Southampton

A Legacy of Private Aviation

SOU originated in 1910 as the meadows at North Stoneham Farm (known as Eastleigh Airfield) were used by Edwin Rowland Moon for his monoplane. During WWI, the site was used by the Royal Flying Corps (later the RAF) as an aircraft acceptance base, and in 1917 it was turned over to the US Navy Air Service, which designated it NAS Eastleigh. During this time, many hangars were developed on-siteFollowing the war, the site became a transit site for refugees trying to sail to the US, so the shipping companies formed the Atlantic Park Hostel Company to house them temporarily, converting the hangars to dorms, kitchens, and dining rooms. Although the hostel was supposed to be temporary, changes in US migration laws (restricting entry with national origin quotas) meant that some residents stayed much longer. The most extreme example involved 980 Ukrainian Jews at the hostel in 1924 who was still there seven years later, as they could not get to the US and couldn't return to the country from which they fled. As such, there was a school, library, and synagogue on location. While the number of people peaked at 20,000 in 1928, numbers started to fall after that, leading to the hostel's closure in 1931. The following year, the site was purchased by the Southampton Corporation, thus creating Southampton Municipal Airport. By 1935 the site was being used by the RAF as RAF Southampton, and the following year Supermarine opened a flight test facility on-site. From 1937 to 1938, a large Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft factory was built (which, after WWII, was known for its production of Ford's Transit vans). On March 5th, 1936, the first test flight of the Supermarine Spitfire took place, and in 1939 the site was transferred to naval command and renamed the HMS Raven. During WWII, the base was used in ground and air training for the Royal Navy before moving back to civilian use following the war in 1946. Following the war, the Cunliffe-Owen plants were first rented to the Cierva Autogiro Company and then later to Saunders-Roe, which built a rotor-testing building that was in use until 1960. Another fledgling industry at SOU during the 11950s was the cross-channel car ferry service operated by Silver City Airways. SOU took a turn towards its current use as a regional airport when it was purchased by racing pilot J.N. 'Nat' Somers, who built the first concrete runway in 1963 and negotiated with British Rail to build a railway station next to the airport. Moreover, he worked with the Department of Transportation to have the new M27 motorway pass through the airport and install a roundabout outside the airport. These innovations caused most of the airlines at Bournemouth Ham to move to SOU in the mid-1960s. In 1988 the airport was sold to Peter de Savary, who sold it to the owners of London Heathrow a few years later. The sale spurred more improvements, and in 1994 a new terminal opened following an influx of cash from Heathrow Airport Holdings. This allowed the airport to cross the 1 million passenger threshold in 2003. The airport was sold in 2014, along with the airports at Glasgow and Aberdeen, for 1 billion pounds to AGS Airports. In 2017, SOU serviced over 2 million passengers. The airport was hurt when Flybe shuttered, losing 95% of its routes. Fortunately, in the months that followed, many of the old routes were restarted by different airlines, with many new routes starting up as well. Moreover, on December 9th, 2020, British Airways (BA Cityflyer) announced routes to 13 new destinations.