UK airport reveals major expansion plans to triple passenger numbers – with up to 10million travellers a year

A LESSER-KNOWN airport in the UK is aiming to become one of its most popular transport hubs, with ambitious plans to increase its capacity.

Having gained new joint owners earlier this year, the airport could grow dramatically in size, with the space and the potential already in place.

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That's according to CEO of the Carlyle Airport Group, Amit Rikhy, who became one of London Southend Airport's new owners earlier this year.

He claims that London Southend is the only one serving the London market that has the potential for significant expansion.

Amit wants the airport to be catering for as many as 10 million passengers each year, almost tripling its current capacity.

Speaking at the the London Aviation Symposium, he said that investment was being made to make people more aware of the airport, while its numbers continue to recover following the pandemic.

Currently, the terminal has a capacity of 3.5 million, but a lot of its airline services have not returned following the Covid-19 outbreak.

But passenger numbers are slowly increasing and are expected to reach 1 million next year.

The airport still links its passengers to some popular holiday destinations, including the likes of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Dalaman, Marrakech, Paris, Amsterdam, Alicante and Lapland.

Those routes, and several others, are mainly served by easyJet, with BHAir providing additional routes to and from Bourgas in Bulgaria.

Among those routes are some brand new ones for this year, with new flights also launched to Pisa, Antalya and Enfidha in Tunisia.

However, Amit believes that Southend is perfectly poised to become an important travel hub for British travellers and those coming to the UK.

According to Aviation Week, he told the Symposium: “Why did we invest in Southend? Access to London.

“This airport is the only airport in the London market that has capacity. The large airports in London are running out of capacity; they don’t have slots.”

Before it can expand, however, it needs to increase awareness with not enough people currently aware of it as an option for travel.

Amit explained that this was getting better with money being spent to expose the airport to new markets.

He said they're also spending money to make sure that the passenger experience is as smooth as possible, to encourage people to choose it as an option.

That includes with new technology like state-of-the-art x-ray scanners and self-handling baggage, making the checking-in process much easier.

He continued: “We’re looking at things like self-handling baggage and making it more efficient for passengers to self-check-in ... queue management and better wayfinding.

"We invested recently in new X-ray security equipment."

When the airport will be able to begin its expansion is unclear, but its numbers are increasing suggesting people are becoming more aware of it as an option for holidays.

Meanwhile, this airport is set to be disrupted by strikes later this month.

And these hidden charges could increase your holiday costs at airports.

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