Southend is clearly top of the tree and should be rightly congratulated. It has a new terminal and all the facilities in place on a small scale but that is the whole point. Small is beautiful and even better if there is still space to breathe. Passengers want no queues, no long walks and everything to hand. That is what Southend offers passengers. Whether that can be maintained is another story as all airports want to grow the business with remote stands and distant car parks.
At some point the moans will outnumber the praise. When that happens Southend will be viewed as a big success by the number crunchers, as they pack in the passengers but Southend will have lost something special.