ONE of the biggest airlines in Europe has landed its first flight at Southend Airport.

Ryanair officially opened its new base yesterday morning after investing $300 million into the airport.

The airline is set to have 18 flights a day leave and arrive at the airport - about 63 per week.

Echo:

First flight - the Ryanair flight landing at Southend Airport this morning

There are 14 new routes, including Alicante, Barcelona Reus, Bilbao, Brest, Copenhagen, Corfu, Cluj, Dublin, Faro, Kosice, Malaga, Milan Bergamo, Palma and Venice.

Bosses hope the move will deliver more than one million extra passengers each year and support 750 on-site jobs at the airport.

The ultimate aim is for the airport to see 2.5 million passengers pass through by the end of the year.

Flight can now be booked for as far out as March 2020.

Ryanair’s Head of Sales, Chiara Ravara, said the flights on the airline’s summer schedule will remain throughout the winter, adding: “What’s really appealing about Southend is the airport is so customer- friendly. You can still be in London within the hour, there are much fewer queues and it really works with what we want to deliver in terms of convenience to our passengers.

“The routes we have lined up for the summer are set to stay through the winter period. We’re here for the long term and are confident passengers will want to return to use our routes again.”

Warwick Brady, CEO of Stobart Group, which owns Southend Airport, said Ryanair’s introduction is a “self-propelling growth plan” which has been in the pipeline for almost two years.

He said: “It’s always a long planning process, most airports are thinking about developments 18 months in advance, so this has been in the making for some time.

“What we’re on a mission with in Southend is to get across the point that it is still a London airport. We see through more than a million customers, and Ryanair will grow this to more than two million.

“Lots of people still do not know how convenient the airport is, with the train being right next to it.

“A lot of feedback I get from people is that they ‘never realise how easy it was’, and that’s the point. As soon as someone comes here, they will always want to come back, because of the convenience.”

Mr Brady said Stobart’s long term goal is to make Southend Airport as well-known and respected as London’s other airports, such as Stansted and Gatwick.

He added: “The loyalty of our customers is extraordinary and Ryanair’s new flights is only going to improve that.

“There is a massive potential for growth here, we’re due to grow in passengers by around 65 per cent by the end of the year, so the new flights act as a self-propelling growth plan.

“It will also help London as a whole; Heathrow and Gatwick are full up, Stansted is full at peak times, but Southend is equidistant to them. If you get on a train from London Liverpool Street, it takes the same amount of time to get here and to Stansted.

“Plus, we have six trains that come and go every hour on weekdays, so it’s more streamlined.

“This will help capacity issues and drive aviation in the capital. We’re really driving hard to ensure as many people know about us, and what we can do, as possible.”

Glyn Jones, CEO of Stobart Aviation and Southend Airport, said: “I was over in Cheltenham in the Midlands for the Gold Cup racing day, and when sitting down for lunch, I overheard the table next to me talking about, low and behold, Southend Airport.

“They were all discussing how convenient is was and how they’ll want to fly again, and that just shows how far our reputation is beginning to reach.

“We still have more to do, we need to get more awareness out there, but having Ryanair base three planes here along with five from EasyJet, our profile has been raised considerably.

“This is – and will be – an 2.5 million passenger airport, and we have every confidence we will grow even further.”

Ryanair seats are now on sale of £12.99 for travel until the end of May.

Visit www.ryanair.com.