SOUTHEND Airport bosses in discussion with airline firms over “no brainer” of brining back Alicante flights to the city.

With easyJet not currently able to operate flights to and from Alicante – as the budget airline giant currently has no aircraft based in the Spanish coastal city – Southend Airport bosses are in talks with other firms over setting up flights.

Pre-pandemic, easyJet ran flights 10 times a week, with Ryanair additionally running five weekly flights to Alicante from Southend.

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The route had 200,000 passengers and planes were on average 91 per cent full, airport bosses have said in an open bid to entice an airline into taking up the route once again.

London Southend airport business development director Nigel Mayes said: “This is an absolute ‘no brainer’ of a market and we are working tirelessly to get an Alicante service back into our schedules for 2023.

“Our confidence in the market will be demonstrated in our support of the service, as we will provide the lowest airport fees into London and partner the promotion of the popular route.

“London and Essex are expensive to advertise in, but we will aid the deployment of innovative campaigns in which will support excellent airline yield and load factor results”.

Southend Airport is in active talks with potential partners and is looking to hold further conversations with further potential airline partners to bring the route back.

And airport bosses claim traffic is now returning after what has been a slow initial pandemic recovery.

This year, easyJet is providing flights to Palma de Mallorca, Faro, Malaga, and Amsterdam, a 30 per cent increase of total flights over last year’s offering.

However, this falls short of the previous 40+ routes and airport bosses are keen to see Alicante it’s historically “most profitable destination” return.  

Southend Airport’s pandemic recovery has been slower than most airports in the country.

UK airports recovered on average to about 80 per cent of their pre-pandemic numbers in 2022, but Southend clocked up just 5 per cent of summer 2019’s passengers last year.

Airport bosses say this has been due to the protection of slots and need to consolidate and constrain capacity at other London airports.

The other five “London” airports are expected to be 95 per cent of 2019 levels this summer