Originally Posted by
Pain in the R's
I find it hard to believe that there is no demand and that today Southend will handle maybe 500 passengers in total throughout the day when it has a first rate terminal and a station that is in spitting distance of it when an airport like Luton doesn't even have a station and together with Stansted is rated as the worst in the UK........ Stansted shares its London rail terminus with Southend yet all but the odd few passengers head north for Stansted rather than east to the airport of the year.
Congratulations to Southend on this award, but I think you rather overestimate its importance to the wider travelling public; I wouldn’t have known about it if I didn’t read this forum, so I’m not convinced that the casual traveller would be even remotely aware. In any case, people are motivated at least as much by prices and frequency / variety of flights as they are by the quality of the terminal building.
I don’t doubt that Southend is a great airport to use, but the reality is that Stansted and Luton are light years ahead in terms of establishing themselves as important airports.