Many B727s have been maintained/overhauled in that hangar over the years.

Oil Spill Response B727s
 

Is that the old ATC Lasham hangar?

I hope the runway is long enough for a 727.

Bit of a one way trip if it isn't! Stupid comment.

As expected, Alicante is now on sale at 2x weekly over winter on Thursdays and Sundays using an AMS based aircraft.

Bet the AMS crew can't wait to see their rotas!

A positive move. Especially because EZY will have a ALC seasonal base in S 24. Hopefully this will mean 5/6 weekly then.

Southend needs its own aircraft base if it is to be a success. There is no sign of that happening anytime soon. The proposed winter program just means more financial pain, as the terminal needs to be opened, staffed and heated just to serve the odd random flight.

Of course SEN needs an Easyjet base in order to succeed but I didn't realise you had access to their future plans. One thing that's for sure is if they didn't have the terminal operational this winter they would be even further from returning to financial viability.

Even in the ‘good old days’ there was sometimes only one EZY flight and a handful of props during the winter. One time I was one of about 20 on the only arrival, about three hours after the last movement. Another time just two early morning Stobart departures with nothing more for a good few hours.

I think this is wish list only, according to the EZY press release, the 3 based summer only units is only a 16% increase in seats so plenty of capacity already. EZY specificly mention 11 strategic routes of AMS, EDI, GVA & BSL etc. SEN I'm afraid has no must do in EZY eyes.

Perhaps you could clarify when in 'the good old days' that was exactly.

Well, almost right. Grenoble has now been added and is on sale 1x weekly using a CDG based aircraft. The downside is CDG is adjusted inbound to 7am on Sundays, making it quite useless for weekend breaks.

So just 7 flights bookable?

I take it no one knows. Amsterdam up to 4 times a week. Paris up to 4 times a week, Glenoble once a week? Southend must have deep pockets, don’t they know Covid is over and flights are booming around the rest of London’s airports. I am so surprised they have not recovered when it is such a good airport.

Unless some miracle happens and someone opens a base with multiple daily flights, I just don’t get how they’re going to pay the bills, let alone employ people?

Even Doncaster had a based airline and multiple daily departures/arrivals and look at where they are now. It just doesn’t make sense to me? And it is a shame as it is actually a nice airport to fly from. I just don’t see how the numbers add up going forward?

The airport has been up for sale now for 6 months with no takers. Blackpool is a good example of how biting the bullet and doing the unthinkable by kicking out Jet 2 and then knocking down its modern terminal saved the airport by substantially reducing costs.

To be fair there wasn't much to knock down (and unless you're counting the marquee, not much of it was modern). There was nothing like the investment that's been made at SEN

Really? I didn't know you were on Esken's Board and have access to that information.

Seriously though, at the recent AGM the Board reported on progress with the sale process. Basically still at an early stage but the recent 'momentum' of additional route announcements and other activity increases at SEN has resulted in an encouraging initial level of interest from a range of parties. There's an element of spin there of course but it does make sense to have waited until now to start a serious sales effort.

It does seem that EZY are genuinely interested in growing their presence at SEN as Esken pledged in 2021 that all airline deals would now need to be made on a fully commercial basis so I don't think they are 'buying' business.

Pain in the Rs misses off Alicante and Geneva which is an additional 5 weekly flights. 0 in winter season 22/23 to 10-14 weekly in 23/24 is the fastest growth in London and probably the UK!

It is quite baffling though how it’s always regulars from the Luton thread who seem to like trolling this one.