Southend Airport expect 300% passenger number increase this festive period
They say it will be a "busy Christmas", but one they are expecting and looking forward to
Southend Airport expects a 300% increase in their passenger numbers this Christmas, compared to last year.
They say it will be the busiest Christmas period in the last five years, and that the airport is the fastest growing in the UK.
Nigel Mayes, Business Development Director at the airport, said:
"With EasyJet operating 3 based aircraft at the airport, we've had to increase our staff numbers. So we've got an increased number of staff, nearly 400 staff on site.
"We've got Enzo the elf that is going to be in the terminal. We've got some Christmas music and we've got a lucky dip into Santa's sack for the Santa's Lapland flight."
He said that the range of locations offered at the airport are part of the reason for the increase, saying that trips to Berlin, Paris, and Amsterdam are popular.
This is also the case with warmer locations this Winter, with flights to Tenerife or Lanzarote also being taken.
He said that even with this increase the airport can handle the numbers of passengers:
"We look quite closely at the schedules of flying week by week. We have rostering of staff and we look quite carefully at the opening hours of all of the areas of the terminal, whether that's check-in or security or at bars and restaurants.
"And we also have got a lot of resilience built into the system. So for example at security we never have a queue that's longer than than 5 or 10 minutes because passengers can get through very quickly through the security process. But we have resilience, with extra lanes that can open at security if they're needed and if those queues do develop, we can get people through a lot, lot quicker. So we're a lot easier than the bigger airports in the rest of the London system.
"We have listened to our customer feedback, and we know that customers are looking to have a quick and easy journey through their airports, and that is everything from avoiding massive queues to avoiding long bus rides from car parks to terminals.
"It's a quick journey to the airport, a quick journey through the airport, and they can avoid the stress of some of the larger, busier airports in the London system."