Flights to two popular tourist destinations - including the long-awaited Alicante route - return to Southend Airport this weekend.

The easyJet flights to Paris and Alicante resume this Sunday (October 29) as the new routes were announced this summer.

Southend Airport will be celebrating the occasion with another SDTV livestream, which often see thousands of viewers tuning in.

Last November, the airport bid farewell to its final commercial passenger flight of 2022 with a special livestream which was viewed by more than 10,000 people.

Hundreds of flight enthusiasts also tuned in to watch two easyJet flights take off for Palma de Mallorca and Malaga when the routes returned for summer 2023.

A spokesman for Southend Airport shared on social media: "If you’re travelling that day, make sure to wave up towards the London Southend Airport Air Traffic Control tower!"

From this weekend, the Paris service will operate up to four times a week, with flights will departing on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays all year round. When the route was announced in May, it became the fifth destination easyJet had added to Southend Airport.

Now, after the hotly-anticipated announcement of Alicante flights in August and a new route to Grenoble added last month, easyJet now operates flights to eight destinations from Southend.

Advisers have recently been appointed by Esken to help with the sale of Southend Airport as bosses have insisted the business has “strong potential” with the right ownership. Travel experts have also echoed the view, stating the continuous adding of new routes and destinations will “boost the confidence of any potential buyer”.

Esken revealed the business had been put up for sale and the process to sell had been started in June.