So in addition to Heathrow and Gatwick we now have London Luton, London Stansed, London Southend and, with a stretch of imagination, London Oxford. I suppose the next iteration of this utter mis-naming nonsense will be Ryanair starting up operations from London Norwich?

Jet 2 and EasyJet have been using London Newquay for training!

Load more pictures on Southend gallery:

easyJet Announcement Photos | Facebook

thumbs up for SEN
 

:ok:

Personally I think this is great news as I've always loved the place but then I'm biased as I learnt to fly there.

Way to go SEN - it'll bring more jobs to the area too which can only be good.:D

For the detractors remember there's still LOADS of lovely green areas left in Essex - head out to the countryside and enjoy ;)

You forgot London Manston...

And let's not forget the S/E corner with "London-Ashford-Lydd" Airport

London Ashford Airport - Offering Airlines, Passengers, Visitors the right services and location.

It is surely not part of any commercial development plan to base future traffic potential on a SINGLE two-week event, which is what the Olympics are

Likewise the train time to London. Southend supporters have made all sorts of equality comparisons with Stansted on this, but by the novel (to them) approach of actually looking at the train timetable, I get the following daytime figures. Stansted most are 46 minutes, Southend most are 53 minutes.

The first train out of London Liverpool Street is at 0528, arriving Southend airport station at 0632 (so that's 64 minutes). GIven check-in times of 40 minutes minimum, and allowing time from the station to the desk, you can't use that for any departure before at least 0735. Easy at most bases have dispatched their "first wave" of based departures by that time, so the train will not be a practical option for any of the early flights. The same applies in reverse for typical arrival times back of the last flights of the day.

SEN Trains - have no fear, Stobart are going to convert some of their trucks into cattle class and run a high speed truck transfer services to move the masses...;)

This new base is just more dilution of the now saturated need for repeats of the same old destinations but from yet another different UK airport. This can only benefit the public (with lower fares), whilst hurting the operator (with diluted yield).

Crazy!

easy at Southend
 

I would hazard a guess that the 70 weekly flights scheduled to operate from Southend next April will be approximately the 70 weekly flights taken away from Stansted because it looks to me as though they are not going to be any new destinations just a rotation or two taken from the Stansted schedule. Plus of course it looks like the daily Munich flight from Stansted is going to operate from Luton from this winter - hinted at in the press release regarding the new Salzburg service.
Interesting discussion regarding the connecting train services and times. Although Luton does not have a station on site (short bus ride) - you can get to the airport 24 hours per day by train - that is if you wish to do so!

Stn-Muc i believe is twice daily so may not be a complete transfer to Ltn if in fact it is true.

Staff transfers from STN to SEN
 

It will be interesting to hear if many of the flight deck and cabin staff will transfer to working at SEN airport instead of staying at STN.

I guess it just depends on the distance they live from both airports i suppose.

Will Easy Jet rebrand themselves as Essex Jet ? :p

or use slogans like

Fly from SEN as we put the Easy into Essex Girls :p

Does that imply Easyjet are closing all their other bases and operating solely from Essex?

racedo, forget the ideas of a rebrand; they're unrealistic. However, a new slogan 'The Only Way is Essex' might go a long way.

Sorry, someone had to say it :O

How about EaSySEX?

Code 100

You Baaaaaaaaaaaaaad

sleasySex
 

enough of this childish nonsense. a'hem.

I'm very impressed that easyJet has seen the viability in SEN, it shows initiative and vision. Something missing from some other LCC's at the moment and something we haven't seen for a long while. This isn't a BHD base with a copy cat splattering of routes, hoping it will work. This is a measured risk and im sure it will pay off. The potential of SEN to capture a chunk of the London catchment is great and should put the fearof god into London City airport who pride themselves on ripping everyone off as there is no other option for east Londoners/Essex catchments.

That's really not the case. There are only a smattering of "sun" routes at LCY and they are not really in the same space as SEN are going for. I think you are comparing apples and pears by looking to LCY, they are really more going after the STN model.

According to an interview with Ms McCall, three aircraft will be moved from STN to SEN along with up to 150 crew.
So it looks as though Stansted will see a reduction in EasyJet operations from next spring, whether or not flights are also transferred from Luton.
She also mentioned that they have a good deal from SEN, and the cost per passenger is very low.

Not so. For East London, and indeed much of Essex, Stansted will continue to be quicker and easier to get to by road up the M11, yet the substantial growth there in recent years doesn't really seem to have impacted City that much.