EASYJET has scrapped flights to Edinburgh and Newquay from Southend Airport.

The budget airline is also scaling back its trips to Jersey and will now only operate four a week.

The announcement came yesterday and follows a decision by easyJet in August to scrap flights to Belfast, on January 5.

The company would not reveal the reasons why.

A statement from easyJet said: “Southend continues to be a successful base for easyJet and we will continue to focus the flying schedule there on the routes with the greatest demand.”

The airport would also not comment on the reasons behind the route closures.

David Lister, airport operations director, said: “Since easyJet opened its base here in March 2012, it has enjoyed huge success with some of the highest customer satisfaction levels across its European network recorded here.

“This summer they added an additional aircraft to the base and have consistently expanded the number of destinations on offer from Southend. We look forward to continuing and growing this relationship.”

Flights to the Scottish capital have been running since May.

An easyJet spokesman said: “The last Edinburgh flight from Southend is on June 14.

About 5 per cent of our passengers flying in and out of Southend in 2013 used the Edinburgh services.”

The Newquay route was launched in June this year and carried almost 8,000 passengers in the summer.

In October, easyJet’s UK commercial manager, Hugh Aitken, said in an extra flight would be added in August 2014.

Easyjet runs 25 flights to Edinburgh from other London airports.

It has also recently started flying from Southend to Tenerife.