SOUTHEND - 4
davidjohnson6
As I understand it the situation remains what it was when this was previously discussed here: Network Rail will not reduce the length of the line's night closure period, so earlier trains from Liverpool Street cannot be scheduled. I understand that behind the scenes pressure continues in high places to get NR to change this policy and that success is anticipated eventually.
The current lack of a train arriving at SEN before 06:30 certainly seems very unsatisfactory and I assume some alternative, such as a coach service, has been considered but I don't know of any plans for that to be initiated.
As I understand it the situation remains what it was when this was previously discussed here: Network Rail will not reduce the length of the line's night closure period, so earlier trains from Liverpool Street cannot be scheduled. I understand that behind the scenes pressure continues in high places to get NR to change this policy and that success is anticipated eventually.
The current lack of a train arriving at SEN before 06:30 certainly seems very unsatisfactory and I assume some alternative, such as a coach service, has been considered but I don't know of any plans for that to be initiated.
Last edited by Expressflight; 10th Jan 2013 at 07:38. Reason: typo
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For those who have not read it but want to
Thank goodness there were no questions about arriving early by public transport!
On a less flippant note, lack of access by public transport is raised as an issue on many different airport threads, but is there any evidence on its impact?
On a less flippant note, lack of access by public transport is raised as an issue on many different airport threads, but is there any evidence on its impact?
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[quote
For those who have not read it but want to
London Southend airport, Essex named best for customer service in easyJet poll | Mail Online][/quote]
Where do they get the 45 minutes journey time from? The train takes between 53 minutes and 1 hour and 16 minutes depending on what time of day you travel. The road journey substantially longer. Typically sloppy journalism from a down market fish and chip wrapper.
For those who have not read it but want to
London Southend airport, Essex named best for customer service in easyJet poll | Mail Online][/quote]
Where do they get the 45 minutes journey time from? The train takes between 53 minutes and 1 hour and 16 minutes depending on what time of day you travel. The road journey substantially longer. Typically sloppy journalism from a down market fish and chip wrapper.
asdf - the wording in the Daily Wail article is
Stratford counts as being in London - at least in PR land. Any complaints from the public and just make reference to the Olympics
45-minutes from the capital
SWBKCB
You make an interesting point with regard to how much effect public transport, or the lack of it, impacts on an airport's success. One would have thought that if any of the pax in the survey had found this a real problem at SEN it would have been reflected in their satisfaction rating for the airport in general. The fact that it achieved 95% perhaps indicates that lack of a train arrival SEN before 06:32 is not as big a drawback as some suggest. There are normally three EZY early departures which are not served by a train arrival from London.
Look at SEN's potential for European arrivals - not yet an established part of their traffic mix - and the fact that between 07:00 and 08:20 there is a London train departure every 5 or 10 minutes with a journey time of less than an hour in every case. I would say that compares very favourably with STN or LTN in terms of speed of rail access to the capital. Perhaps we shall see the introduction of flights to take advantage of this in 2013.
You make an interesting point with regard to how much effect public transport, or the lack of it, impacts on an airport's success. One would have thought that if any of the pax in the survey had found this a real problem at SEN it would have been reflected in their satisfaction rating for the airport in general. The fact that it achieved 95% perhaps indicates that lack of a train arrival SEN before 06:32 is not as big a drawback as some suggest. There are normally three EZY early departures which are not served by a train arrival from London.
Look at SEN's potential for European arrivals - not yet an established part of their traffic mix - and the fact that between 07:00 and 08:20 there is a London train departure every 5 or 10 minutes with a journey time of less than an hour in every case. I would say that compares very favourably with STN or LTN in terms of speed of rail access to the capital. Perhaps we shall see the introduction of flights to take advantage of this in 2013.
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Immigration
I dont know if this has been covered here before but....
Last night I arrived into SEN at 22.10 for the 1st time in many years, the last time was on a BAF Viscount.
We were asked to wait on the aircraft for a few minutes after coming on stand, because of ' Terminal congestion', well the flight from Malaga was a few minutes early, so no objection.
When we were asked to disembark, we then stood in a queue, for more than 30 minutes in the freezing cold, just waiting to get into the terminal, for immigration.
To leave us stood in the freezing weather, - 1 degree + the wind chill factor, some elderly, and all tired, was really just not fair.
The immigration desks were fully staffed, so no fault there, just the fact that the terminal was too small.
Why not keep the passengers on board the aircraft, until the airport was ready for the passengers, after all we were early so it couldnt be a crew hours issue.
