Early years watch
Supermarine Spitfires coming into land at RAF Rochford, August 1943 The airfield was established by the
Royal Flying Corps during the
First World War. It was the largest flying ground in Essex, with the greatest number of units. In May 1915, the
Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS) took over until 4 June 1916, when it became RFC Rochford. It was designated as night fighter station and many sorties were flown against
Zeppelin airship raiders, including LZ38 on 31 May 1915. Around 1919, the station closed and reverted to farmland, which it remained as until 1933 when Southend Borough Council bought the land. The site was officially opened as a municipal airport on 18 September 1935 by the
Under-Secretary of State for Air, Sir
Philip Sassoon, who arrived in his
de Havilland Leopard Moth. In 1939, the
Air Ministry requisitioned the airfield and it was known as
RAF Rochford during the
Second World War as a satellite airfield. It became a base for fighter squadrons comprising
Supermarine Spitfire and
Hawker Hurricane as well as
Bristol Blenheim aircraft. By 28 October 1940, RAF Rochford had been renamed RAF Southend, no longer being a satellite of Hornchurch, although they still had Fighter Control at the base. A day later, 264 Squadron arrived for night fighter duties equipped with the
Boulton Paul Defiant. Many of the 50
pillboxes that were designed to protect the airport from
paratrooper landings still survive, as does the underground defence control room, which is near to Southend Flying Club. A further 20 or so pillboxes also remain in the surrounding countryside.
Canewdon, north-east of the airport, was the location of one of the Second World War
Chain Home radar stations. The transmitter tower at Canewdon was relocated to the
Marconi works at
Great Baddow in the 1950s.
Post-war In the 1950s, three new runways were added, enabling commercial flights for passengers and cargo. Runway 6/24 (now runway 5/23) was extended to in 1960, while the third runway was removed. During the 1960s, Southend became third busiest airport in the UK.
1970s decline At the end of February 1972,
Channel Airways, which had its hub and headquarters at Southend, ceased operations. In the 1970s, the proximity of housing on nearby roads, as well as
St Laurence Church on Eastwoodbury Lane less than from the runway prevented expansion. The airport's decline accelerated as
jet aircraft were unable to use the runway due to its short length. As flights were withdrawn, engineering and maintenance became a more important part of airport operations.
1993: Regional Airports Ltd In 1993, after the airport had been losing money for many years, Southend Borough Council sold the lease to the airport to Regional Airports Ltd. (RAL), operator of
Biggin Hill Airport. London Southend Airport Co. Ltd. was formed to operate the airport which was re-branded as "London Southend Airport" with the term "Municipal" dropping from the title. The previous losses were turned into small profits for majority of tenure by RAL. In 2001, a debate centred on the possible relocation of the
Grade I listed St Laurence and All Saints Church further away from the side of the main runway. The proposal was dropped after the planning application was rejected by Southend Council in 2003, and a compromise scheme was implemented resulting in the installation of new barriers across Eastwoodbury Lane and requiring slightly shorter licensed runway lengths once safety areas had been added. These changes allowed passenger flights to be restarted, although the runway length still largely curtailed the potential range and payloads for passenger flights, and scheduled airline utilisation was low, until the March 2012 runway extension opened. Flightline went into
administration on 3 December 2008. In January 2008, Regional Airports Ltd. put the airport up for sale.
Flybe operated a once weekly summer-only service to
Jersey using
Dash 8 aircraft, ending in 2011.
2008: Stobart Group The lease on the airport was bought on 2 December 2008 by the
Stobart Group for
£21 million, becoming part of the
Stobart Air division of the Stobart Group, which also operates
Carlisle Airport. Following council consultation with the local population, a planning application to extend the usable runway length by to and upgrade navigational and lighting aids, was submitted to
Southend Borough Council 13 October 2009. Planning permission was granted 20 January 2010. Initially subject to an
Article 14 Direction, after due consideration by the Government this was withdrawn 19 March 2010, meaning it would not be subject to a Public Inquiry. A
Section 106 agreement was entered into between the airport and local councils. On 1 June 2010, Stobart Group took a £100 million loan from M & G Investments, partly in order to fund the airport construction. In July 2010, an application for a
judicial review of the planning application was filed, which was dismissed on 2 February 2011. On 23 September 2010, the airport received the
Airport Achievement Award 2010/11 from the
European Regions Airline Association. A replacement
air traffic control tower became operational 21 March 2011, followed by the return of year-round daily passenger services 27 March 2011, when
Aer Arann commenced services to Galway and Waterford in Ireland.
EasyJet announced a ten-year agreement with Stobart Group in June 2011, and in April 2012 commenced around 70 flights per week from Southend, using three
Airbus A319 aircraft based at the airport, flying to eight European destinations. Easyjet's operation at the airport increased to 16 destinations and in the summer of 2018 they based a fourth aircraft at Southend, an
Airbus A320. A new on-site
rail station opened on 18 July 2011. and a new road opened on 1 September 2011, replacing Eastwoodbury Lane that lay in the path required for the runway extension.
