As long as SAS and other partners need slots filled at Heathrow every route possible run by their affiliates will go that way, unfortunately. So yes when the time comes I expect Kristiansand will go too, if it operates this year at all.

However I think you are looking at the route slightly incorrectly. KRS was the only Wideroe route to London, which as we know was to have transferred to SEN from STN and operated daily. Traffic will be overwhelmingly inbound so the London terminus doesn’t matter that much. BGO only came about quite late in the day last year as a result of Norwegain’s woes. Wideroe had slots at LGW and LCY so the 2x weekly SEN route was something of a bonus probably for the UK leisure market.

So, BGO as a route is only the “big money” in the sense it’s somewhere people in the UK have heard of. I would suggest their longevity connecting BGO to London will come down to how long it is before it’s re-served by a larger airline on bigger aircraft. The core route for Wideroe was KRS, they are predominantly a regional airline and have very few routes outside of Norway. However when the world recovers enough for LHR slots to be relinquished is anyone’s guess and a problem for all other London airports.

Another confirmed loss for SEN is of course the Loganair LDY service..Funding is now in place for a new 2 year deal with STN as the London terminal contract commence 1.4.21

No doubt they will sort this out in time but at the moment flying into LHR rather than SEN makes for a long journey if this talk of seven hour queues at Border Control is true.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56344287

Story missed from 2 weeks ago

https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/191...rs-every-year/

Just an increase of 632,000 passengers per year which is very reasonable but how they could achieve that number due to the size of the airports footprint and location is debatable, as stated many times here.

Ryanair adding 2 weekly Greek destinations. Cannot remember the other, but Corfu was one.

Original press release was incorrect, just an additional Corfu.Corfu – Southend

3 (+1)

To clarify...From July SEN gains one extra Summer Corfu rotation for a total of 3pw.

No new routes to Greece from SEN ....there are 3 new RYR Greek destinations announced but these are from STN.

CEO in the media...
SEN talks with "dozens" of airlines for 2022! & "no doubt" over the future of Southend Airport.

Isn't that his job, if not he might as well walk now. A big difference between approached and has been approaching..

Dozens of airlines! I think not.

CEO in the media...
SEN talks with "dozens" of airlines for 2022! & "no doubt" over the future of Southend Airport.

Words to comfort shareholders.

A Google search headline from 2013. Does the last bit look familiar? I am thinking they have gone to their press release archive and dug out an old one.
https://i.imgur.com/4Ys0Zhw.jpg

Did SEN even reach a dozen airlines successfully? Services have been provided by easyJet, Ryanair, flyBE, Loganair, Volotea, Wideroe, Skywork, Adria, OLT, Air Malta, FlyOne.......it only totals a dozen if we include Stobart Air. Or did Aer Lingus run a service under their own flag?

I've probably missed one or two of the airlines that operated for a few weeks. On top of that there are all the cargo outfits of course including JOTA, BinAir, Flightline, ASL etc.

They will need to do better with their next round of talks to dozens of airlines I think......

Probably are talking to dozens, how many of those actually commence operations is another thing - they’ve only got FR and WF this year by the look of it

What does "talking to" mean ? Given Google and LinkedIn, it should be quite possible to find the name of a person involved in route planning at AirNZ's head office. Armed with a name, I can phone the office and switchboard will put me through. Have I now spoken to AirNZ about opening a route to Southend ?

Yes, I'm being flippant, but how many airlines are really engaging in a meaningful dialogue of more than 10 minutes with SEN about new routes ?

Probably a few - but highly unlikely for this year, I guess it depends on what happens to the slot situation for S22 in the rest of London

They only need one or two airlines. Pick any two out of the following airlines:
easyjet, Wizz and or Ryanair

Seeing two of the list are flying from Southend and the third did I would suggest it all depends how much SEN is prepared to discount.

You can take it with the pinch of salt it deserves but “dozens” is probably fair for someone in that position. I mean, realistic talks would be much narrower and successful ones narrower still, but I could list probably 30 airlines that ‘could’ fly from SEN*.

Here’s some examples that are outside the box, not particularly likely but not beyond complete fantasy either: BA Citiflyer weekend operation, Eastern to Newquay, Transavia to Amsterdam, Loganair to Newquay, Vueling to Barcelona, Volotea to somewhere like Genoa or Catania, return of Blue Islands, return of Air Malta. That’s 8 already

*Subject to Covid, slot constraints elsewhere, routes dropped by others across London, Brexit

To be honest these days I try to resist commenting on these various statements from SEN management as their optimism seems wildly over the top whether it be pax numbers or airline interest in starting SEN operations.

It may well be that when SEN canvassed a large number of airlines recently there were perhaps a dozen or more who responded with a one-liner on the lines of "Thanks for your interest and we'll bear that in mind as our recovery plans evolve over the coming months/years." but that could hardly be described as being in talks with them. Maybe three or four might enter initial 'talks' but not 'dozens' surely?. Still, Glyn Jones' press release has certainly stimulated interest on PPRuNe and any publicity is no doubt welcome. The current availability of slots at several of the LON airports as a result of COVID seems to be the biggest obstacle to SEN rebuilding its passenger numbers in the short term.

Incidentally, ASL operated three LEI-SEN-LEI rotations yesterday rather than the usual two. I don't know if that will continue.

Airports talk to airlines all the time. No news there. Unless they have done their homework and produced a robust business plan for the carrier it will probably just pass as a coffee break chat.