The local economy

The issue: Southampton Airport continues to be an integral part of the transport and communications infrastructure of South East England. As such, the airport influences the lives and livelihoods of the local community. Our influence on social progress is closely associated with employment and wealth creation. The airport’s biggest economic benefit is the jobs it creates through direct, on-airport employment and indirect employment among local suppliers.

Job creation is also induced locally through the personal expenditure of those in the direct and indirect categories above, as well as through employment, created by opportunities for influencing business location decisions and attracting inbound tourism, both business and leisure, to the region.

Our approach: We include local companies in the procurement selection process wherever possible. This has included contracts for the cleaning of IT equipment through to the installation of a secondary high voltage electricity supply.

We also supports local commerce through our involvement with local trade councils and SEEDA.

Our performance: There are 30 different companies based at our airport, employing over 1,200 people. In 2004, the Geodata Institute at Southampton University estimated that the airport contributes over £86 million to the local economy each year. In addition, there are 94 South Hampshire companies supplying us with goods and services on a regular basis.

In February 2007, we joined forces with businesses from around the region to take part in the first ever ‘Meet the Buyers’ event in Hampshire, sourcing new and innovative local suppliers. The event, held at the Rose Bowl, saw over 140 local suppliers meet with 20 regional and national companies to discuss business opportunities for the future. The event was led by Eastleigh Borough Council, with sponsorship provided by Winchester City Council, Southern Entrepreneurs, Test Valley Borough Council and Business Link.

Inbound tourism
We work with a number of organisations to promote tourism in the region. These organisations include Eastleigh Borough Council, Southampton City Council, Hampshire County Council, Winchester City Council, Portsmouth City Council, Tourism South East and others.

In addition, our airport is growing in popularity as the easiest way for the increasing numbers of passengers to join cruise ships based in Southampton. Negotiations are taking place with the cruise ship operators to consider the best way of providing FastTrack services for passengers between the airport and the cruise port.

Our plans: This year we will aim to further support our local economy by using local contractors for at least 25% of the total procurement portfolio value during the year.

We will also maintain and grow our involvement in local commerce such as future ‘Meet the Buyer’ events and continue to capture and record information on all local contractors and sub-contractors we employ. This will enable us to measure our achievement against our objective and the wealth and jobs that our airport creates for the local economy.

We will continue to work with local organisations to promote inbound tourism to the region.