Southend: Airport Flying High In Survey

Southend Airport, which opened its new terminal last year, is now the most popular small airport in the country according to a new survey.

In Which? magazine's small airport satisfaction table, 84% of travellers who responded said they were satisfied with Southend, wiith Humberside scoring 81% and Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield airport at 78%. The survey also awarded Southend five stars for information and navigation.

The  survey also showed that Stansted airport had the longest average check-in desk waiting times in England and Southend the shortest.

Which? said its survey results also showed that online check-in was "failing to put an end to lengthy queues at our airports with very little difference in the time people waited at check-in desks compared with bag drop desks after checking in online."

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: "Our research shows a jumbo jet-sized gap in the performance of UK airports with smaller terminals generally performing better.

"It is clear some of our major airports have some work to do if they are to keep more of their passengers satisfied."

Southend Airport reopened in March 2012 after work to improve the terminal, with easyJet as its first major airline. To date, easyJet has carried more than a million customers from the Essex terminal to 14 destinations in Europe.