London Southend Airport
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{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |London Southend Airport
|- !colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Runways |- !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Direction !bgcolor="lightgrey" colspan="2"|Length !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Surface |- !bgcolor="lightgrey"|ft !bgcolor="lightgrey"|m |- !align="left" valign="top"|06/24 |valign="top" align="right"|5,023 |valign="top" align="right"|1,531 |valign="top"|Asphalt
London Southend Airport is a small airport in south east England, in the county of Essex. It mainly operates charter and business flights, and offers maintenance services for the aircraft used for passenger services at larger airports. The airport is actually closer to Rochford than it is to Southend. A frequent rail service runs from Rochford to London (Liverpool Street) and buses and taxis are available outside the existing terminal.
The airport has planning consent to build a new terminal and railway station on the eastern boundary of the airport, which will provide an integrated transport interchange. It is hoped that this will be built and operational in 2008.
The only regular air service is a scheduled flight to Jersey on summer Saturdays. Aircraft can be chartered from based airlines Flightline and Fly Now Air Charter.
There is much activity at the airport from business aircraft, pilot training in both aircraft and helicopters, recreational flying, etc. The airport employs over 1000 people in companies based on the airport, mostly concerned with the maintenance and re-spraying of airliners, and associated companies. An annual seafront airshow in Southend results in many aircraft being temporarily based at the airport for the duration of the displays.
Maintenance work at Southend Airport includes re-painting, the renewal of seating, upgrades to avionics and installation of hush-kits on engines and the conversion of passenger aircraft into cargo carriers.
The airport's ambition to restart passenger flights dovetails with Government aims outlined in the White Paper on airport development and the strategic 'Thames Gateway' development. Undoubtedly the airport will have a role to play in supporting the 2012 London Olympics in East London. Whilst a local consultation carried out by the airport showed that most people in the area are in favour of the airport's proposals, a minority of the local population have objections to this. In 2002/3 a debate centered on the idea of relocating a church further away from the side of the main runway. This would have enabled passenger aircraft, of a size already regularly seen at the airport for maintenance purposes, to offer passenger flights to domestic UK and European destinations.
However, a compromise scheme, that sees the church remain where it is, has now been worked out, implemented and licensed by the CAA, at the expense of slightly shortening the available runway lengths. This means that passenger flights will be able to restart, but with aircraft of a size similar to those in already in use both at Southend and at London City airport.
ATC (Lasham) is the major engineering company at the airport, having taken over Heavylift Engineering company. Other companies include Air Livery, Inflite Engineering, Flightline Aircraft Engineering, JRB Aviation, Avionicare, IAVNA and BAC Engineering.
London Southend Airport has an excellent weather record, which means that many smaller airliners use it as a diversion alternative when adverse weather or other incidents cause aircraft to divert in quantity from either Stansted or London City Airport.
The airport is also popular with film-makers, who find that the airport is able to accommodate their needs better than busier airports.
It has a cafe/lounge for spectators and private pilots, an information terminal, a photo booth and a cash machine. Some busy pubs and retail warehouses front the road between the air terminal and the town centre. A preserved Avro Vulcan may be seen from that road. There is no longer a museum at this airport which once reverberated to flying car ferries such as the piston-engined Bristol Freighter.
Military history
The airfield was established by the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. In World War II it became an important fighter base for the RAF. Many of the 50 pillboxes, that were design to protect the airport from paratroop landings, still survive, as does the underground defence control room. A further 20 or so pillboxes also remain in the surrounding countryside.Canewdon, a couple of miles to the north east of the airport, was the location of one of the World War II Chain Home radar stations. One of the 360 foot high transmitter towers can now be found near Great Baddow (2003).
Scheduled destinations
- Flybe (Jersey)
See also
- [''Images of Southend on Sea]
- British military history
- British military history of World War II
- UK topics
External links
| Airports of the United Kingdom |
|---|
| : City | Gatwick | Heathrow | Luton | Stansted | Southend |
| : Birmingham | Blackpool | Bournemouth | Bristol | Doncaster-Sheffield | Durham Tees Valley | Exeter | Leeds-Bradford | Liverpool | Manchester | Newcastle | Norwich | Nottingham East Midlands | Southampton Coventry | Humberside | Land's End | Newquay | Plymouth City | St. Mary's |
| : Aberdeen | Edinburgh | Glasgow International | Glasgow Prestwick | Inverness Barra | Benbecula | Campbeltown | Dundee | Fair Isle | Islay | Kirkwall | Lerwick | Stornoway | Sumburgh | Tiree | Westray | Wick |
| : Cardiff |
| : Belfast City | Belfast International | City of Derry |
| Crown Dependencies: Alderney | Guernsey | Isle of Man | Jersey |
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