Porkypine, the reason Southend got the routes was because Stobart Air has in effect offered to pay the price if easyJet makes a loss off the operation (as well as knock-down fees and other financial incentives). Southend has also got a direct link to London Liverpool Street from its own station - so clearly the effects of having a large water body nearby are not as profound as at Bournemouth.
By the way, Blue Islands is not launching two but one route from Bournemouth, with all flights to Guernsey via Jersey.
That's the boring stuff out of the way - here's to a better winter than 10/11 and a great 2012 for Bournemouth
