Originally Posted by Barnaby the Bear
I know its no good looking to the past. But correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it in the top 10 busiest commercial airports in the country?
Obviously aircraft size and performance prohibits that again, but as a regional airport it must have appeal.
No B the B you are not wrong, in the 1960's Southend was one of the
busiest airports in the country. In 1967/8 it processed around 750,000
passengers.
Unfortunately it was run and owned by Southend Corporation, who were
quite happy to be associated with it so long as they did not have to
invest any money, and so long as the profits were stowed away in the
Corporation's coffers.
That lack of investment soon began to show, and the airlines re-equiping with the early jets with their poor runway performance could not operate commercially from Southend's runway, and were then further discouraged by the 400% noise surcharge imposed by Southend Corporation.
If ever there is a book written on how to not run an airport it
will have Southend Corporation stamped all over it!!