Great Western Coffee Shop

Eastern Airways is to start a daily Southend - Newquay service

The following quote from Roger Hage, Commercial Director is probably of interest to forum readers :
“The speed of access to or from Greater London via the adjacent rail link offers an appealing option helping avoid the otherwise arduous alternates travel options to make that summer sunshine getaway, a few days by the coast, a city break, daytime business travel or simply making it to that big event.”

Says a lot when travelling from London to Cornwall via Essex is an option vs GWR service.

https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2025/01/13/eastern-airways-to-launch-newquay-southend-service/

Good luck to them, though these kinds of flights do seem to come along every so often and then end up going again a year or two later.

One flight a day is hardly going to frighten GWR?

Ideal for east London. Not sure what transport links are like at Southend airport, but trains from Southend to east London are very regular, 4 an hour from memory?.

The airport is pretty well served from east London.  Three per hour from Liverpool Street, Stratford and Shenfield and one from Romford.

Though of course all four of those have a very frequent and fast service to Paddington via the Elizabeth Line nowadays.  Plus the service to Newquay is set to double in frequency from May.

Under the Government's plans GWR are a zombie franchise now so they're unlikely to act/react in any way to any competition, real or perceived.

This gives the people of Cornwall/Essex/East London a useful further option which can only be a good thing.

I suspect it will particularly appeal on Sundays.

Yes and no.  It’s a zombie franchise that is doubling the frequency from Par to Newquay from May, and therefore offering up many more options to and from London.

Providing the crew can be rustled up for them of course.

I think the real zombie here might be Southend Airport. It's owner went bust last year, and was acquired by one of it's creditors, probably in part settlement of outstanding debt.

It has a nice new station, but even though it serves both the airport and part of suburban north Southend, entries and exits in 2023-4 were only 188k. For comparison, Goring & Streatley had 322k, and nearby Rochford had 634k.

It also sits in an area where there is a high demand for new housing, with a very large urban extension planned for most of the adjoining land to the east between the current built-up extent of Southend and the River Roach. As a regional airport it suffers from the fact that half of it's immediate hinterland (a radius of 20km) is mud and sea, and it's not too difficult to get to Stanstead where there's a much wider choice of flights.

Dare I say it, if you are an airline you can probably get a good deal on landing fees, - all the owners need is enough to keep it ticking over and pay the fees for a large planning application.

Passenger numbers look like that are increasing, but, yes, it’s languishing at only 15% of the number of passengers last year compared to what it had in 2019.

I suspect a more frequent rail service to Newquay will benefit Newquay Cornwall airport given that it's only 15 mins from the station and may indeed have been a factor in this new route being launched......