these flights are using Malaga/PMI/Faro based aircraft so would suggest not!

I am aware of that. My question stands. If say LGW has the opportunity to cancel one of its PMI flights and use that aircraft to fill another hole, then if the timing works use the aircraft destined for SEN to replace the aircraft they “pinched”

All I’m saying if they start robbing Peter to pay Paul will SEN be the first to lose out?

Hope not

Positive thoughts are needed. If flights disappeared from Southend it would be due to a lack of demand and not staff shortages due Covid. As it becomes endemic in the population in the coming weeks the staff will return in ever higher numbers.

Why covid? Staff shortages are endemic throughout the industry as it gears up again due to late recruitment, training etc etc not just illness

Spot on, the lack of recruitment and training is the primary factor. Covid is just a convenient excuse. The industry, particularly in the U.K leaves recruitment to the very last minute in order to not have staff on the books with little income from the winter schedule. This is nothing new and happens most years.

Those are good points regarding being more than Covid although that is what easyjet is blaming it on and nothing else.

This from 2020 regarding Easyjet reducing its workforce by 30%

https://www.theguardian.com/business...ovid-19-crisis

If we’re honest with ourselves the B word is a huge driver of woes, no matter what the media and Government says. I’m not for one minute saying it’s the only cause of staff shortages and cancellations but something that’s caused hundreds of thousands to leave and an inability to freely bring people in is only going to compound other problems.

On that basis the utilisation of overseas bases for the SEN flights is a blessing as they aren’t seeing the same level of disruption. Operationally it would be tricky to just send a plane to Gatwick instead given the aircraft will have other non-UK commitments and you could be talking a lot of 261 payouts on both routes. In my opinion a more likely scenario is SEN being a beneficiary of pax being redirected FROM Gatwick or Luton.

There is also the benefit now more than ever of small, quiet airports being attractive. Covid impacts *may* be waning or temporary but the shortages at major airports are probably there to stay for quite some time.

How are SEN staffing the handful of flights a week?

Yes we can see that airlines, airports and companies in general are having to increase wages due to a lack of cheap foreign labour but that is a topic for jet blast and not here.

A better question would be how much is it costing SEN to staff just a handful of flights and what are they doing for the rest of the time?

Well they have been busy recruiting. Not that many applicants IMO, a couple of hundred inquiries according to posts on Twitter, for a list of various positions. The jobs I saw listed didn’t go into trivial details such as temporary or permanent, full or part time.

Biggest problem I guess is their best employees of 2019 would be the ones with enough about them to have moved on and get a reasonable position elsewhere.

You forgot to mention the old favourite of zero hour contracts.

SEN needs economies of scale, which doesn’t happen with an occasional flight. It will be interesting to see what the employment prospects are for staff if there is no winter schedule.

Just like magic.

https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/200...ffer-salaries/

Quote of the week

I am just wondering if the Southend fans here can take their rose tinted glasses off for a minute and give their honest views of where Southend is going and whether it has a long term future from a business prospective.

It seems that every UK airport is well on its way to recovery except Southend, which will get the odd random flight starting next month. Eleven years on from the opening of its new terminal and the airport is handling less passengers now than it did then with even Wick in Scotland now handling more passengers than Southend, yet serves a population of just 50,000 in Caithness.

Has the dream ended and should the airport follow Blackpool airport’s lead and just abandon any thoughts that there is money to be made from a passenger operation?

pre-covid - Dream was on until Ryan air was allowed in. Post covid - possibly let’s wait and see what happens this year.

Not a lot unfortunately!

In 2012 I did some work for SEN at the French Connect conference in Paris. The French airport I was actually representing there generously allowed me a day to make airline presentations for SEN. A new brochure featuring the newly completed runway extension was snapped up very quickly by delegates there. However, during one-on-one presentations to different airlines there was interest but little enthusiasm to follow up with serious negotiations to start operating from SEN. At the time there were no serious slot problems at most other LON airports and it wasn't until that situation changed that SEN enjoyed a period of rapid growth.

It's probably true to say that LON airport capacity constraints would be needed for that process to be repeated and that SEN will still be viewed largely as an overspill option and therefore vulnerable to falls in LON passenger numbers for whatever reason. The big question is when, if ever, capacity constraints will again give airlines cause to look at SEN. Another problem seems to be that under the current ownership SEN will not be in a financial position to offer the very generous 'incentives' that were a feature of their policy over the past few years pre-Covid. There can be no doubt that these were very effective in encouraging airlines to start new routes, with SEN hoping that these would prove themselves commercially attractive going forward. And now there is no Stobart Air to get that ball rolling.

Perhaps SEN are already starting to look at a more balanced mix of traffic and revenue sources than previously, when they appeared to be single minded in focusing on the ancillary income that the LoCo airlines could bring them. Operations that didn't fit that model were not encouraged it would seem so the loss of EZY and FR was disastrous for SEN's revenues. Whether enticing FR to SEN was the catalyst for the departure of EZY I don't know but at the time I was rather concerned that it would at least dampen EZY's enthusiasm to grow its SEN operation.

I am not optimistic for the future as things stand but maybe if there really is pent-up passenger demand and 2023 sees major growth in LON passenger numbers then perhaps conditions will be right for a resurgence in SEN's fortunes. That's a big 'if' at the moment though with UK public economic confidence being low, plus conflict in Europe and all the uncertainties that brings with it, it's a big ask for passenger traffic to grow up to, and even beyond, its pre-Covid levels.

As always Expressflight says how it is so I don’t think anyone can disagree. One of the problems for Southend is that Stansted has permission for major growth but many passengers prefer the calm of Southend. The calm of Southend though means big losses, as there are no economies of scale a busier terminal would bring for its passenger business.

it would be interesting to know the staff to passenger ratio for May compared to other airports around London who will see millions of passengers. Southend must have the highest staff costs per passenger of any London Airport, which isn’t going to help the bottom line.

There's also a small role for SEN as South East Essex regional airport, offering hassle free sun flights for the discerning, but otherwise I agree. Got to wonder what Esken's plans are for the future. Even pe-Covid were they making money?

Who would operate beach flights from Southend at a price point suitable for the market, apart from LCCs ?

The last thing SEN needs is that the airport becomes a summer season only airport. Even the existing planned summer flights would not sustain it through the winter months but at the moment there is nothing announced. No flights though will reduce loses if the staff become seasonal.

Surprised Amsterdam hasn’t returned plus a few other city destinations but maybe SEN is suffering from consolidation of services to the more established airports to boost those airport figures.