SOUTHEND - 3 The new beginning

[Ernest Lanc's]

Really ... that there's no such word as "doesn't" in the English language anymore?

Are you sure about that?.

So that brings the word into English, and how did it develop after that? The nineteenth century saw major changes in the word’s use. As a noun it was applied to another prehistoric elephant, the mastodon, from 1815 onwards. In fact, this [doesn’t] fit the scientific evidence, as the mastodon isn’t really particularly closely related to the mammoth, but it was another big prehistoric elephant, so (in the light of knowledge at the time) it wasn’t surprising that it was called after the real mammoth. But as scientific knowledge improved this sense died out (1850), as more correct terminology took its place.

'mammoth' | Oxford English Dictionary

[LTNman]

Google street view has been updated so the new terminal now appears for the first time. Looks like it was taken around April with a couple of Easyjet aircraft in the background.

[tws123]

Join! Regional Airlines

Email from Bernard Jacobs:

"We are making good progress with the set-up of the airline. Main investment has been in place to acquire the operational assets.
We are now in the process of organisation structuring and initial network planning.

We expect to send out the first press release end of this month .

We can then also indicate the plans for SEN and timeline."

[Expressflight]

Yes, nearly there.

[Phileas Fogg]

Expressflight,

And it's true, news such as this becomes very quickly forgotten, this week's news becomes next week's fish & chips wrapper.

I'm so far removed from UK and without TV or radio I have very little idea what people on the street may be talking about but I'd hazard a guess they're talking about the economy, the Jimmy Savile scandal, the US presidential election, that's there's some maniac driving around Cardiff hitting people with his car, realistically how many people do you think are talking about some tin pot airline from Germany that the vast majority have never heard of?

And when some minute percentage of the news reading public decide to travel to or from Dresden or Saarbrucken in 6 months or a year from now they'll perhaps get a secretary or a travel agent to organise it or they may well go to one of the many search engines, the chances that they'll look and/or particularly care regarding the identity of the operator is questionable, paramount will be the price and/or schedule.

[Barling Magna]

Thanks to LTNman for discovering that the news has at least hit the Southend evening newspaper. I was most interested in Alastair Welch's comments in the article (see below). I bet SEN have tried hard to dissuade OLT Express from starting before next spring but, with stubbornness, OLT Express have gone ahead and created a farceical situation - I'm not sure that the reputation for German efficiency was ever much deserved and OLT EXpress certainly doen't derserve it......

Alastair Welch, the managing director of Southend Airport, said he understood the flights would start properly next summer.


He added: “It is my understanding that some flights may continue this year, during the German holiday season, but those will largely be aimed at the German tourist market.


“We have held discussions with OLT about the most appropriate time for them to start services.”

[8674planes]

tonights OLT arrival has been delayed to 21:25. It appears that they will be operating a denim air Fokker 50 instead of a Saab 2000.

[LTNman]

OLT Express has nothing to lose, SEN has it's reputation on the line if the pax are messed about.

LTNman replied.

Think you have that the wrong way around. When services are cancelled I have never seen passengers blaming the airport unless it is due to snow, ice or fog so I can't see what Southend has to worry about.

Well today is the day that passengers will be blaming Southend and not the airlines for their cancelled and diverted flights. I am sure passengers are asking the question why can’t aircraft land in fog at Southend when they can at other London Airports. Not a good day for Southend with its CAT 1 ILS

Remember it is not the end of the world, fog does not seem to harm London City.

[davidjohnson6]

Is today the first proper test of difficult weather / fog for Southend, or has there been an earlier event on a similiar scale since April this year ?
Based on previous years, roughly how many days per year would one normally expect Southend to have significant weather related issues comparable to today ?

[LTNman]

Ezy7418 alicante 16:05
expected 00:15

ezy7436 malaga 23:10
expected 01:50

ezy726 jersey 16:30
cancelled

ei330 dublin 16:45
cancelled

ezy7406
amsterdam
18:40
18:40
-

ei3178 waterford 20:30
cancelled

ei3308 dublin
20:55
cancelled

ezy72 belfast
22:00
diverted


EZY740 AMSTERDAM 16:10
OPERATING OUT OF STANSTED 16:10

EZY7435 MALAGA 16:50
OPERATING OUT OF STANSTED 16:50

EI3307 DUBLIN 17:10
CANCELLED 17:10

EZY719 BELFAST 19:05
OPERATING OUT OF STANSTED 19:05

EI317 WATERFORD 20:55
CANCELLED 20:55

Add 5 hours for UK time zone. noon = 17:00

Noon (16) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.15 (1021) ENE 8 fog
11 AM (15) Oct 22 55 (13) 55 (13) 30.15 (1021) ENE 7 fog
10 AM (14) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.15 (1021) ENE 7 fog
9 AM (13) Oct 22 57 (14) 57 (14) 30.12 (1020) NE 7 fog
8 AM (12) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.12 (1020) ENE 9 fog
7 AM (11) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.12 (1020) ENE 10 fog
6 AM (10) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.12 (1020) ENE 12 fog
5 AM (9) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.12 (1020) ENE 8 fog
4 AM (8) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.09 (1019) NE 7 fog
3 AM (7) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.09 (1019) NE 6 fog
2 AM (6) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.06 (1018) NE 5 fog
1 AM (5) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.06 (1018) NE 6 fog
Midnight (4) Oct 22 55 (13) 55 (13) 30.06 (1018) NE 6 fog

[welkyboy]

London City has an awful lot of cancelled flights today, so it's not just Southend, all Londons airports have been affected

[LTNman]

A real pea soup at Luton with visibility of only100m and overcast at 100ft but the airport is unaffected. I well remember the days of LTN’s Cat1 ILS when the airport would be shut down for 18 hours at a time.

