It is OK for Glyn Jones to be spouting off about hoping for 2.5 million pax but there is just not the demand there. Let me explain - the catchment area for Southend relies I would suggest on Essex, North Kent (Dartford Crossing not recommended), parts of Suffolk and East London. Apart from North Kent it overlaps Stansted which has far more choice, a better but no much better rail service but the M11 next to it. Punters from Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Beds and Northants are not going to trapse across to Southend (round the M25 and then the A127) when they have both Stansted and Luton on their doorstep with a much wider choice of destination.
So can we just be realistic about Southend - maybe 800,000 to one million but no more per year and be thankful for that.