FLIGHTS from Southend Airport have increased this summer with its growth expected to speed up with a £32million cash injection as part of a major re-financing deal.

US private equity firm Carlyle is set to "take control" of the airport after agreeing a deal with Esken to settle a £193.75million debt its subsidiary, London Southend Airport, had owed to Carlyle Global Infrastructure Fund.

This deal will see £32million of new funding released to “secure the future growth of the airport”, as airport bosses want to double passenger numbers this year.

The news comes amid hopes growing this week that an easyJet base could return to Southend, as the budget airline has added more flights to Faro, Paris and Palma de Mallorca this summer.

There will now be more flights to the capital of southern Portugal’s Algarve region on May 26 and May 27, with thousands of additional seats on sale to Paris and Mallorca.

The airline will operate an extra Sunday service to Paris Charles de Gaulle between July and August, as well as an added Thursday flight each week to Palma de Mallorca over the busy peak season between June 27 and October 24.

Holidaymakers now have 11 destinations to choose from at Southend Airport this year compared with just three operated when easyJet returned in 2022.

These include flights to Amsterdam, Alicante, Bourgas, Geneva, Grenoble and Malaga, as well as one-off flights to Lapland and Sønderborg in Denmark.

Newly added flights to Milan with AeroItalia were cancelled in February, with the route taken off sale. However, bosses said the fashion capital remains firmly in their plans, and hinted at additional "exciting" route announcements "very soon".

Passenger numbers have doubled at Southend Airport year-on-year as it begins to recover from the major blow of the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, more than 2 million holidaymakers chose to fly from the south Essex city.