230,000 passengers travelled through the Essex terminal between 1 July and 31 August 2013 – that’s a 29.9% increase on the 177,000 that used the airport in summer 2012, and the busiest summer since formal records began in 1967.
The busiest day of the summer period was 4 August, which saw 4,100 travellers jetting off.
The favourite destination in this July to August period was Amsterdam, followed by the hugely popular Spanish destinations of Alicante and Barcelona – in fact more than 400,000 easyJet passengers have been flown between London Southend and Spain since April 2012.
This bustling summer now takes the total passengers to have used London’s newest airport since the new terminal opened in March 2013 to 1.25 million.
London Southend Airport Operations Director David Lister said“Our exclusive promises to passengers – that they should wait no more than 4 minutes to go through security and that, on arrival with hand baggage, they are on the rail station platform within 15 minutes of leaving the aircraft with up to eight trains per hour to the heart of London in just 53 minutes is what is driving more and more passengers to choose us over other airports. And once they experience our unique offer they keep coming back – and tell their friends, family and colleagues. That is why we are extending the terminal to ensure that we continue to deliver these high standards of customer service as the airport grows. We are also working closely with all our partners to offer an even wider variety of destinations for business and leisure travellers, at a reasonable cost all year round.”