Southend Airport has announced it is offering a new route to Manchester with Flybe from October 29.

More than 700,000 passengers flew to Manchester from London last year, and the new route from Southend means travellers near the capital have a third airport option.

The route will feature three daily services Monday to Friday, one on Saturdays and two on Sundays.

Flights will be offered aboard the ATR-72 with 72 seats.

Glyn Jones, chief executive of Southend airport owner Stobart Aviation, said: “We’re excited about launching the new route.”

The airport recorded a 300 per cent increase in passenger numbers on its Flybe routes.The increase comes after Stobart Air introduced the first of its new fleet of long-distance Embraer E195 jet aircraft to Flybe’s expanded route network, which includes Lyon, Milan, Budapest and Prague.

The first jet flights on the new routes began in May. Since then, almost 163,000 seats have been sold. In April, prior to the introduction of the jet fleet, Flybe passenger numbers at the airport were more than 8,700. Following its introduction, passenger numbers rose to more than 35,000.