London Southend’s New Owners Look To The Future

LONDON—“Location, location, location” were the reasons that Carlyle Airport Group (CAG) became joint-owners of London Southend Airport earlier this year, according to the CEO of CAG Holdings, Amit Rikhy.

CAG’s parent Carlyle Group is a multinational investment and private equity firm.

“Why did we invest in Southend? Access to London,” Rikhy said, addressing the London Aviation Symposium. “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.”

London Southend is a small airport 41 mi. east of the capital’s city center, further than better-known sites such as Gatwick, Luton and Stansted and significantly further than Heathrow which, at only 14 mi. from the city center, has long been favored by many passengers.

However, factors are starting to play in favor of Southend, which had a burst of popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s but which languished in obscurity as an MRO site until a new terminal was built in 2012, Rikhy said.

“London’s population is moving east,” Rikhy said. “Wealth is moving east.” This is particularly evident in districts such as Stratford, east of the city, which was the site of the 2012 London Olympics and whose presence saw swathes of near-derelict land being used to construct expensive apartment blocks and associated infrastructure.

Additionally, the airport has a natural catchment area of around 8.2 million. “The average Southend passenger has a household income of £80,000 ($101,000) compared to the UK average of £31,400,” Rikhy added.

The airport is of modest size. The current terminal has a capacity of just 3.5 million and all its airline services were wiped out during the pandemic. Passenger numbers are slowly being rebuilt and are expected to reach 1 million next year. The main operator is easyJet.

The single 1,856 m (6,089 ft.) runway can take Boeing 737 and Airbus A320-sized aircraft and the MAX and neo models of those types can make better use of the available space. A fully loaded A320neo, for example, can reach Turkey or the Canary Islands, both some four hours away.

The airport also benefits from an adjacent railway station, which can get passengers to and from central London in just over 50 min. It is also the only London airport, its backers note, that can operate 24/7, with no curfews.

The route network is largely focused on leisure destinations, notably in the Mediterranean.

The biggest challenge facing Southend, Rikhy said, was a lack of familiarity with the airport’s name among the travelling public. This is being tackled through advertising and social media campaigns. The situation “is getting better, but we need to build awareness.”

The airport masterplan says long-term expansion to 10 million passengers is possible and the space required for this is already within the airport’s footprint; the terminal can readily be extended, for example.

“We will put capital into the airport,” Rikhy said. “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.”