The Airport Operator - Autumn 2024
06 September 2024
The airport’s Business Development Director, Nigel Mayes, sees “a window of opportunity in the next four to five years”
He told The Airport Operator that he expects the airport’s future growth trajectory to be “very steep” as it seeks to return to and then exceed its pre-Covid passenger numbers. Mayes said, “We have a window of opportunity in the next four to five years as there is no other capacity that is going to come on stream in the London market during that period”.
London Southend served close to 2.3m passengers in 2019, but only 150,000 last year, improving to 300,000 this year. Next year, however, the numbers are expected to grow to around a million, with easyJet adding ten new sunshine destinations – Almeria, Antalya, Dalaman, Enfidha, Gran Canaria, Malta, Marrakesh, Pisa, Reus and Tenerife – when it opens its three A320neo base next summer.
