Now - in my humble opinion - and having used them all - Southend is by FAR the most pleasant to use of all the London airports. I suspect that many of the negative posters on here have never even used Southend!!!.
That's because Southend is a small airport but all small airports want to become big airports and that is in part where the trouble begins.
Like all airport owners Southend is unlikely to turn passengers and airlines away. First off that nice little long term car park that is only a few steps from the terminal will be moved to the other side of the airport. The same will happen to the car hire. Some of the aircraft stands will become remote so in all three cases buses will have to be used to move passengers.
Traffic will queue to get to the drop off zone and the terminal will start to creek at busy times. There will be a lack of seating, passengers will start to join long queues to get airside and join another long queue to get through immigration when they get home. Even if they make it through immigration a lack of baggage belts will be another issue.
Supporters of Southend will start to admit there is a problem but will still want more and more routes even if the passenger experience goes down hill.
Think it could never happen? Think again and have a look at these two photos of Luton as both Luton and Southend have limited space to expand.
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...ml#post8365217 and now this one
http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airpo...ml#post8338271
Exciting times lay ahead for Southend as how can the airport not become successful but at some point the pain will begin and the passenger experience will not be quite as good as it is today.
For the the true supporters here remember these times and remember what Southend was like in the past. If you are all still around in 20 years time you will be pinching yourself and marveling at what has happened so now look at my two links.
