SOUTHEND - 3 The new beginning

[stluke]

Thanks for the quick reply, on first glance the numbers look increasing impressive although the Irish routes could see some further improvement.

[tax haven]

easyjet from Jersey is not advertised well, and the flight times are poor!
need early morning flight would get lots of business passengers who travel to gatwick. been to southend lovely and easy airport will use again..

[MARKEYD]

Looks like Thomson / First Choice are going to be the first company entering into the Southend IT market next summer 2013 with the launch of good old Palma

Flights operate on a Tue and Sat using Germania Airlines A319 aircraft with a departure time of 0730 and return back at 1330 throughout the summer season

[Expressflight]

It's also reported that IATA have agreed to the official designation of SEN as London Southend and that it will be shown as such in future.

Does this amount to 'official' acceptance of SEN as London's sixth airport?

[mart901]

Nothing on Thomson website

[Ernest Lanc's]

Expressflight

The EZY website has Southend listed as "London Southend", on the dropdown list on their booking site.
London Southend Airport Guide | easyJet.com

[mikkie4]

its been called london southend airport from day 1 (as far as i know)

[Ernest Lanc's]

On airline drop down menues?

It is listed as Southend here.

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[mikkie4]

what do you expect from these cheep holiday sites,they will soon have LONDON SOUTHEND on their dropdown menu,easyjet along with aer lingus have always called our airport LONDON SOUTHEND

[Ernest Lanc's]

Yep I know..I said two posts ago that EZY had SEN and London Southend.

I just wonder what these sites that differ, put on the travel documentation..London Southend, or Southend.

[mikkie4]

WITH THOMSON/FIRST CHOICE USING AN A319 FROM GERMANIA AIRLINES.WHAT OTHER CHARTERS USE A319 OR SMALLER BOEING 737s AS THERE STILL SEEMS TO BE SOME DEBATE STILL WETHER A FULLY LOADED 737-800 COULD USE SEN DUE TO ITS LENGTH OF RUNWAY?

[LTNman]

When Ryanair used to run a service from Blackpool to Stansted they used to have sections of seats roped off and that is only around 200 miles

[Tagron]

One reason for the apparently poor runway performance of the 738 is that Ryanair's aircraft (some, all, ? I don't know) are only rated at 24200 lbs take off thrust. Other UK operators use 27,300lbs rated engines. That would make a significant difference to payload/range capabilities off limiting runways.

Maybe there are some 738 operators reading this who could comment in more detail.

[Expressflight]

To clarify a couple of the points mentioned above:

The name that an airline gives to an airport in its commercial marketing is very much its own choice, so the use of London Southend by easyJet and others is simply making use of a marketing name. Similarly a number of airports add the prefix London (London Oxford I think is the most recent) for marketing purposes. The difference now for SEN is that throughout the world SEN/EGMC will appear in airline documentation and data sources as London Southend giving it very much greater profile in such areas as route and flight planning. One example would be client requesting an airline or broker for a charter to 'London' whereby SEN will now appear as one of the choice of six London airports on various databases from which the airline/broker will make their choice of destination.

As far as the 738 is concerned it is very unlikely that it could operate with sufficient payload from SEN to make it economically attractive to any airline. It's quite possible that SEN see this as an advantage as it keeps it out of the clutches of a certain large European airline and protects its customer airlines from that carrier's predatory tactics.

[frostbite]

The sign outside the airport has said London Southend for at least 20 years.

As Expressflight says, it's up to individual operators how they describe it.

[Phileas Fogg]

An excellent decision by SEN to extend the runway just long enough to keep the (Irish) B738 riff raff out

[davidjohnson6]

Is this the first time an airport in Europe has managed to selectively allow only their preferred airlines to operate by legal means while still being able to say that they are a public use airport ?
Would have thought that if a rival to Easyjet had wanted to operate and anything iffy was going on, the threat of issuing proceedings in court would have been made by now

[vulcanised]

Are you suggesting that SEN have actively blocked an airline?

Strange question.

[tws123]

I really don't think the airport would design its runway to keep certain airlines out. After all, the airport it trying to expand the number of flights not limit them, so if and airline like Ryanair came along, they wouldn't turn their noses up at them, that would be stupid and a large amount of business would be lost out on. I'm sure the airport built the runway as a long as they could (or to what ever length made financial sense). I also think that the airport won't expand around EasyJet's demands. There is nothing wrong with competition even in a smaller airport!

[Tagron]

The length of the SEN runway extension and the declared distances are a function of the physical constraints of the site and the controlling legislation. The fact that this could keep a certain airline out is just a half-serious rationalisation, trying to put a positive spin on a negative situation.