Originally Posted by
Expressflight
Now that there is a train from London arriving before 05:30 (except Sundays before someone points that out) there is less reason than before to arrive in the middle of the night and surely if you plan to arrive at 01:30 (perhaps off one of the last trains from London?) you would check the website to see what facilities will be open in the terminal. If you do that you will find in the Q & A of Terminal Opening Hours:
"Can I wait in the terminal overnight?"
"No the terminal closes at midnight or after the last arrival and does not re-open until 4am."
The complainant says he will use another airport in future and that is obviously what he needs to do as SEN is not suitable for his needs. Fair enough but I wonder what percentage of passengers planning to use SEN need to enter the terminal before 0400. Very few I would suggest so there is no commercial advantage for SEN in opening it at night yet there would be a considerable cost in doing so to ensure safety and security. I wonder who opened the station toilet for him as I thought the station was closed similar hours to those of the terminal.
These days so many people seem to think that every facility will be available to them whenever and wherever they want it and don't even bother to check if that will be the case.
The first train gets to Southend Airport at 05:29 so only suitable for flights departing 07:30 or later given that the airport themselves advise passengers to turn up at least 2 hours prior to their flight. So the next best option for all flights prior to 07:30 is to take the last train out of London and get to the airport at 01:47. For people booking LCC flights budget is everything - nobody wants to risk losing their flight because they turned up too late so those travelling via public transport will arrive the night before.
This morning there were 7 flights scheduled to depart before 07:30am.
Part of the problem is the London prefix that the airport uses. People automatically expect a London Airport to be open all night.