Southend-2
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This is what happened at Bournemouth. It always struck me as being a bad idea with two separate cost bases and two sets of staff. It also made the terminal feel smaller than it needed to by splitting departures and arrivals into two buildings.
Outside the morning departure peak, Southend has always seemed quite spacious to me - but maybe I've just got too used to 7:30 am Saturday departures at Stansted
Southend is likely to be competing for the passengers who either live in south Essex / east London and/or are highly price sensitive on ticket price. Many of the niche routes where SEN had a monopoly for London flights like Brest, Caen and Rodez have gone and are unlikely to return quickly. Providing plenty of space has never been a priority at Luton or Stansted. Even City airport can be fairly cramped.
Southend in 2019 (ie when times were good) was struggling a bit financially. Airport expansion for LCC-dominated airports is usually left until the latest possible date when the airport is running over 100% of design capacity for big chunks of the day - thus ensuring maximum bang-for-buck and minimal investment risk. Terminal expansion might make airport managers dribble with excitement... but Southend needs to focus on packing-em-in, increasing retail spend within the terminal (yes, that includes includes creating more airside shop units) and coercing airlines to pay more in airport fees per pax. If anyone complains about Covid, SEN should be telling pax to wear gloves+masks. Maybe in 18 or 24 months, airport management can look again at major building work, but right now it should be purely bread-and-butter stuff
Southend is likely to be competing for the passengers who either live in south Essex / east London and/or are highly price sensitive on ticket price. Many of the niche routes where SEN had a monopoly for London flights like Brest, Caen and Rodez have gone and are unlikely to return quickly. Providing plenty of space has never been a priority at Luton or Stansted. Even City airport can be fairly cramped.
Southend in 2019 (ie when times were good) was struggling a bit financially. Airport expansion for LCC-dominated airports is usually left until the latest possible date when the airport is running over 100% of design capacity for big chunks of the day - thus ensuring maximum bang-for-buck and minimal investment risk. Terminal expansion might make airport managers dribble with excitement... but Southend needs to focus on packing-em-in, increasing retail spend within the terminal (yes, that includes includes creating more airside shop units) and coercing airlines to pay more in airport fees per pax. If anyone complains about Covid, SEN should be telling pax to wear gloves+masks. Maybe in 18 or 24 months, airport management can look again at major building work, but right now it should be purely bread-and-butter stuff
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 6th Jun 2020 at 22:07.
Southend needs to focus on packing-em-in, increasing retail spend within the terminal (yes, that includes includes creating more airside shop units) and coercing airlines to pay more in airport fees per pax. If anyone complains about Covid, SEN should be telling pax to wear gloves+masks. Maybe in 18 or 24 months, airport management can look again at major building work, but right now it should be purely bread-and-butter stuff
In the Report section entitled "Our vision for London Southend Airport post COVID-19" they say that they "intend to balance commercial revenues with a spacious, convenient, safe and secure environment" and that "lower costs will be imperative (to our airline partners) during the restart post COVID-19" and "we aim to offer airlines the most capital efficient operation".
It looks to me that they see an opportunity in offering greater reassurance to passengers travelling through SEN in preference to more crowded alternatives. If the existing Departures hall is extended into the current Arrivals area that will certainly make social distancing much easier. Quite how all this will generate sufficient revenues to be worthwhile seems unclear, but "best and safest customer experience" may be the type of theme they'll be promoting.
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Having researched further it seems the lease between the council and the operator was extended to 2144 which certainly changes the investment picture for potential buyers of / investors in the airport.
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That certainly doesn't seem to be SEN's plan - quite the reverse in fact.
In the Report section entitled "Our vision for London Southend Airport post COVID-19" they say that they "intend to balance commercial revenues with a spacious, convenient, safe and secure environment" and that "lower costs will be imperative (to our airline partners) during the restart post COVID-19" and "we aim to offer airlines the most capital efficient operation".
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In the Report section entitled "Our vision for London Southend Airport post COVID-19" they say that they "intend to balance commercial revenues with a spacious, convenient, safe and secure environment" and that "lower costs will be imperative (to our airline partners) during the restart post COVID-19" and "we aim to offer airlines the most capital efficient operation".
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“Lower costs to our airline partners will be imperative” means either reducing staff so making them do more, reducing wages or taking a reduction in fees so making the ability to make a profit even harder. Any new reduced cost infrastructure will be built to the same standard as a portocabin.
Airports have learned to maximise profits they need to crowbar passengers through the front doors for ever cheaper costs. SEN seems to think a half empty terminal is the key to success.
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There’s an interesting clip on channel 5 news (can be accessed via the airport’s media) showing some of work that has gone into reopening for commercial aviation. It seems you will no longer be required to remove items from hand baggage - including permitted liquids - when passing through security.
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There’s an interesting clip on channel 5 news (can be accessed via the airport’s media) showing some of work that has gone into reopening for commercial aviation. It seems you will no longer be required to remove items from hand baggage - including permitted liquids - when passing through security.
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Someone posted a while back the schedule was being expanded with Leipzig and somewhere else - Rome? What happened to that - I’ve seen on Flightradar a few times an ASL flight into STN from Leipzig?
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Indeed FCO has just started on Monday whilst BCN has been running a few weeks. Looks as though they’ve adjusted the schedule somewhat to depart earlier around 11pm.
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So farewell to the Caen, Groningen and Rennes routes. I doubt that they will ever return, although the Rennes service seemed a notable success. Hard times for those being made redundant. I wish them good luck in finding other employment.
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