Customers have four destinations to fly to from Southend Airport this summer as a new get-away location has been announced.

Holidaymakers can jet off to the lively capital of the Netherlands from Southend Airport from May, easyJet has announced today.

The budget airline giant has added flights to Amsterdam operating four times a week from the south Essex city with flights starting from £31.99.

The first flight will take off on May 24, becoming the fourth destination easyJet will serve from Southend.

EasyJet has also added additional flights to Faro from Southend this summer – up to four a week.

This is alongside the four flights a week to Majorca and six to Malaga.

These additional operations will be a huge boost for the airport and see easyJet’s operations at Southend increase by 30 per cent compared to summer 2022.

While most UK airports have recovered on average to about 80 per cent of their pre-pandemic numbers, Southend clocked up just 5 per cent of summer 2019’s passengers last year.

The announcement has sparked hope among customers that more destinations will be added from Southend soon - with the eagerly anticipated Alicante at the top of their lists.

Southend Airport bosses are also in talks with easyJet to bring back a base for the budget airline, and commercial director Caroline Fitzgerald told BBC Essex this morning that the bosses are in constant conversations with airlines over possible new routes.