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Indeed, there's also Emma Thompson who flew 5,400 miles to address climate change protesters (but that's ok because she plants trees to offset her carbon footprint).

Southend airport does have a scheme to purchase properties affected by excess aircraft noise. Previously, they identified 5 properties that may be affected. But in their latest noise report they state that none are (I believe because the airport has coughed up for triple glazing etc.) I don't mind if Stobart dig their heels in over this, but they need to be aware - as I believe SS is saying - future governments support of air travel may start to wobble if these protest groups have any influence on mainstream thinking and voting intentions.

Lol...Good point out re Ms Thompson but that point does not detract from the access provided to the little Swedish girl with HER audience.

Anyways...Pretty incredulous SEN has zero properties earmarked for purchase.

Regarding a "wobble" from Government & with no one even politically savy able to call where the cards could fall in Local/European or a UK General Election then a wobble with a capital W may well be the end result.

When the Lib Dems entered coalition previously one demand & accepted was that all airport expansion were to be taken off the table.

Before that General Election many airports had ambitious expansion plans even with added runways.

A day at the polling booths changed pretty much an industry outlook.

Been having a look at fares on Ryanair to/from Southend. Routes to Brest and Kosice amongst others seem rather low - either the same price as APD or cheaper. I know 10 years ago Ryanair used to offer fares for 1 pound to stimulate demand on a regular basis but this tends to be much less common in 2019. I'm wondering if Ryanair are finding demand on some routes out of Southend is significantly lower than initial expectations... along with the implications for these routes after October 2019

For what it's worth, and only anecdotal evidence from my personal observations - I've flown 3 times on the new FR services from SEN, generally around 90% of cabin was full.

Hardly any empty seats really.

Now now SARF is just being plain greedy SEN had all the all unwanted attention from the Nation`s media last week!

It appears JC is influenced more by the little Swedish girl though than brave words on here as after meeting her last week Labour are now calling for a Climate Emergency to be declared.

Stobart aim to hit 2.5m pax total this year.
Target 5m in 2023.
Record 8000 pax on one day this year.

What date was that 8k hit? Wasn't Good Friday by any chance?

I cant see how they are going to hit 5m by 2023 unless a terminal 2 is built somewhere else on the airfield, the present terminal is not coping very well at the moment at peak times and there are only 10 aircraft stands, there are a few more northside but these would require a bus transfer. There was supposed to be small extensions to both ends of the terminal to make a bigger arrivals area including baggage reclaim and passport control/customs, also more departure gates. A lot of people thought that these would all be in place by the time Ryanair started ops but alas no sign of any work on the extension so far as i know.

Like your thinking... a new Terminal North, and the existing as Terminal South :ok:

There is actually plenty of spare capacity at SEN at present. Scheduled commercial movements at the 2019 summer peak are likely to be no more than 70-75 per day spread over the 17 hour scheduling period. They need to fill in some of the big activity gaps such as the 0800-1000 block. which probably.will have to be achieved with non-based aircraft. This could prove more difficult than attracting additional based units. The new Loganair routes are a step in the right direction though the volume may be small.

The airport already has planning permission for the terminal extension. As noted above surprise has been expressed that it was not completed in time for the arrival of Ryanair. There is space for six or so extra stands on the north apron. There always used to be stands on the north apron before the reconstruction work of two years ago so I would have thought that stands could be implemented as a permitted development, i.e. without the need for planning consent. Or they could "borrow" a couple of stands from the Stobart Jet Centre. They would need to accept a coaching operation but having done that there is scope for expanding the based fleet without undue difficulty. Provided of course they can manage the terminal issues with the early morning wave of departures rather better than they achieved on Good Friday.

In short the building blocks are already in place for a potentially significant increase in passenger numbers without the need to run the gauntlet of the planning system

More social media reports of terrible early morning queues and missed flights this morning due to the security fiasco at SEN. Stobart have really dropped the ball on this - Edit - Fiasco might be too harsh a word - but it is now taking 45 mins to get through security which I think is catching a lot of passengers out after having a number of years of relatively quick and easy flow.

Any more detail available on these reports? All aircraft so far this morning pushed back early, which would suggest that cases were not having to be found and removed. That would only leave those with carry on bags, and just how much time did they give themselves to get through security?

But, there's no denying there's an issue here. Glyn Jones has always insisted the airport had every intention of maintaing the breeze (6 minutes maximum) through security. Right now that sounds like a promise from Pinocchio.