I FOR one am very pleased that Jet2 are coming to Bournemouth bringing even more choice to travel from our local airport but it comes with problems. The facilities at the airport are not designed to cope with this amount of traffic.

TUI, Ryanair and Jet2 are budget airlines whose aim is to operate as many flights as possible each day. With each operator having 2 based planes this will involve a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 18 flights a day. This does not include flights from planes not based at Bournemouth.

The arrivals hall is totally inadequate to cope with this volume of traffic. The passport area is only big enough to cope with passengers from one plane and has only four checking desks and no e-gates. It can take about 15 minutes to clear one flight. At busy times it is possible that up to 6 flights could land within any hour. Are we going to see queues on the tarmac possibly in the rain taking over an hour to clear? The baggage reclaim area has only 2 belts and is a very small area for people waiting to collect their luggage.

The departure lounge is a lot bigger but the small security check area and totally inadequate toilet facilities will cause problems. Even now some flights are timed to arrive around midnight. We are already seeing diversions to Gatwick when there are arrival delays. The airport will need to extend opening hours if it is to stop these unacceptable diversions.

It is 10 months until Jet2 arrive. Will we see the major improvements needed by then?

I regret to say that I very much doubt it. Let us hope the airport authorities prove me wrong.

Steve Chalker

Minstead Road,

Bournemouth