Southend? Seriously?
Why would SEN work if LGW didn't?
- Gatwick has more connections - International, domestic, loco, full fare.
- Gatwick has the same(ish) London catchment area plus the South coast (Brighton, Hove etc), SEN has sparsely populated East Anglia (where of course NWI is making a killing with 3 or 4 commercial flights per day), and perhaps Cambridge.
- People have heard of Gatwick, hardly anybody in the South West would know about Southend Airport (I just had to look it up on Google maps), and as such would require more promotion.
- There may perhaps be a reason why SEN has supported only one flight a week for less than half of the year for the past 5 years... And yes I think RE launching services is a brave move.
SEN would have a chance of working from the Southwest but not until there is some sort of momentum at the place, i.e. increasing numbers of flights. ASW is not the airline to do that...