Bosses at Southend Airport say they are seeing an increase in interest from airlines as it continues to help out other airports and airlines by taking extra flights.

The airport welcomed a Blue Air flight to Bucharest yesterday as its campaign to support airlines continues to gather pace.

The Blue Air flight is the second of its kind in the space of a week, and London Southend Airport also welcomed flights from Sky Express to Athens and Wideroe to Bergen in late July.

A spokesman said: "Southend Airport has been working with airlines that are currently struggling to add additional flights at established London airports. Unlike those established London airports, Southend Airport has available slots and the capacity to welcome additional flights."

Nigel Mayes, business development director at Southend Airport said, “We are in the fortunate position to be able to offer airlines capacity to meet passenger demand at a time of significant stress at other London airports. We have been delighted with the response from airlines and have had an increasing number of enquires for both this Summer and next. They are attracted by our ability to offer peak time slots, frequent trains from London Liverpool Street and Stratford, and our quick and easy passenger experience.”

Krassimir Tanev, chief commercial officer at Blue Air, stated that “We are delighted to add additional capacity to London during the peak holiday season by operating from London Southend Airport. Although we are only operating some ad hoc flights at the current time, we have been impressed by the swift response from the airport’s management team to cater for our flights at very short notice.”