London Southend Airport has announced that it has set eyes on a long lost destination of its own. The destination in question is reviving the airport’s link to the island of Jersey.
Jersey like a lot of destinations from the airport, was lost to the pandemic and now the airport is eyeing its return.
Return to Jersey
The focus on Jersey means it has now been added to the airports growing list of destinations the airport is exclusively “targeting” as the airport continues to slowly bounce back from the pandemic.
These routes include: Alicante, Strasbourg, Dinard, Groningen and now Jersey, with the list likely to grow over the coming months.
In the past, Jersey used to be served up to 12 times a week, which over the years saw service from easyJet and Blue Islands.
The route was also particularly successful from Southend’s point of view, with 60,000 passengers using the route in 2019.
In addition, Southend managed to double Stansted and Heathrow’s figures combined on the Jersey route during the period of 2018 and 2019.
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All in all it shows the route was remarkably successful pre-Covid and outlines significant potential for it, should Jersey return to Southend.
Commenting on the addition of Jersey to Southend’s metaphorical radar, Nigel Mayes, Southend Airport’s Business Development Director said, “There is a clear, unclaimed opportunity in the east London market for an additional service to Jersey.”
“London’s aviation capacity is reaching a cliff edge, but London Southend has immediately available capacity and real estate, as well as the lowest operating costs.”
“Reclaiming this well known, successful route between London Southend and the Channel Islands is a clear pathway to profitable growth for airlines”.
Routes Europe 2023
Perhaps its coincidence or something else, but interestingly the airport is currently attending Routes Europe 2023 in Lodz, Poland.
Here, airlines, airports and aviation stakeholders come together to sign deals and look ahead to the future of aviation; the perfect place for somewhere like Southend to be as it looks to expand rapidly.
Upon announcing their attendance at the conference, the airport stated that over 1900 new routes in the last 3 years have been established in connection with meetings founded at Routes events.
This in turn shines a lot of hope for the short to medium term future of Southend.
Southend Airport’s CEO also shares a lot of hope that will come from the conference saying “I’m looking forward to speaking to representatives from a number of airlines to discuss potential future partnerships with London Southend Airport”.
As well as battling for Jersey alongside other routes, the airport is also hoping to have its first winter schedule from the airport in 2 years, which this conference in Poland, could prove to be the gateway to making that a reality.
Still a Summer season to look forward to
Although the airport has its hopes and dreams for the future of its route network and airline partnerships, Southend still has a decent Summer to look forward too.
Since reporting on 29 March that flights to Malaga restarted, flights to Palma have restarted on 1 May operating times weekly and boosting passenger flights to 6 a week.
Coming up later in the month, the airport will restart its flights to Faro beginning May 24th and on the same day as part of a “W rotation” with the Faro flight, the airport’s new route to Amsterdam will begin too.
By June, the airport will have 18 flights a week alone from easyJet, a positive increase from 11 the previous year.
What is also interesting to note is that Amsterdam is a returning route from the pre-pandemic days at SEN, with it carrying just over 200,000 people in 2019.
This clearly shows that with other routes the airport is looking to revive, such as Jersey, Groningen and Alicante, it is well and truly possible.
