READERS have been debating the future of Bournemouth Airport after the Daily Echo revealed its ambitions to double passenger numbers to 1.5million a year by 2023.

The news came as Southampton Airport announced a plan to extend its runway and increase passenger numbers from two million last year to four million in 2027.

Many readers said they preferred Bournemouth Airport’s facilities but were frustrated by the road and public transport links.

Dorset Outsider said: “I live in Christchurch and it is far easier to hop on a train to take me to the terminal at Southampton than it is to book a taxi to Bournemouth and stand around waiting for it to arrive.”

Markmag said: “With Southampton’s fantastic road, rail and bus links, the only real advantage Bournemouth has is its longer runway, which is what Southampton is targeting.

“Southampton will thrive, Bournemouth less so but will survive as a commercial airport.”

Howe-zat said: “We will continue to lose out to Southampton Airport as long as there are poor transport links to Bournemouth Airport. I struggle to see a future for our local airport until we have that infrastructure.”

P Barker said: “Southampton (despite its size) has had more passengers than Bournemouth ever since the 1960s. Nothing is going to change. Bournemouth will always be behind. National Express and Manchester Airports Group thought they could expand the airport.”

E@sylife said: “I prefer flying from and to Bournemouth than anywhere else. The terminal is wonderful and small. The only problem is the last Yellow Bus leaves 15 minutes before the last flight from Tenerife arrives. Surely both parties could arrange this better.”

Sixhundred said: “Southampton will extend the runway and get more flights. Bournemouth has enough people in the catchment to survive. Without better transport links Bournemouth will always be smaller than Southampton. However, there’s enough demand for both. It’s not a one or the other, it’s both.”

Aaron Gibson said: “I don’t see why Bournemouth and Southampton can’t continue to play complementary roles in the future like the Northern Irish airports.

“Belfast City is a business focused airport (not dissimilar to Southampton) with good road and rail links and a short runway, close to Belfast centre. Belfast International is the larger holiday/international airport with terrible ground transport links, no train station, with a longer runway and is some distance out of Belfast, however, it has just the mixture of routes Bournemouth should seek to emulate. Each plays to their strengths and know their role.”At the moment Bournemouth airport is effectively the Spanish shuttle but there is definitely plenty of scope to operate routes to Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and the Nordic countries.

“If Bournemouth can concentrate on attracting airlines such as Jet2, Norwegian or Blue Air to start operations it has a promising future.”