2012–2019: London Olympics and expansion of passenger flights Before the
2012 Summer Olympic Games, a new terminal was built by Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd during 2011 and opened 28 February 2012 (the official opening was by Justine Greening, Secretary of State for Transport, on 5 March 2012). The original terminal was redeveloped for use by private jets, with Stobart Air having invested £500million turning it into an executive business lounge. The extended runway opened on 8 March 2012. Because planes can land in either direction, it is designated as runway 5 for planes landing from the south-west and as runway 23 for those arriving from the north-east. Both approaches have Category I
instrument landing systems (ILS) installed. In 2019, a new
performance-based navigation system was proposed, as an alternative to using ILS. In spring 2014,
Stobart Air announced that it had agreed a five-year
franchise agreement with
Flybe which would see two Flybe-branded aircraft based at Southend operating six routes from summer 2014. On 18 January 2015, two routes were terminated with the operation reduced to one aircraft. On 7 April 2014, the extension to the passenger terminal was formally opened by
Patrick McLoughlin, the
Secretary of State for Transport. ATC Lasham, the major engineering company at the airport, entered administration in October 2015. The main
hangar that it used dated back to
Aviation Traders Engineering Limited (ATEL) founded by the late Sir
Freddie Laker and was later used by Heavylift Engineering. In December 2016, Flybe announced it would be adding new routes from summer 2017 to 12 European destinations, primarily aimed at the weekend break customers. The airline based two
Embraer 195 aircraft at the airport. In October 2017, Flybe added high frequency short-haul routes to the airport, with up to 18 flights per week to
Manchester, up to 16 flights per week to
Dublin and up to 10 flights per week to
Glasgow. An additional ATR 72 was based at the airport to operate the Manchester flights, bringing the total number of Flybe aircraft based at Southend to four. In February 2018,
Air Malta announced it would begin flights to
Cagliari,
Catania and
Malta, which began in May 2018 although the Cagliari and Catania flights ceased in January 2019. In June 2018,
Ryanair announced it would open a base at Southend, basing three aircraft there operating 55 flights per week to 13 destinations, which began in April 2019. In October 2018,
Flybe announced it would commence five flights per week to
Newquay Airport from April 2019, increasing to daily from May 2019. In May 2019,
Loganair started to fly to
Aberdeen,
Glasgow and
Stornoway; in July 2019 to
Carlisle, and
Derry flights moved from
Stansted to Southend on 27 October 2019. On 31 October 2019, Ryanair announced four new routes to launch in Summer 2020 - Bergerac, Girona and Marseille were first announced, before Rodez was added as the route was moved from Stansted to Southend. In November 2019, Loganair announced that the Stornoway to Glasgow to Southend service would be withdrawn from 3 January 2020.
2020–2021: COVID-19 pandemic and consolidation In January 2020, Norwegian airline
Widerøe announced it would move its Kristiansand route from Stansted to Southend at the start of the summer 2020 season, however due to the
COVID-19 pandemic this was initially postponed until 26 October 2020 before being cancelled completely when the airline chose not to return to the airport and moved to
Heathrow in March 2021. In February 2020, it was announced Loganair would suspend its Aberdeen service, and in March, similarly the Carlisle service. At the commencement of the COVID-19 UK lockdown,
Wizz Air's revised schedule consolidated the
Sibiu route at
Luton Airport from when it re-started, cutting the route from Southend. In June 2020, Wizz Air cut
Vilnius as a destination from Southend as well, leaving it with one route to
Bucharest which had also since been suspended. In August 2020, easyJet announced it would close its base at Southend entirely due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the last scheduled flight occurring on 31 August 2020. In August 2021,
Ryanair also announced the closure of its base at Southend, effective 30 October 2021
2021–present: Post-COVID-19 resumption On 17 December 2021, easyJet signed a multi-year deal with the airport and announced that they would initially return in a limited capacity with routes to
Málaga and
Palma de Mallorca. In 2022, easyJet announced that it would add flights to
Amsterdam and
Faro for the Summer 2023 season. Further routes to
Paris,
Geneva,
Grenoble and
Alicante were announced in 2023. In May 2022,
Air Horizont announced it would base two of its
Boeing 737 aircraft at the airport for VIP charter flights. In September 2022,
ASL Airlines Ireland, operating for
Amazon, announced it would terminate its cargo flights from Southend to
Rome which was the airport's sole scheduled freight operation. In June 2023, the airport owner,
Esken announced that the airport had been put up for sale following a strategic review of the group's businesses. In July 2023,
BH Air announced a route to
Burgas for the summer 2024 season. In August 2023, 2Excel Aviation, operating for Oil Spill Response, announced it would use the airport as a base for its two
Boeing 727 aircraft to respond to international oil incidents. In March 2024, it was announced that the
Carlyle Group, alongside Cyrrus Capital Partners, would take an 82.5% stake in the airport by converting debt to equity. The deal settled Esken's debt to Carlyle whilst providing a £5million bridge loan and a commitment of £32million of new funding to secure the airport's future. In September 2024, BH Air announced it would renew its Burgas route for the summer 2025 season, however the company announced in April 2025 that it was withdrawing from the UK market.
Eastern Airways also announced new routes beginning in April 2025; Eastern subsequently entered
administration in November 2025 after ceasing all operations. ==Facilities==