routes from Southampton including Biarritz, Lyon, Toulon and Paris Charles De Gaulle.
Dave Lees, managing director at Southampton Airport, said, “We are thrilled to have hit the two million passengers milestone. The airport has been working extremely hard to deliver the routes and services that our passengers demand.
“We’ve enjoyed tremendous success over the course of the past 12 months in strengthening our route network and this has translated into passenger growth. Reaching two million passengers is a real landmark and we’re determined to continue to build on this success to ensure Southampton Airport delivers for the city and the region.
“I would like to personally thank all of the passengers that choose to travel from Southampton Airport – we couldn’t have done this without you.”
The same period the year before, from May 2015 – April 2016, the airport saw 1,776,391 passengers travel through the airport. In 1994, Southampton Airport had just 450,000 passengers flying to around 15 destinations.
To celebrate the two million passenger milestone, Southampton Airport partnered with its airlines to give away free flights; 200 cupcakes were given out in the departure lounge to passengers, with four winning cupcakes hidden among them. Flybe gave away flights to any destination on its route network from Southampton, Aer Lingus supplied a pair of tickets to Cork, bmi regional to Munich and Eastern Airways to its newest destination, Rodez.
