Longish article on SEN in the new issue of "Airports of the world". CEO going on the record that he would be disappointed if he was unable to announce two new airlines before the end of 2017. In a prolonged bout of grandeur he was also musing about SEN overtaking LCY as London's fifth largest airport and serving 10m passengers annually.
I think it was fairly clear what he said... 5m possible through the current terminal site, but the with work being done on the airfield infrastructure and space to add more terminal capacity around the corner of the apron, 10m is feasible.
The fundamental point about London City - and Southend maybe one day overtaking it - is that even with the extensions that are planned as part of the CADP LCY will only get to 6.5m and there is little prospect of any further capacity increases beyond that. So why should SEN not overtake it eventually - not this year, not in this decade, but beyond that... At least SEN has more wriggle room that LCY. And Glyn Jones believes that eventually it will overtake LCY.
As far as road access is concerned it's not quite as you suggest and access from the A127 turn off (25 minutes from the M25) is just a couple of minutes along one road. Local access can vary according to the time of day obviously but SEN is on the northern edge of SEN so no one has to drive through the town to get to it.
Extension of the road that passes the end of 06 across the field up to Rochford Road one means of potentially easing access from the west, although maybe not a complete answer to 10m. And if the rail service can be improved - particularly with respect to early and late trains - then that will help. Its only 50 minutes from Liverpool Street - hardly any different to Stansted and shorter than to LGW and even LHR until Crossrail is done.
They're banging their publicity drum again!!
The point Glyn Jones has made is that the other airports are pretty full and/or much more expensive for airlines. SEN has capacity all day, some even at peak. If it does 1.2m this year and they get two more good airlines (or more) over the next few months, why not 2.5m in 2018?