I share the pain of Southend's biggest fans on this forum.

[Tagron]

LTNman is correct in that the lack of an ILS better than Cat 1 has caused disruption at SEN today. However, the situation is more complex than he implies. The RVR at SEN for much of the day was below Cat 2 minima, so all those aircraft types only certificated to Cat 2 would not have been able to take advantage of a Cat 3 ILS if it existed. This means some jets and (I think) all turboprops. The same would have applied at some other Southern England airports which have a Cat 3 capability, including LTN..

It is also interesting to note that BA today have cancelled over 50 departures from LHR and LGW. The reason almost certainly will be Low Visibility Procedures required for Cat 2/3, even poor Cat 1, with consequent reduction in flow rates and slot restrictions.

[8674planes]

The only flight that has been at Southend today is the OLT flights. All Easyjet and Aer Lingus flights from Southend have been wither diverted or cancelled.

[LTNman]

The irony of the above post should not be forgotten.

[Barling Magna]

Absolutely. The Dresden Express managed to get straight in during a brief lifting of the cloud and fog. They don't really deserve that piece of luck, do they....?

The EZY flight from Faro held over SEN for nearly 45 minutes before heading for STN - and then, of course, the cloud and fog lifted briefly again within 5 minutes of his decision to divert. Unfortunately the weather looks similar for the next couple of days..........

LCY and STN itself were also affected by the fog today. Such weather conditions are quite rare at SEN for any length of time. That doesn't help those being ferried across Essex at the moment though.

[pabely]

Remember CATIII is a hell of an expensive piece of kit with high running costs. Southend has a good weather record so I doubt it will be in the plan for the near future. It's just bad luck today and probally tomorrow.

[SENChris]

I'm now sitting in New York, very glad the 6:45am flight made it out of SEN to Dublin. A few comments to be made about the efficiency of the whole process in Dublin (we were dropped off at US pre-clearance and told to go strsight through but they weren't ready for us for over an hour). Bags were also very, very slow coming through in JFK but otherwise was very impressed with the experience.

[pottwiddler]

Remember CATIII is a hell of an expensive piece of kit with high running costs. Southend has a good weather record so I doubt it will be in the plan for the near future. It's just bad luck today and probally tomorrow.

Expensive to buy but running costs are not as high as you imply, the tolerances are tighter but modern equipment is a lot more stable these days. Maintenance isn't any more onerous, still requires 180 day flight checking as with CATI ILS. The only higher costs are down to running two transmitters at the same time for hot standby.

[LTNman]

Another day and and another day of disruption.

Southend flight boards do not make good reading

Add 5 hours for UK time

2 AM (6) Oct 23 53 (12) 51 (11) 30.21 (1023) N 5 fog
1 AM (5) Oct 23 53 (12) 53 (12) 30.21 (1023) N 6 fog
Midnight (4) Oct 23 53 (12) 53 (12) 30.21 (1023) N 5 fog
11 PM (3) Oct 22 55 (13) 53 (12) 30.21 (1023) N 6 fog
10 PM (2) Oct 22 55 (13) 53 (12) 30.21 (1023) N 6 fog
9 PM (1) Oct 22 55 (13) 55 (13) 30.21 (1023) N 5 fog
8 PM (0) Oct 22 55 (13) 53 (12) 30.21 (1023) N 5 fog
7 PM (23) Oct 22 55 (13) 53 (12) 30.21 (1023) N 3 fog
6 PM (22) Oct 22 55 (13) 53 (12) 30.21 (1023) NE 3 fog
5 PM (21) Oct 22 55 (13) 55 (13) 30.21 (1023) ENE 6 fog
4 PM (20) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.21 (1023) NE 7 light drizzle; mist
3 PM (19) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.18 (1022) ENE 2 fog
2 PM (18) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.18 (1022) ENE 5 light drizzle; fog
1 PM (17) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.18 (1022) NE 8 light drizzle; mist
Noon (16) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.15 (1021) ENE 8 fog
11 AM (15) Oct 22 55 (13) 55 (13) 30.15 (1021) ENE 7 fog
10 AM (14) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.15 (1021) ENE 7 fog
9 AM (13) Oct 22 57 (14) 57 (14) 30.12 (1020) NE 7 fog
8 AM (12) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.12 (1020) ENE 9 fog
7 AM (11) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.12 (1020) ENE 10 fog
6 AM (10) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.12 (1020) ENE 12 fog
5 AM (9) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.12 (1020) ENE 8 fog
4 AM (8) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.09 (1019) NE 7 fog
Oldest 3 AM (7) Oct 22 57 (14) 55 (13) 30.09 (1019) NE 6 fog