The small London airport that puts the others to shame

The airport: London Southend Airport (SEN)

The flight

EasyJet EJU7512 from London, UK to Faro, Portugal (FAO).

Main terminal, London Southend Airport.Credit: Alamy

The arrival

The airport is 66 kilometres east of central London, near Southend-on-Sea. I’m staying with friends 20 minutes’ drive away, so I grab a lift with them and arrive unflustered and in good time. The train connection is just as seamless. It takes 52 minutes from London Liverpool Street to the purpose-built station just a minute’s walk from the airport terminal. The station lies outside the Oyster/contactless zone, so a ticket must be purchased for £20.90 ($41). Arriving passengers can buy train tickets from dispensers in the arrivals hall.

The look

London’s freneticism is soothed by the bucolic setting and compact layout of this multi-award-winning airport. Until the 1970s it was one of London’s busiest hubs; since then it has served as a minor international airport. The new terminal, built in 2012, is a steel-and-glass edifice bordered by a lawn where some passengers relax before check-in. The designers have clearly taken women’s ablution-related entreaties to heart: toilet stalls are plentiful in the women’s restrooms. Though departures were dampened by the pandemic, the airport expects to at least double its pre-pandemic passenger numbers, a relief for other London airports fast approaching capacity. From here, easyJet connects with various European destinations and BHAir flies to Bourgas in Bulgaria.

Check-in

Check in queues move swiftly.Credit: Getty Images

Passengers can check in at the airport or online up to 60 days before the easyJet flight. The queue at the check-in/bag drop facility moves swiftly, and it takes just a few minutes for my documents to be checked and bag dispatched by the uber-friendly staff, 80 per cent of whom live locally.

Security

Is there something in Southend’s water? The security personnel, like the check-in-staff, are unequivocally relaxed and genial. Outside the security area is a line of bins for liquids over 100 millilitres, lighters (passengers can carry one each) and sharps, and floor-to-ceiling signs clarifying the security protocol – what to remove from your bag, what to leave inside it. I’m delighted with the lime-green “repacking” booths at the opposite end of the conveyor belt, where I can refill my backpack without other passengers breathing down my neck.

Food + drink

Big on amenities: London Southend departure lounge cafe.Credit: Alamy

Sandwiches and snacks are available from WH Smith’s food section, and The Sky Cafe and The Pilot bar serve light snacks, coffees and alcoholic drinks. But it’s dinnertime, and the pub – The Navigator – is buzzing. The menu includes wood-fired pizza and burgers with names like “Southender”, “Cockney” and “Edgy Veggie”. European wines, cocktails and local ales are on tap. The pub reopened recently after a pandemic shutdown – it’s open on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday afternoons from up to three hours before scheduled departures.

Retail therapy

A duty-free shop sells the usual luxury items, and the aforementioned WH Smith stocks a large selection of books, souvenirs and beautifully packaged edibles.

Passing time

Pre-security I browse the pop-art mural of King Charles by Southend City Jam artist Karl Sims, and an exhibit on “Connecting Threads”, a community textile project honouring garment workers who lost their lives in a Bangladeshi factory collapse in 2013. If I had postcards and stamps with me, I’d pen missives and drop them into the red Royal Mail postbox near the check-in desks. In the departures hall, passengers can access the SKYLIFE Lounge for £28 ($55), but I linger in the convivial pub until my flight is called.

The verdict

Southend has the intimacy and ambience of a regional airport, and amenities that put many larger airports to shame. Let’s hope the charm is retained as the airport grows.

Our rating out of five

★★★★½

The writer travelled at her own expense.