Southend adds Ryanair to easyJet

With Ryanair confirming last week that it has signed a five-year deal to base three Boeing 737-800s at Southend Airport the Stobart Plc owned operation is likely to nearly double its passenger throughput in 2019.

Ryanair is providing 13 routes to eight European countries, including six new destinations and will operate more than 55 weekly flights.  Whether it overtakes easyJet as the airport’s largest operator remains to be seen.  Destinations will include Alicante, Barcelona Reus, Bilbao, Brest, Corfu, Cluj, Dublin, Faro, Kosice, Malaga, Milan Bergamo, Palma and Venice.
 
Warwick Brady, CEO of Stobart said: “Since joining Stobart Group over 12 months ago I have been working closely alongside the team at London Southend Airport to secure a major airline that will allow us to deliver on our growth targets.  This agreement demonstrates that we now have the right team, skill set and strategy in place to deliver on our stated ambitions.”

Southend’s most popular route is Amsterdam, flown up to three times a day by easyJet who have been at the airport for six years and carried over 5m passengers.  There is some head-to-head route overlap with Malaga, Alicante, Faro, Palma but easyJet will have more frequency on all of them.  It looks like a win-win situation for airlines and airport.

www.ryanair.com 

www.southendairport.com

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