True, but I think the business model shouldn't be so sharply focused on terminal pax as previously under Esken ownership
Think back to autumn 2019. That LON under-capacity wasn't seen as at all likely to disappear any time soon and SEN was doing quite nicely out of it; it took a once-every-hundred years event to derail everything. That sort of "moments notice" is extremely rare.

How much MRO is there at SEN now?

EZY will make money out of SEN or they wouldn't have come back and they ae introducing new routes- OK it's not a base but who cares. There must be a Bizjet (some terminal some parking ) to tap into. Some money from commercial training - they have KLM - Cambridge will close leaving only Cranfield for this activity. I presume they have a freight shed- another asset.

Sitting here I think SEN has done very well to get EZY back and as traffic recovers it has every hope of returning to 2 million PPA together with diverse activity in time.

You guys are all a bit glum if you ask me.

SEN may hypothetically have demonstrated that "in the right circumstances" it could get passengers through the doors. But I think there was real doubt that it ever made a penny under Stobart / Esken, even pre-pandemic.

In 2021 Stansted won its appeal to expand to 43 million. Luton is awaiting a public enquiry decision to add another million with a DCO submitted for 32m. So where is the pending over capacity that allowed Southend to thrive in 2019? I would like to see Southend thrive again but maybe it can only thrive without a terminal?

I see Southend handled a BA diversion today so has the terminal reopened?

Sad to say it came in empty from BERLIN

Handled by the Jet Centre presumably.

KEY AERO, have reported that BINTA CANARIA are looking to expand into LCY, If SEN managment have got a brain cell between them they should try and get them into our airport

Why should Binter choose Southend instead of other London airports, unless SEN management offer some ultra-cheap fees deal ? If an E195-E2 can fly non-stop from LCY to the Canaries without the risk of diverting for fuel, this sounds like a route with strong commercial potential for Binter

Super smart move by Binter, can't see why they would consider SEN over LCY, much better yield.
Next someone will suggest Swiss or ITA should move to SEN!

This is the first BA movement in a long time, even if empty. Does this represent a warming of relations or just a necessity?

There was no cooling of relationships as far as I know. It is simply that the terminal is closed in winter so passenger diversions cannot be accepted. Numerous times BACF have asked if SEN could accept them as did KLM just last week. On the subject of Binter I agree that LCY is likely to be more attractive to them but SEN should surely try to start a conversation with them.

I don’t want to come across rude, But it’s going to take a lot more than a few Binter flights to save SEN.
Binter wouldn’t risk launching SEN, we don’t even know if it’s going to be a shopping complex, industrial estate or remain as a fully functioning airport in the future.

It took 10 years for Stobart to grow the airport from zero to 2 million pax p.a. From where SEN is now and being able to demonstrate a fair number of successful routes I don’t think it will take anything like that timescale to get back to 2019 levels and beyond. Does depend one one key factor though. Demand must challenge capacity in the south-east. Airlines must want growth and feel restricted elsewhere to come.

Way too premature to write the airport off.

Yes, I suspect the only Binter movements SEN will see will be diversions. But no harm in trying, of course.

No harm in having a phone conversation... but Binter flying London-Canaries with an E195-E2 would seem to be very focussed towards LCY.

SEN business development need to focus on potential customers where they have some sort of advantage or can provide something their competitors can't, instead of hoping to gain business while being an airline's 5th ranked choice. Pick the fights they can win.

It's often quite difficult to identify exactly which airlines you should target. Back in the day I'd often be surprised that the obvious choices showed no interest while a left-field operator was keen to talk. At this stage I would be talking to as many operators as possible who operate equipment suitable for SEN operations without trying to second guess the likelihood of success.

I might be wrong but the airports website looks like it has had a makeover

https://southendairport.com

£7 for FastTrack, that’s a bit cheeky.
is there really a call for it.

Dunno about SEN but in quiet times some airports are known to close lanes or just make you wait at the body scanner to generate a queue, so that fast track customers perceive they are skipping something. Same thing happens where there’s fast track passport control