I really will avoid SEN, unless something can be done about this mistreatment of passengers.
Last night I arrived into SEN at 22.10 for the 1st time in many years, the last time was on a BAF Viscount.
We were asked to wait on the aircraft for a few minutes after coming on stand, because of ' Terminal congestion', well the flight from Malaga was a few minutes early, so no objection.
When we were asked to disembark, we then stood in a queue, for more than 30 minutes in the freezing cold, just waiting to get into the terminal, for immigration.
To leave us stood in the freezing weather, - 1 degree + the wind chill factor, some elderly, and all tired, was really just not fair.
The immigration desks were fully staffed, so no fault there, just the fact that the terminal was too small.
Why not keep the passengers on board the aircraft, until the airport was ready for the passengers, after all we were early so it couldnt be a crew hours issue.
I really will avoid SEN, unless something can be done about this mistreatment of passengers.
Last edited by sam dilly; 14th Jan 2013 at 11:06.
sam dilly
I fully sympathise with you regarding that problem.
The Immigration arrivals area is totally inadequate to accomodate the numbers of passengers waiting to get to the desks; even one A319 can result in people standing out in the cold. The good news is that a new arrivals hall should open in May, this being the first part of the terminal extension to be built as the problem is well recognised by the SEN management.
As to the reason for the current situation, I think it's fair to say that no one anticipated that SEN would be home to three A319s within a couple of months of the terminal opening. When the terminal design was approved the assumption was that 50 to 80 seaters would mainly comprise SEN's traffic for the first year or so until the terminal could be extended to cope with larger/greater numbers of aircraft. It's become a victim of its own success really.
I fully sympathise with you regarding that problem.
The Immigration arrivals area is totally inadequate to accomodate the numbers of passengers waiting to get to the desks; even one A319 can result in people standing out in the cold. The good news is that a new arrivals hall should open in May, this being the first part of the terminal extension to be built as the problem is well recognised by the SEN management.
As to the reason for the current situation, I think it's fair to say that no one anticipated that SEN would be home to three A319s within a couple of months of the terminal opening. When the terminal design was approved the assumption was that 50 to 80 seaters would mainly comprise SEN's traffic for the first year or so until the terminal could be extended to cope with larger/greater numbers of aircraft. It's become a victim of its own success really.
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You make an interesting point with regard to how much effect public transport, or the lack of it, impacts on an airport's success. One would have thought that if any of the pax in the survey had found this a real problem at SEN it would have been reflected in their satisfaction rating for the airport in general. The fact that it achieved 95% perhaps indicates that lack of a train arrival SEN before 06:32 is not as big a drawback as some suggest.
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Could EasyJet's timetable not be the cause of the terminal congestion rather than the actual amount. Below is the timetable for arrivals on Mondays for the peak period of the summer as they currently stand, when aircraft 4 is operational:
EZY7402 09:55 Amsterdam
EZY716 10:15 Belfast-International
EI3302 10:50 Dublin
EZY7430 12:10 Krakow
EZY7362 12:45 Faro
EZY7384 15:40 Barcelona
EZY7418 16:05 Alicante
EZY726 16:25 Jersey
EI3306 16:35 Dublin
EZY7374 16:55 Berlin-Schonefeld
EZY7406 18:50 Amsterdam
EI3308 20:50 Dublin
EZY7386 21:55 Barcelona
EZY7398 22:00 Venice-Marco Polo
EZY720 22:15 Belfast-International
EZY7436 23:05 Malaga
Of course the flights come and go in waves like at most airports, but SEN has long periods with nothing followed by a few at similar times. Nothing for almost three hours in the afternoon, followed by a 75 minute period with 5 arrivals.
I know the new arrivals hall will be done by then, but isn't an extra A319 for the summer going to sort of cancel that out, leaving similar levels of congestion? Plus what viable long term future is there if it's already at terminal capacity. They can't really just expand the terminal a bit year after year.
EZY7402 09:55 Amsterdam
EZY716 10:15 Belfast-International
EI3302 10:50 Dublin
EZY7430 12:10 Krakow
EZY7362 12:45 Faro
EZY7384 15:40 Barcelona
EZY7418 16:05 Alicante
EZY726 16:25 Jersey
EI3306 16:35 Dublin
EZY7374 16:55 Berlin-Schonefeld
EZY7406 18:50 Amsterdam
EI3308 20:50 Dublin
EZY7386 21:55 Barcelona
EZY7398 22:00 Venice-Marco Polo
EZY720 22:15 Belfast-International
EZY7436 23:05 Malaga
Of course the flights come and go in waves like at most airports, but SEN has long periods with nothing followed by a few at similar times. Nothing for almost three hours in the afternoon, followed by a 75 minute period with 5 arrivals.
