Southend Airport boss looks for boost
29.6.2008 (UK Airport News)
Alastair Welch hopes to model the airport on the success of Southampton, the Echo
reports. Mr Welch believes the airport can emulate the success of Southampton
Airport, which generates £86.5million a year. It has similar constraints to Southend
as it is edged by housing developments and yet every year it serves almost two
million passengers.
a railway line that goes right past, as we do, and they’ve got a fair bit of housing
around them. They are doing about two million passengers a year now from a runway
which is a little bit longer, and at the length we’d like to go to. That’s why
for me it’s a good comparison.’
including Amsterdam, Alicante, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Brussels and Malaga. Mr
Welch said: ‘What is different between our airports is they have a significant
number of passengers, whereas we have maintenance and component manufacturing
that they don’t have.
and Southend.’
can accommodate the larger aircraft needed for package holidays to the Mediterranean.
However, Southend plans a 250-metre extension to allow medium-sized aircraft –
such as an Airbus 319 – to land while fully loaded, which is not possible at the
moment.
http://www.uk-airport-news.info/southend-airport-news-290608.htm