Monday 29 April 2019 7:26 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 12:16 am

Southend Airport eyes 2.5m passenger target this year amid growth spurt

London Southend Airport owner Stobart Aviation has set its sights on reaching 2.5m passengers this year and 5m by 2023, in a move that would take it closer to its rival London City Airport (LCA).

Southend Airport, which grew nearly 40 per cent last year, said the addition of EasyJet and Ryanair, which started flying from the airport earlier this month, will boost its growth plans.

Southend aims to overtake London City Airport's current traffic numbers, which reached 4.8m last year, an increase of 6.4 per cent on the previous year. London City Airport, which is based in the Royal Docks, is regarded as business passenger hotspot but has recently been on a charm offensive to attract more leisure passengers.

Like London City Airport, Southend also has its own private jet centre, which has also been earmarked as an area of growth. The centre recorded 1,600 jet movements last year.

Stobart Aviation chief executive Glyn Jones told City A.M: “London Southend Airport is the immediate answer to the airport capacity crunch in the capital. Thanks to our new partnership with Ryanair and existing agreements with EasyJet and others, we aim to hit 2.5m passengers this year, with a target of 5m in 2023 thanks to our ambitious growth plans.

"Ryanair has already made a substantial impact to the airport's passenger numbers by offering our customers even more choice, including 13 new routes, such as Bilbao, Brest and Corfu, across eight countries. We have already seen a record 8,000 passengers use the airport on one day this year, and we expect close to an additional 1m passengers use the airport by the end of the year."