Originally Posted by
Pain in the R's
I am not sure it is a feather in the cap when those airlines would rather not be at SEN and are not prepared to offer any services from Southend.
While Southend has the space to take in the diversions it doesn't have the staff as the staffing levels are set for the planned programme. This leads to some very long delays in getting the passengers off the aircraft if more than a couple of diversions arrive in quick succession.
It is a sad state of affairs that the only thing us Southend supporters can get excited about these days are diversions. What Southend needs is new routes and new airlines and at the moment Southend is going in the wrong direction while all the other London Airports are expanding.
I am not disagreeing with you, of course Southend needs new routes (I think we may have discussed that previously 😩
and of course the airport would rather have the stands full with scheduled flights rather than diversions. However...my point was in these lean times when the balance sheet is showing a loss it is not going to do any harm, that was all!
On your point regarding staffing, well doesn't every business man only to the level required? I can assure you this had led to some horror stories with diversions into Stansted for example. I have first hand experience of this, and I'm guessung this is why CFE made Southend their nominated diversion airport Southend again once the development was complete. At the end of the day it is a unplanned diversion so crews don't expect the same level of service. I think also from anecdotal evidence I have heard Southend seems to have coped quite well with recent big diversion days in servicing the aircraft?!
So in summary, no cake will be cut celebrating the number of diversions but it sure is revenue that the airport will not be turning away!