'London' Southend Airport set to expand

[dronkula]

Incidentally....

When they covered this story last night on BBC London news they said that plans were underway to turn Southend Airport into the 'next Heathrow'. Why do reporters always have to go for such stupid comparisons???

Airport plans 1m passenger growth

Airport managers want to see flights attracting 1m passengers a year
Southend Airport could attract more than 1m passengers and 1,000 new jobs over the next 10 years, a master plan has revealed.

Destinations could include Edinburgh, Dublin, Barcelona, Rome and Alicante.

By 2015, Southend could be handling as many as 40 passenger flights a day in 75-80 seater planes according to a draft plan presented for consultation.

Low-cost carrier Flybe is due to start services to Jersey out of Southend next month and plans for a new terminal and rail station have already been approved.

The government has already said it would support expansion at Southend subject to relevant environmental considerations.

Airport director Bruce Campbell said: "We are not talking about 'open-ended' growth or becoming another Stansted.

"The airport is willing to operate under strict environmental controls and abide by an agreed overall operating limit."

[AndrewC]

Makes sense, the area is already heavily populated, so theres good transport links and little in the way of possible environmental damage to be done. Thats a lot of people who have a right to complain about extra noise though...

[nick_taylor]

This is also a bit like Southampton now trying to also make itself into a "London" airport.

[samsonyuen]

Neat, where's Southend Airport?

[nick_taylor]

[Capzilla]

Might be useful for travelers from/to Essex and maybe northern Kent, but if they seriously intend this as a link to London, then it must be some sort of late April's Fools joke.

I seriously don't understand how any reasonable person can look at Stansted, Gatwick and Luton "Express" timetables and prices and still consider those airports to be useful to get into London. Unless you're a student with plenty of time, there are only two airports serving London - Heathrow and City.

[morestoreysplease]

Ditto Capzilla. Gatwick, Luton and Stansted are completely unconnected with London. Southend even more so - the locals should make sure passengers stay in the area and boost the economy of Essex.

[EssexDan86]

Originally Posted by nick_taylor

This is also a bit like Southampton now trying to also make itself into a "London" airport.

Southend is a 45min drive from central London, Southampton is nearly 2 hours.

[Gingerblokey]

Luton is only about 10 miles closer than Southend from Central London, Gatwick is not that much closer either.



Transport to Southend is pretty good too. If it was to expand to such a point it could become fairly major you could expand the District Line to Southend as it was in the 30s and then there is Crossrail which would provide a link to Shenfield which is on the NXEA Metro line to Southend Victoria.

In addition Southend is on the metro services from Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street which are, admitidly, overcrowded but could potentially be upgraded.



Also there is another point that it is fairly ripe for expansion as an airport, it is located right next to the railway line but also on the outskirts of the town. There is a fairly large area of green space which is to the north of the airport but this is surrounded by small commuter villages. In the north-west there is another big area but I think this is mostly low-lying marshland which would be good for an airport.

[zfreeman]

Originally Posted by Capzilla

Might be useful for travelers from/to Essex and maybe northern Kent, but if they seriously intend this as a link to London, then it must be some sort of late April's Fools joke.

I seriously don't understand how any reasonable person can look at Stansted, Gatwick and Luton "Express" timetables and prices and still consider those airports to be useful to get into London. Unless you're a student with plenty of time, there are only two airports serving London - Heathrow and City.

'Express' services are only going to be as frequent/fast as the track allows.

I believe each of the dedicated services to the airports are often run in the 'gaps' in normal services and it is often cheaper to catch the other services to the airports especially to Gatwick and Luton.

I feel it would be cheaper to run them as part of the regular services, for example many Southern Train Services call at Gatwick as the norm on the Brighton Express service. As well as on First Capital Connect services call at both Gatwick and Luton Parkway, but the issue as with most rail services if one train breaks down then the rest of the services are delayed, which is one of the reasons I would support a dedicated air-rail link to all major airports to airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester

[elfabyanos]

The Brighton to Victoria service doesn't call at Gatwick except during rush hour, it's fast all the way to East Croydon.

