Originally Posted by
cumbrianboy
Nellie
Your posts says to me you've never worked in airport development. As express flight says, it's a very long burn process and Southend is a 3rd tier London airport. Not only that, Southend isn't competing with London airports. It's competing across Europe.
An airline can chose where to base their aircraft and their choice isn't Southend or stansted, it's London or Liverpool, or Paris or Milan or Rome.
For Southend to win it has to be prove that the risk is worth it, and the risk is huge. The cost of operating 1 737 for a year is something like £10m - massive numbers.
Southend is doing well, yes it's in a period of consolidation but it will come out of it and grow. All new airports go trough the same.
I can see how it may appear frustrating that stansted or Luton get growth seemingly at the expense of Southend but you don't know how long Luton or stn have been working on these deals and it will have been years.
Be patient ...
Well said nellie1. The reality is that even the most seasoned aviation expert does not know what is happening unless you are directly involved in the business at this time. It is all too easy to make comment from the outside stating 'failing'... However the realtiy is none of us know how close Southend has been or is to signing a deal to make us all eat our words!
By no means am I saying Southend hasn't made mistakes in the past few years, however to propose that a business that has spent £150million on a development programme is not bothered/trying to get new business is crazy! Hopefully the new management team have the right attributes to make a real change. So I agree, be patient!
...and a final thought, I am sure many who cite their Vast experience and expertise in this industry did not predict ezy ever setting up a base at SEN. The airline business is a funny old one, Southend will have its day, let's just hope that is sooner rather than later!