Southend-3
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In the 1970s Southend Airport was huge on holiday package flights to the Mediterranean sun belt. This slowly faded away with Gatwick and especially Stansted becoming bigger and better etc. However, there is a really strong catchment locally, something in the order of 600,000-700,000 people. easyJet seemed to do well until Ryanair came in. It has to be sustainable for all parties and type fact easyJet came back at all is testament to their belief in the airport.. I think things will work out though things will clearly be bumpy financially until a sustainably level of traffic can be attached.
In the 1970s Southend Airport was huge on holiday package flights to the Mediterranean sun belt. This slowly faded away with Gatwick and especially Stansted becoming bigger and better etc. However, there is a really strong catchment locally, something in the order of 600,000-700,000 people. easyJet seemed to do well until Ryanair came in. It has to be sustainable for all parties and type fact easyJet came back at all is testament to their belief in the airport.. I think things will work out though things will clearly be bumpy financially until a sustainably level of traffic can be attached.
In the 1960's onwards Channel Airways' own in-house holiday companies Mediterranean Holidays, and then Trident Holidays first flew holidaymakers to OST RTM BSL PGP RMI PMI AGP and GRO for the Costa's with Viscounts, then from 1967 added a BAC 1-11 and a year later added the Tridents, but the new Jets were soon delegated to fly from only Stansted, along with Comets they acquired in 1970 to fly big contracts for Lyons Tours and Wallace Arnold.
Channel were sadly not to see, nor would operate the 1972 summer season, which left a void at SEN for a while.
Thomson Skytours added SEN using BY's 737's in the 1970's to Majorca etc, and also local firm Tom Hill Holidays chartered Transeuropa Caravelles for PMI and AGP flying from both SEN and ZSD (as STN was known as back then).
Another local firm Burstin Travel (who eventually went on to form its own, but unsuccessful in-house airline, Princess Air) had a fairly big IT programme for Majorca Malta and Faro etc, which saw Orion, Air Malta, Air Atlantis/TAP, Hispania and other airlines operate into SEN to fly the IT charters for them.
Volotea for Thomsons was about the last one with 717 and A319's to/from Palma.
SEN boomed again when Easyjet came along and EZY ended up with a 7 aircraft based fleet there, but Ryanair entered the patch and as usual war began which ended up, along with Covid seeing SEN with zero flights almost overnight.
Last edited by rog747; 11th Jun 2023 at 08:23.
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Just to muddy the waters further, I thought there were 5 SEN-based EZY airframes at maximum? Expressflight will know.
Actually I think the maximum number was 4 with a fifth likely but Ryanair moved in and that was that.......
Actually I think the maximum number was 4 with a fifth likely but Ryanair moved in and that was that.......
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Yes there were four SEN based EZY aircraft plus three RYR for 2021. There was talk of expanding that number for 2022 but COVID put paid to all that and to everything else as it turned out. Had RYR not come onto the SEN scene I think EZY would probably have toughed it out. I didn't think enticing RYR to SEN was a very bright idea at the time.
Yes there were four SEN based EZY aircraft plus three RYR for 2021. There was talk of expanding that number for 2022 but COVID put paid to all that and to everything else as it turned out. Had RYR not come onto the SEN scene I think EZY would probably have toughed it out. I didn't think enticing RYR to SEN was a very bright idea at the time.
Good to see EZY is back to SEN (albeit not a base) and the uptake I gather, is very high...
Faro from SEN has always been popular going back with TAP and Air Atlantis 727-82's, then 737-200's (when it used to tech stop at Manston on its way to Faro)
Last edited by rog747; 11th Jun 2023 at 08:28.
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Yes there were four SEN based EZY aircraft plus three RYR for 2021. There was talk of expanding that number for 2022 but COVID put paid to all that and to everything else as it turned out. Had RYR not come onto the SEN scene I think EZY would probably have toughed it out. I didn't think enticing RYR to SEN was a very bright idea at the time.
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Yes there were four SEN based EZY aircraft plus three RYR for 2021. There was talk of expanding that number for 2022 but COVID put paid to all that and to everything else as it turned out. Had RYR not come onto the SEN scene I think EZY would probably have toughed it out. I didn't think enticing RYR to SEN was a very bright idea at the time.
I think we all had a good idea of this already but now formally made public... airport up for sale and material risk as a going concern.
https://www.standard.co.uk/business/...-b1089153.html
https://www.standard.co.uk/business/...-b1089153.html
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Pre-tax losses narrowed slightly, from £35.7 million to £27.7 million.
As for the loses sitting at £27.7m, that’s small change. The owners of Luton Airport just announced loses of £232m. Well the auditors did, the owners are keeping quiet.
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A handful of flights by non based easyJet units won’t cover the bills. Most of us know that.
Doncaster couldn’t survive with multiple daily flights and based units. It was inevitable that the losses at SEN wouldn’t be sustained. Let’s hope that it doesn’t close down. Sadly I can see this happening. Who wants to buy an airport that doesn’t seem to attract the level of business that it needs to be profitable?
Time will tell and I do feel that the clock is ticking.
Doncaster couldn’t survive with multiple daily flights and based units. It was inevitable that the losses at SEN wouldn’t be sustained. Let’s hope that it doesn’t close down. Sadly I can see this happening. Who wants to buy an airport that doesn’t seem to attract the level of business that it needs to be profitable?
Time will tell and I do feel that the clock is ticking.
As I understand it, the "material risk" relates to uncertainty over the disposal of the Biomass Division. Once sold, Esken's cash position is much healthier, but there is no certainty over the timing....