Southend Airport begins £10m runway upgrade

Above: Air Malta takes off from Southend.
Copyright London Southend Airport

The airport is now a significant employer, playing a key role in regenerating the local area as well as offering accessible leisure and business travel to people across Essex and the South East. Over the past few years the number of passengers using the airport has grown to 1.5 million and this number is expected to rise further in 2019.

This upgrade is part of the strategic plan for ongoing investment to cater for increased aircraft operations, which will lead to even more local job creation – including the 750 “on-site” jobs created per year with the opening of a new Ryanair base at London Southend in summer 2019.

The majority of the works will be undertaken during night time in order to keep the airport operating smoothly during the day. The runway will be closed to all aircraft between the hours 23:30 – 06:30 to enable the contractors to carry out the planned works in a safe environment. 

The work is expected to last approximately three months.  

Glyn Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Stobart Aviation, owners of London Southend Airport said: “It is essential to maintain a safe runway.  The last set of major runway works were in 2011 and were part of the runway extension development.  Previous to that, maintenance was carried out in 1994. As part of the strategic plan for continued investment to cater for the growth of the airport, within our existing S106 Planning Agreement, we are enhancing the durability and performance of the runway.”  

He added “We value our relationship with the local community and, although the nature of these works means that some disturbance is unavoidable, we will be putting a series of measures in place and making every effort possible to ensure that any disturbance is kept to an absolute minimum.”

London Southend Airport has been ranked ‘Best London airport’ 2017 by Which? for the fifth year in a row. It was also voted best UK airport (under three million capacity) by the Airport Operator’s Association for 2015 & 16. The short-haul specialist - serving more than one million passengers a year - has three key airline partners, easyJet, Flybe and Air Malta, with approximately 34 domestic and European routes. The terminal has a dedicated train station a few paces from the terminal with rail access to central London (Stratford in 45 mins/ London Liverpool Street in 52 mins) and car parking is just two minutes from the terminal entrance.