The drop off zone is the 150-space short stay car park.

The north apron was enlarged this year to accommodate A320 sized aircraft, together with new apron lighting, so pax could be bussed to those stands if required.

Probably maintaining their title of UK's favourite airport might be difficult but an acceptable trade-off for the increase in passenger numbers/revenue generated.

The label of UK's favourite essentially means too much capital has been invested and shareholders are not seeing a decent return on investment

Actually Southend is now the UK's second favourite airport as I believe Docaster took the title. Best not to mention bottom place please.:O

I do find that a lot more airports lack good drop off points. Even here in Luxembourg, one must enter a short-term car to do this. First 15 minutes free, then payment. Southend could offer further bait by offering 30 minutes free. Regarding the peak hour rushes, surely airport management and any new routes could be encouraged to depart between 0730 and 0800 to avoid the first rush of the day between 0630 and 0715.

Drop offs are easy with the free ten mins in short stay.
Pick ups are always the problem as people usually arrive about an hour too soon ..
Ok if your getting to an airport from an hours plus drive away you don't want to be late.
But Southend has plenty of places to lurk if your early, that are less than five mins away and won't attract the disapproving eye of some business park 'parking' warden ..
flight radar, and your eyes can do the rest

And I nearly got the thread closed for mentioning trains! Seems parking is safe, trains are not.

The tumble in the STOB share price is worthy of discussion here. Anyone know why Tinkler tried to offload a third of his shareholding a couple of hours prior to the closed period? I'm guessing the results soon to be announced are disastrous.

Equally disastrous was Tinkler's inept "stealth" exit. He didn't sell all that he hoped to sell and his paper wealth took a gigantic hit of circa £8m-£10m. I'm betting that's the last time he tries a stealthy sale.

Why not just wait and see ?

Well no actually...adsf1234 is credible & the post is worthy & valid for "discussion" as it concerns issues around the re-development/ownership & management of SEN...If no one cares to "discuss" (a very common feature on this thread) or has any more knowledge at least the info is out there & in that respect a valid post IMHO.

The Stobart October statement is due next Thursday. I would have thought sensible posters would choose to wait just six days before going into print.

I have no doubt a discussion may or will take place in the light of the contents. I suggest that will be the appropriate time to hold such a debate. At least then it can be based on some actual information rather than just the whims and prejudices of individual posters.

No need to worry about it. There's plenty of 'jam tomorrow'.
http://www.cityam.com/273818/theres-...em-uk-and-isnt

Tagron...
Sensible the theory...but context to be added/taken into account too particularly here, which in my opinion of a fair few SEN posters includes @ the least v defensive statements to close down views differing from theirs.
On your basis much of todays & yesterdays general press & news output is not valid & should not be available..
All posters views are valid & put out there for "discussion" even if you contended they are whims & prejudices. Just because you disagree or choose not to confront those issues does not necessarily make them so.
The original poster has put forward credible info & asked you to discuss..I would suggest again you are possibly defensive & borderline censorial IMHO.

Glyn Jones says he needs Government help, more like the UK taxpayer.

Yes, but if I have read the same article as compton then Jones is not pleading for help for SEN specifically, but for a change of thinking within government to encourage a more benevolent environment for smaller and regional airports. This in turn would promote runway and airspace capacity that is currently under utilised.

Surely when one sees the congestion and third world conditions available to pax at LHR, LGW and LTN and even STN with little sign of an improvement, perhaps it is time for a radical re-think. But don't hold your breath.

And dropping the tax for an airport like Southend may help to attract new operators, because you can bet your bottom dollar that the £13 will be going into their coffers, not remaining in the punters' pockets.

Someone is having a laugh

If Southend got to 10 million passengers then it would join the ranks of the other London's Airports. The secret is to say enough is enough and that will never happen.

Southend is the UK's second favourite airport not by good design but because of low passenger numbers. This makes for a depressing time for Stobart who wants to run a third world airport.

Most folk here who praise Southend's popularity also want the airport to become third world.

Sometimes less = more. Not many people here are prepared to accept that as a good option.

