Originally Posted by
Barling Magna
In 1967 692,686 passengers used Southend. In the same year 412,938 used Luton, 13,629 used Stansted, 1,954,272 used Gatwick and 12,433,542 used Heathrow. Outside London only Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast exceeded Sothend's passenger total in 1967 making Southend the UK's sixth busiest airport.
By my crude calculations, if Southend had managed to keep the same share of London passengers as it had in 1967, it would be handling around 7 million p.a. today. But given that only 10 years ago it seemed doomed, it's still quite remarkable that this year could see a doubling of that 1967 peak.