I know the new arrivals hall will be done by then, but isn't an extra A319 for the summer going to sort of cancel that out, leaving similar levels of congestion? Plus what viable long term future is there if it's already at terminal capacity. They can't really just expand the terminal a bit year after year.
FRatSTN
Perhaps I didn't make the complete situation very clear in my earlier post, but the terminal extension now under construction (which will double the size of the existing 'new' terminal) will be open in its entirety by the end of 2013. But due to the particular problem with the current Immigration hall size, the part of the terminal extension which will form the new Immigration area will be completed first (by May this year) to resolve that problem.
I believe there is also a plan for a temporary departures hall extension, with an additional gate or two, to be added to the existing departures area to cater for this summer's traffic, as otherwise there would be severe congestion with only three boarding gates to serve four based A319s, plus the other SEN operators' aircraft.
Perhaps I didn't make the complete situation very clear in my earlier post, but the terminal extension now under construction (which will double the size of the existing 'new' terminal) will be open in its entirety by the end of 2013. But due to the particular problem with the current Immigration hall size, the part of the terminal extension which will form the new Immigration area will be completed first (by May this year) to resolve that problem.
I believe there is also a plan for a temporary departures hall extension, with an additional gate or two, to be added to the existing departures area to cater for this summer's traffic, as otherwise there would be severe congestion with only three boarding gates to serve four based A319s, plus the other SEN operators' aircraft.
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You are so right about the timing oddities.
It is quite common for two A319s to arrive with Radar within seconds of each other, with one having to be 'sent round the houses' whilst the first one lands and exits the runway. Often, an ATR will add to the traffic too.
Then it all goes quiet until they are ready to depart, frequently within a few minutes of each other.
It does seem rather odd timing.
It is quite common for two A319s to arrive with Radar within seconds of each other, with one having to be 'sent round the houses' whilst the first one lands and exits the runway. Often, an ATR will add to the traffic too.
Then it all goes quiet until they are ready to depart, frequently within a few minutes of each other.
It does seem rather odd timing.
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If you think of the route network, you can see why it happens though. Flights to AMS and BFS are of course going to go first thing to suit the needs for business travel and at similar flying durations, they come in at similar times. Apart from these, most other services are around 2 to 2.5 hours long each way so they again, conflict with each other.
It does seem somewhat deliberate though as EZY send the slightly longer BFS service out at 07:15 before the slightly shorter AMS flight at 07:30 so that they come back within 20 minutes of each other. You'd think they could swap them around so AMS could be back in at 09:40 and BFS at 10:30 to seperate them a bit but I'm not really sure how it works and whether that's down to slot availability or something or so immigration staff don't have long waits between arrivals.
It does seem somewhat deliberate though as EZY send the slightly longer BFS service out at 07:15 before the slightly shorter AMS flight at 07:30 so that they come back within 20 minutes of each other. You'd think they could swap them around so AMS could be back in at 09:40 and BFS at 10:30 to seperate them a bit but I'm not really sure how it works and whether that's down to slot availability or something or so immigration staff don't have long waits between arrivals.
The CAA provisional stats show SEN having a throughput of 55,466 pax in December.
The new GVA route, which commenced 14th December as a 3 x weekly service, carried 2,666 pax. I believe there were also some additional Christmas flights so I haven't been able to calculate a load factor.
The new GVA route, which commenced 14th December as a 3 x weekly service, carried 2,666 pax. I believe there were also some additional Christmas flights so I haven't been able to calculate a load factor.
Last edited by Expressflight; 15th Jan 2013 at 16:08.
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Here's a picture of the new terminal extention: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater
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Southend Air show needs funding
BBC News - Southend air show could be dropped by borough council
The local council have decided to no longer fund the Southend Airshow and qwill vote on the proposal end of February. This could be a great opportunity for "London" Southend Airport to show their support for the local economy, townspeople and the general aviation community in general by being the new sponsor. Come on Stobarts - do the right thing!
The local council have decided to no longer fund the Southend Airshow and qwill vote on the proposal end of February. This could be a great opportunity for "London" Southend Airport to show their support for the local economy, townspeople and the general aviation community in general by being the new sponsor. Come on Stobarts - do the right thing!
Last edited by asdf1234; 16th Jan 2013 at 07:47. Reason: Added link to news story: added further text