indeed, a 50% increase in pax numbers would make LCY a very uncomfortable experience!

Which is why LCY already have permission, and work began before COVID to more than double the size of the terminal. Currently on hold, but can restart as soon as they choose.

Should SEN be worried about the news about DSA which has a better terminal, runway and infrastructure available but still cannot make money with an experienced operator?
Time to scale back and concentrate more on a market like Biggin Hill?

But doesn't have one of the largest aviation markets in the world on its doorstep?

The above post says it all. SEN has one of the worlds largest aviation markets on its doorsteps but it is struggling for crumbs and has no flights this winter.

SEN only works went the 'Full' signs are back up at LHR, LGW, STN & LTN which is not going to happen next year, can it last until 2024?

The "it" lasting is perhaps a little ambiguous. I suspect the current operator will be unable to sustain the losses and may even go bankrupt between now and 2024... just in time for another company with bigger pockets to buy the assets (eg the terminal) and make money.
It's been a similiar story with many infrastructure projects in history... the company that pays out for the civil engineering runs out of money just before the piece of infrastructure becomes reliably profitable

Well it’s somehow lasted until now and they don’t expect any progress until summer 2023. Big difference between SEN and DSA is the former has no plan B. There will be no non-aviation related development on the land they lease from the local authority. Even during the Covid outbreak peak the council jumped on them when they used one of the car parks for pallet storage.

So for me either Esken get the show back on the road or one way or another they will be gone. Another owner may have very different ideas but an airport it will remain IMO.

I nearly forgot. We do have one thing in common with DSA. We both have a Vulcan.

DSA quotes 5.3M catchment within 60 min drive whereas SEN has 2M. Geography rules unless they expect a 3 hour drive window!

What a load of cobblers. 2 million only. I’ve actually driven from Luton to Leigh-On-Sea in little over an hour.

Googled and it came back with Rochford Gov document which states:
– Potential Catchment Area • Southend has a significant population living within 30 and 60 minutes drive of the airport. • A developed Southend could potentially draw on a large local market to form the core of its traffic base. • Southend Airport’s immediate 30 minute drive time catchment (orange area on map) contains 0.4 million people, and includes Southend, Basildon, Rochford and Castlepoint. • The 60 minute drive time catchment (yellow area on map) contains 2 million people, and includes most of Essex, Thurrock, North East Kent and the London Boroughs of Bromley, Bexley, Havering, Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest.

Luton to Southend airport *should* take a minimum of 1h15 (i.e more than 60 mins), assuming no traffic. Unless your car has a lot of "go faster stripes"... :}

Now factor in income levels and propensity to travel. Markets aren't defined by drawing circles.

I did say Leigh-On-Sea. Add 15 minutes to the airport. Anyway forgetting my tantrum, the point is there’s a hell of a lot more than 2 million people within an hours drive of Southend Airport. The real problem is that right now there’s very little reason to make that journey.

Once again SEN is London’s fastest growing airport. Just waiting for the Echo to pick up the story.

https://i.imgur.com/grheNW2.jpg

As does Woodford...:E

And if I'm reading the May CAA stats correctly, the UK's 11th busiest airport for freight.

The original thinking was that Southend has a catchment of 600,000 people in the area. Given the horror story of queues of other airports an airport such as Southend should be attractive. While somebody like easyJet might well see it as attractive, the other current limitations such as staff etc may just put the lid on opportunities. The airport did have moderate success is the locality, and some routes did very well in 2019, like ALC, AGP, PMI, AMS and CFU. The 1st challenge will be getting an operator in to fill the localr demand and then look to attracting inbound tourism, obv a much harder sell. In the context of current LHR and LGW, they could be very attractive. Certainly in Ireland now, I'd rather fly from Knock, Belfast City or Shannon than Dublin.... If London thinks the same?
AMy likelihood Wizz would look at SEN in the context of closing DSA? If that has been discussed already, please forgive me.

Wizz would want to work any based planes hard, has SEN got multiple night slots for after midnight arrivals?

Most Wizz flights arrive and depart from Luton before midnight.