So why has SEN been caught out? Stobart will know the airports hourly capacity and how to increase it. If it is staffing levels and training unlike other airports they control everything so the buck stops with them so they should have had that fixed before the first Ryanair passenger arrived.
If it is physical terminal constraints that will be harder to fix in the short term but in the meantime the big selling point for Southend will soon be forgotten by the travelling public.
As for a 10 million passenger Southend I think that would be hard to swallow for the council and would be rejected. The local council at Stansted voted in favour of that airports latest expansion and then got voted out of power by independent residents who stood for election in protest.