You have got to feel for Esken shareholders! From £1.62, to less than 8p per share.

I wonder how many houses you could build? Nice station for the new residents to commute from too. Terminal would make for a community facility. With private equity and venture capital in control, anything is possible, unless there is some covenant keeping an airport open?

Southend City Council own the land and London Southend Airport Ltd hold a very long Lease. The terms of the Lease oblige the Leaseholder to operate the site as an airport.

I do wonder what state Esken may have been in today had they not chosen to oust Andrew Tinkler as their CEO - he was instrumental in leading Stobart’s transformation into a FTSE 250 listed business with a turnover of £1.6bn and 10,000 employees.

Interestingly, at an event in Carlisle last year, he said ‘I don’t think Stobart Group will last much longer’, and just under 12 months later, they're in the position they find themselves in today...?!

You say anything is possible but it would not be easy. They could of course allow the airport to fall into a state of disrepair and wind all operations down. The council, who actually have a huge area earmarked for housing to the east of the airport, and under no real pressure to find another area soon, might eventually succumb to pressure from Carlyle rather than end up with a derelict site, but just how many years or decades would that take?

Alternatively they could use their financial strength and management expertise to make a real success of the airport and take their rewards at a time of their choosing. Seems a better option to me.

That would probably save them money.

More of the same then?

I doubt anybody there knows anything

What was the last airport turned into housing - Croydon?

Filton, Hatfield, unless you mean commercial airports.
Plenty of old RAF examples as well.

Yes, airports, not airfields.

Buster I'm afraid your Maths are way out. The Shares were available to buy this morning at around 20 for 1 Pence or 50000 for £25. At one stage the Shares touched just under £3 but there were less Shares in issue then.

I think the LTN boys on here are whistling in the wind.

I don't see Carlyle wanting to do anything other than use their funding to attract new carriers and to encourage EZY to re-open their SEN base as quickly as possible, although I'm a bit concerned regarding the shortage of airframes that the locos are suffering currently. If Carlyle can rebuild passenger numbers and revenue in this way they probably have an exit strategy in a few years. They may also have ideas on how to attract ancillary activities at SEN, to add value to the site, that have withered on the vine over the last decade or so.

Except Carlyle don’t run or operate any airports, they are money lenders to companies that do run and operate airports, as part of their investment portfolio. I expect them to offload Southend, as the airport will be valued at a price higher than the loans.

As I said "they probably have an exit strategy in a few years" but I'm sure before they do that they'll want to increase its potential sale value to considerably above what it is at present.

Will Esken run the airport on their behalf or will they be kicked out? If they are kicked out I suspect Carlyle will bring in another company for the day to day running.

Indeed. Carlyle may already have a buyer lined up for all we know but if that is the case it changes little. Anyone investing will need to believe they can make a success of Southend as an airport. Esken, for all their good intentions had simply run out of runway - so to speak.

I see no reason for anything other than cautious optimism right now, the future is bright and possibly orange.

Esken is now a defunct company with no assets. They will be wound up.

Well, I'm in regular contact with a couple of the tenants up at CAX, they've said that the level of communication between Esken and them has been very little to nothing at all - they haven't even been told who the prospective buyer is(was) that was reported on publicly a few weeks back - yet members of the Council, the LEP & the local MP have all apparently been briefed - surely Esken must have a duty to keep their tenants properly informed of what's going on, no...?!

True, the increase in flights by easyJet is certainly positive/welcomed news, and as Expressflight says above, I'm sure CGI's first priority will be to encourage them to re-open their SEN base as soon as possible.

That said, we all know that an airport cannot survive solely with just one carrier, so it will be interesting to see how/what they do differently to Esken to attract any new carrier(s).

As far as the commercial and operational aspects of running SEN are concerned the existing management team employed by London Southend Airport Ltd. will continue to "run the airport". As majority shareholder of LSA Carlyle will supply funding and instruct the management which paths to follow to make best use of that funding in order to achieve Carlyle's vision for SEN.

Do they? These are the people who told the tenants the runway would be closed for re-surfacing from Monday on the Friday afternoon....

Exactly, what pipeline of contacts do they have within the Industry? I suspect this will be a totally new ballgame for them with the LCCs having the upper hand to demand zero cost or incentives which does little on ROI for investors.

Fair enough. You have convinced me. I am going to write to all concerned and tell them they are all a.holes who do not have a clue what they are doing and advise them to send the wrecking ball crew in.