LTNman you are absolutely right, that is why mass tourism destroys the very thing people want to see.

It's all about making him money, passenger experience matters not one jot.
Ten million at Southend be crazy IMHO.
Subsidy, you mean a taxpayers subsidy. That's what this always means. Now LHR and LGW are subsidised to some extent in terms of transport infrastructure but they are intrinsic parts of UK plc.

LTNman I don't believe there is a single regular contributor to this thread who believes 10 million is either possible or desirable. All most of us want is a sustainable future for the airport.

Oh! I nearly forgot, Glyn Jones doesn't believe 10 million is possible either. Only when Warwick Brady came along did that figure become the 'target'. Glyn will sell anything he's required to with such gusto. What he thinks privately only he knows. But he's (pre Brady) been consistent and rational in his view that Southend could handle a maximum of 5 million pax p.a. long term.

I'm as sure as it's possible to be that SEN will never achieve 10 million. The absolute maximum in my opinion would be 5 million given its footprint and access and I doubt anything in excess of that figure could be achieved commercially under predictable circumstances.

I for one do not want to see it develop beyond around 3 million, certainly in the medium term. I very much accept that as a "good option" both as a supporter of the airport and as a traveller using it. As LTNman says sometimes less does indeed equal more.

I don't understand why this 10 million figure keeps getting mentioned by SEN management. Perhaps its simply to keep investors interested as I cannot see any logical reason for doing so.

But LTNman & others should not be castigated when they quote the figures & part statements back...
From memory the Airport Director was first to mention those figures some time ago & certainly in some fluffy article again today the Airport Director with the full backing obviously of the landlords is making sure that figure of 10m is now endlessly trotted out..
If all on here are agreed it is neither possible or desirable than the question should be asked what are they bolstering up?.
Their own divi`s & pensions are an immediate thought but it certainly could be called in normal parlance & description "flattering to deceive"..
Please note I stated normal parlance & not in business terms before I am accused again of stating deceptive practices are at work..
The thread unfortunately should expect comment from observers of the general scene & I haven`t even mentioned my observation of the article today which appears to portray the CEO as wanting a subsidy..my life...in the form of less or no taxes in the operations of an underperforming airport...Priceless.
Now how are hard working successful airports/enterprises & the hard working people employed there supposed to view that?.

I also believe that with the limited space on everything at SEN, 3 million would be a figure in order to continue winning praise from its passengers and keeping them as regular clientel. 5 million might work if there was a big increase in long-term parking facilities on-site, but the flight schedules would have to be spread out through out the hours of operation. At this time, and probably for 2018, there are big gaps between movements. But we all know that businesses can get greedy, too big, with poor customer service and end up nothing more than shepherds trying to herd the angry crowds in the fastest possible time to increase the profits.

sb

If you can point me to where LTNman has been "castigated" in recent exchanges I should be most interested. As far as I can read everyone has agreed with him, as have I.

Expressflight...Fair point but redemption if that is all you query.
tophat27dt...What wonderful descriptive powers you command "trying to herd the angry crowds"..Now you are a seasoned traveller would you care to place your good self within that wonderful picture too?.If not than I would suggest you delete the remark or apologise to that endearing travelling public..
BTW they/we are able to travel more because LCC`s based on high intensity ops make it more readily available to the "herds" to quote you with your educated parlance.

SS I thought your post #180 was hard hitting but assiduously fair. But fair you are most certainly not with your criticism of tophat27dt As someone who has on many occasions in the last few years benefited from the travel opportunities made possible by LCC's I require no apology from anyone who believes that affordable fares and a civilised airport experience are equally desirable.

DC3 Dave...My post was based on the premise that tophat27dt is a seasoned traveller,erudite & educated...his observations may or may not be correct but that evidently is his view,so no problem.
Where he lets himself down is the wording "trying to herd the angry crowds" it is descriptive nonsense & generally derogatory @ least in terms of the way many of us travel nowadays....do you see yourself included in that description?.When did you last witness an angry crowd?..
If you have as you say taken advantage of an LCC perhaps as a spin from it`s origin @ LTN then excellent,it actually works,rejoice..
The original poster should at the very least apologise to himself for the hyperbole & with the other part of the post it also portrays more muddle at least with a business view (analysis).
I`m now half waiting for the reply from somewhere asking if I have never encountered euphemism`s regarding the wording but we got the context & where it was aimed..