The only problem with the Gatwick and Stansted expresses is that neither line has been suitably upgraded for decades - not upgraded specifically for the expresses either, but not upgraded to cope with the requirements of any of the services.

Gatwick needs platforms and station approaches completely remodelling - arriving Gatwick Express services block all 4 lines at Earlswood just because. They could remodel it so that it only uses one line - it seems this is on the agenda looking at the busines plan for the route on NR's website.

Similar issues with Standsted Express. In the appropriate business plan from NR there are intentions to quad track parts of the lea valley line to improve capacity, and bore another tunnel at the entrance to Standsted - currently only single track.

The Heathrow Express works because the necessary infrastructure to support the service was put in place, hence it's success.

[Justme]

Originally Posted by Capzilla

Might be useful for travelers from/to Essex and maybe northern Kent, but if they seriously intend this as a link to London, then it must be some sort of late April's Fools joke.

I seriously don't understand how any reasonable person can look at Stansted, Gatwick and Luton "Express" timetables and prices and still consider those airports to be useful to get into London. Unless you're a student with plenty of time, there are only two airports serving London - Heathrow and City.

Of cause they are London airports. Gatwick is only 30minutes by train from central London and I just checked the frequency for this time of the day and there is a train every 5minutes! How is that not a London airport?

Stansted is further out, but still just a little over 45minutes to central London with a train every 15minutes.

Luton I'm not sure about though.

Those times are comparable to many other cities around the world.

[Justme]

Slight problem with parking planes at this airport ;O) Check near the main terminal, bottom/right.

[Mwmbwls]

There are a number of (mostly positive) factors that could impact on the growth of Southend Airport.

There is speculation that the owners of London City are interested because they may face ongoing or tighter capacity constraints in Docklands - particularly if Ken Livingstone is re-elected. Southend would also be useful in capturng a share of the growing market in Very Light Jets - VLJ's that will not be allowed to land at Heathrow, Stansted, Luton or Gatwick because of congestion (arising from "Open Skies Agreement " traffic growth and the inherent air vortex risks of mixing large and small aircraft). A second tier of new general aviation airports at Farnborough, Biggin Hill (refurbished by the receipt of the proceeds from Southend) and now possibly Southend is expected to increase aircraft movements.
For Flybe, Southend represents an opportunity to access the hard to crack South East.
Access to the airport could also at some stage be influenced bi improved sub regional raillinks. The 2002 London Ipswich Multi Modal Study suggested linking the LTSR Shoeburynes to Fenchurch Street Line and Great Eastern Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria via a new rail link from Benfleet, just east of the airport, to Wickford , just north east of the airport. This together with a proposed North South link at Mountnessing Junction at Shenfield would widen the subregional catchment area to include North Essex and South Suffolk. Multi modal studies appear to gathering dust in the deserts of the DfT having been the flavour of the month a couple of years ago but the recently announced intention to estrablish a Regional Infrastructure Fund for the East of England may provide the kick off funding required. On balance - Southend Airport is good puntfor prospective buyers as long they don't let the bidding process go to their heads and pay unrealistic P/E multiples.

[dnp]

Luton is v.convenient for Central London. 5mins shuttle bus from airport to Luton Parkway train station and then only 40mins or so to St Pancras on regular First Capital Connect trains. If you get on a mainline train, you can get into St Pancras in 20mins

[Suburban Knight]

Things really progressing on this now it seems, new control tower and station nearly complete - Aer Arann flights to Ireland and GLM to Groningen beginning this year. Interesting...

[Jon10]

Southend Airport has always maintained a close interchange between air and railway services.

[poshbakerloo]

LOL!

[Suburban Knight]

haha quality!

Photos of the new development so far available at the FB pro-airport page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=266260267492

[makita09]

Originally Posted by elfabyanos

The Brighton to Victoria service doesn't call at Gatwick except during rush hour, it's fast al...

I've been on this website for too long.