SOUTHEND Airport should take extra flights from Heathrow Airport to help it return to the heady heights seen before the Covid pandemic, its chief executive has insisted.
The airport, in Aviation Way, has suffered one of the worst fall offs in passenger numbers as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Southend Airport record just 5 per cent of summer 2019’s passengers this year, whereas across the UK that figure is back to 80 per cent on average.
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New chief executive John Upton has claimed Southend could take large numbers of London passengers from Heathrow, after taking a number of diverted flights from other airports last year.
In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Upton said: “It’s beneficial for the environment and congestion - why build more pavement in London, when we could take planes away from the spaghetti junction of London airspace?”
Southend Airport was used as an overspill airport on multiple occasions last year, with several jets diverted from Stansted Airport when it was forced to close a runway due to snow and freezing fog in December.
During the summer, the airport stepped in when both Gatwick and Heathrow were forced to cancel hundreds of flights.
In July, a Blue Air flight from Athens to Gatwick landed at Southend Airport, just days before a flight from Lasi in Romania that was set to land at Heathrow diverted to Southend.
“The airport is vital to Southend’s success, and we need to get back to the level we were at before the pandemic,” councillor Daniel Nelson said.
“We see the number of jobs the airport can create when successful, and taking on the would-be Heathrow travellers, as long as these were daytime flights and not massive jumbo jets, would be a great way to achieve that.”
Councillor Matt Dent believes Southend has proved it is capable of taking the would-be Heathrow traffic.
He said: “The journey from Southend into London is incredibly easy and could certainly provide a desirable alternative for passengers.
“We have a track record of having provided high volumes of passenger flights."
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