Succinctly & in summation to end,it does appear some here are turning SEN`s comparatively underused terminal space into an art form & semi religion.
Just the way it appears thru some of the spin evident at the present time.

If someone told me in 1999 when Luton's new terminal opened that they could squeeze 15.6 million passengers through it I would have said it was not physically possible. Well they have as it is called sweating the asset.

Remove seating, ignore queue lengths, add a multistory or two, and put stands that are a long bus ride away and you will be surprised at what can be achieved.

I have no idea what Southend's weakest link is that will ultimately set its true capacity but I doubt it will be the terminal. Maybe it will be the backtrack?

Welcome to Hell and Luton Airport's departure lounge. Remember sweating the asset and what a 10 million passenger Southend could look like.
https://i.imgur.com/bKDUdDz.jpg

Haha. That is a great pic.. looks like a wetherspoons on one pound a pint of Guinness night

If Southend gets that busy, which I doubt .. then er just don't go there.

The airfield is a strip squeezed into a residential area. Restricted a/c movement noise control is a massive constraint. I like the place but it just isn't gonna work as a bigger airfield.

Here's an interesting development in the aerospace industry world which could have an impact on SEN:

Bombardier to partner Airbus on C-Series jets - BBC News

This surely makes the C-series a more viable option for airlines, and it can operate from SEN's limited strip without any issues - also quieter than other types.

I see VLM are up and running again with Antwerp - LCY from the end of the month. Does anyone have any update on VLM Slovenia? In particular the MBX - SEN service that was apparently to commence ASAP after the appropriate AOC was obtained.

Remember EZY looked at the C-series but walked away, I wonder why. With them committed to the A321 & 320 perhaps the C-series might become more attractive under Airbus as a 319 replacement for smaller hubs to build new routes?

In my opinion, C-series will be a success from LCY. The SEN catchment I believe will be seriously limited by the impact of development at both LCY (high frequency business) and STN (low frequency LCC)

I do believe that SEN has a c1m market but it will not sustain anything above those levels for long.

The vision of the airport is in conflict with itself. The very reason why a select 'few' choose to fly from SEN from the London area is because it's quiet - therefore the very nature of SEN as an attractive airport must be for it to remain quiet!

Swiss are on the record as saying their CS is costing 25% less to operate than the RJ100’s they replaced. Fleetwide, that’s a lot of money and will filter down to bottom line profits on the routes they operate it on. Passengers love it too. They spent years shoe-horning their laptops into the glove box sized overhead bins and then noisily bumbling around the sky at 29,000 ft then landing to discover their colleagues who departing after them on BA waiting in arrivals. I’m sure more personal space, a bigger toilet with a proper flush rather than the old “pot and flap” help too!

The aircraft is a great fit for SEN in my view. Maybe Stobart should buy some?

Flybe Summer 2018 Schedule
 

Flybe's Summer flights up to 9th September 2018 will go on sale in two days time. It will be interesting to see what Stobart Air will be offering for that period assuming they are also released on that date.

Easy 2018
 

Will be interesting to see the Flybe summer 2018 timetable. Does anyone have any idea when easy will tell us the plans for this 4th A320 aircraft from July next year ?

A new route for Summer 2018 will be ANR operated 4 x weekly by Stobart Air. There will be 15 Stobart Air/Flybe routes in total from SEN next Summer according to a SEN post on their f/bk page. "Up to 230 flights a week - a huge 80% increase from this year" it says. Details will presumably appear tomorrow when the Flybe timetable is released.

If that is true Expressflight and I do not doubt your information, I just find it silly with VLM operating the route of London City just down the road. I would suggest it is difficult enough to make a profit on the route with one operator but two is just stupid. Surely there are better options than that.

There are 14 routes already on sale for next summer. Unless they are doing significant increase in the amount of flights to these destinations, it will be interesting to see what changes there will be