Find the Cheapest Car Hire

Southampton Airport (IATA: SOU, ICAO: EGHI) is the 20th largest airport in the UK, located in the Borough of Eastleigh within Hampshire, England.

The airport is owned and operated by BAA, which also owns and operates five other UK airports,[3] and is itself owned by ADI Limited, an international consortium, which includes Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and GIC Special Investments, that is led by the Spanish Ferrovial Group.[4]

The airport handled 1,945,993 passengers during 2008, a 1.0% reduction on the 2007 total of 1,965,686.[5] Southampton Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P690) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction
The airport's runway is reputed to be built over the remains of a Roman villa.[6]

According to local history author John Edgar Mann's Book of the Stonehams the site's connection with aviation can be traced back to 1910 when pioneer pilot Eric Moon used the meadows belonging to North Stoneham Farm as a take-off and landing spot for his monoplane, Moonbeam Mk II.[7]

During the First World War, when forces from the United States Navy arrived in 1917, work on the building of hangars began. At the peak of the American presence, some 4,000 officers and men were billeted in tents and huts along the adjacent London to Southampton railway line.