The airline is basing three aircraft at the Essex airport and will offer 20 routes, aiming squarely at the leisure market.

EasyJet holidays chief executive Garry Wilson said on Monday (31 March) one in four sales from Southend was for package holidays, which he said was driven by local agents. “This is the first airport where every single flight seat, we will have a holiday for sale,” he said.

The Southend catchment has the largest percentage of travel agent bookings of any of easyJet holidays’ London airports - 13%. "It also has a higher than average star rating – 80% [of bookings] are for four or five-star hotels, which is significantly bigger than our UK average," Wilson said.

"We have been really supported by local travel agents. The thing I have noticed is how embedded in the community the airport is. I think that has really extended to the high street, they have really supported us."

Wilson continued: "When we developed the network, we knew there was higher demand for leisure travel, so we launched routes like North Africa and mainland Spain. We’re seeing big demand for Marrakech, Tunisia, Dalaman.”

There was more to come, he said, despite the airport’s short runway limiting some destinations. “Egypt, we could do with a limited payload, that is something we could consider for the future," he said.

"It would be good to introduce Greece and more of North Africa – there’s a huge opportunity that we can grow on the current footprint.”

However, Wilson said new generation engines on the Airbus A320neos it is stationing at Southend meant flights could reach the Canaries and Turkey, unlike before.

EasyJet previously had five aircraft at Southend, but pulled out of the airport during the pandemic. However, easyJet said flights from other non-based aircraft meant capacity at Southend was equal to five aircraft.

Wilson acknowledged there was “clearly a crossover with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays at Stansted", but added: “If you look at some of our most successful airports, we are side-by-side [with rivals] and we are both seeing decent growth. We have the product and the demand is there, we can co-exist.”

’First step’

Southend attracts 60% of its passengers from Greater London, 30% from Essex and 10% from north Kent. The airport has a direct link from London’s Liverpool Street station taking around 53 minutes, with six trains an hour at peak.

Ryanair, Loganair, Wizz Air and Flybe previously offered flights there and at its peak, two million passengers were handled. This fell to 280,000 last year. Marc Watkins, Southend’s route development manager, said the airport hoped to attract 750,000 passengers this year. 

Watkins said securing easyJet was “the first step” in restoring passenger numbers and that he regarded the airline as the anchor tenant despite talking to others. He added any other carrier would need to be complementary to easyJet. Tui is a long-term ambition.

“You can buy a Tui holiday from Southend airport but you fly on easyJet," said Watkins. "Perhaps Tui will think, ’why don’t we sell it ourselves?’."