More easyJet flights are returning to Southend Airport this month.

The budget airline giant ran flights last year from between May and October 31 – having returned to the airport after quitting operations during the pandemic.

Its first flight of the year took off on March 29 for Malaga, and flights to Palma, Faro and Amsterdam are back this month.

Southend Airport be officially welcoming the restart of its Palma flight on Wednesday, with some extra activity on its social media pages including a livestream.

Flights to Amsterdam, operating four times a week, and Faro will take off again on May 24.

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

While most UK airports 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 additional operations will see easyJet’s operations at Southend increase by 30 per cent compared to summer 2022.

Southend Airport's traffic control shared a photo of an easyJet plane at the airport today, tweeting: "This morning, we welcomed the first flight of the season from Palma de Mallorca!

"This month will also see the return of Faro and Amsterdam, in addition to Malaga, which has been running for a month or so."

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An airport spokesman responded: "A wonderful photo from Chris in the air traffic team!

"We’ll be officially welcoming the restart of our Palma flight this Wednesday, yes, with some extra activity including a livestream (of the easyJet Palma and Malaga departure) by SDTV."

Southend Airport's duty free, pop-up bar and WHSmith store have all also re-opened alongside a new cafe.