As always Expressflight says how it is so I don’t think anyone can disagree. One of the problems for Southend is that Stansted has permission for major growth but many passengers prefer the calm of Southend. The calm of Southend though means big losses, as there are no economies of scale a busier terminal would bring for its passenger business.
it would be interesting to know the staff to passenger ratio for May compared to other airports around London who will see millions of passengers. Southend must have the highest staff costs per passenger of any London Airport, which isn’t going to help the bottom line.