Glyn Jones, CEO of the Stobart Group which owns Southend Airport, shares his future plans

At Southend Airport, we’ve come a long way in a short time. Since taking it over in 2008, Stobart Group has invested over £160million in the new-look, modern and efficient facilities you see today.

We’re now London’s fastest growing airport, just named best airport in London for the fifth year running, with a customer satisfaction score of 84 per cent.

Of course, this recent growth doesn’t mean that we are a new airport. In fact, the story began in 1914 when the airfield was first established and continued through the 1960s heyday when Southend was the UK’s third busiest airport with Sir Freddie Laker basing his famous Skytrain service here. But a lack of investment and support in the 1970s saw the airport decline into something of an aviation backwater. It is important that this does not happen again.

The airport needs to continue to grow, to attract even more investment and to employ even more local people, offering them exciting and rewarding careers, while supporting our communities in other ways, through our sponsorship and charitable activities.

Today, Southend Airport makes a significant contribution to the local and regional economy, supporting employment for more than 1,000 people, with 84 per cent of those directly employed by Stobart Aviation living in the SS postcode area. We know that number will grow as the airport develops and analysis carried out for us by Optimal Economics shows that our airport is capable of adding an additional 5,000 jobs over the next ten years.

At the same time, we understand that our success relies first and foremost upon the support of the local community, and it is important that we work together and listen to one another in order to continue to deliver an airport that works for everyone, as far as it possibly can. For that reason, we report to, and consult with, residents and other stakeholders, via the Airport Consultative Committee, on a regular basis.

In part as a result of that consultation, we have put a range of measures in place to ensure that noise levels and wider environmental impacts are responsibly managed.

Air quality measured around the airport perimeter continues to be well below Government-set targets and the runway extension has allowed us to operate passenger aircraft which are much quieter and more fuel efficient than some of the older aircraft that previously used the airport for routine maintenance. More than 22 per cent of our electricity comes from renewable sources, thanks to our onsite solar farm.

We have always fully complied with the agreements made between us and our planning authorities that were put in place when the airport was granted planning permission to redevelop. This includes our obligations regarding night flights. There has been some recent debate around this subject, so it is important to clarify there is no night “curfew”.

Instead, there is a ban on scheduling flights after 11.30pm and a permitted night quota of 120 movements per month during the night period. The airport has never scheduled services after 11.30pm and has always operated well within the overall night quota.

These are exciting times for London Southend Airport, and for the community around us. The project to extend the terminal to ensure we have the capacity to continue providing market-leading levels of customer satisfaction as we grow is well underway and The Restaurant Group has taken over our catering operation and is introducing six new, High Street brands.

We’ve started new Air Malta services to Malta, Cagliari and Catania, easyJet have added a 4th based aircraft and, of course, the year’s biggest news was the announcement from Ryanair that we will become their 14th UK base. They will base three aircraft with us from summer 2019 and will operate 60 flights per week to 13 destinations, creating 750 new jobs.

The airport is going from strength to strength, with new airlines and routes, improving facilities for passengers and contributing to the local and regional economy. In doing so, we remain mindful of our obligations to, and our reliance on, our neighbours. Our overriding objective has always been to grow responsibly. We look forward to working with our communities to continue delivering against that target for long term, mutual benefit.