Southend Airport

Again another great trip through here nice and quiet breezed through security and all the basic facilities you need rather than trying to turn it into a huge shopping mall. All the staff were very polite and helpful and the airport spotless and now even more room with the new terminal extension. This is my third time through Southend and I will use it as much as I can in future. Just one little gripe had to wait for sometime for our baggage on the return trip which was a bit frustrating as we were the only flight in and there was only a few waiting for baggage.

Security check allows some passengers to get away with more than the 1 litre liquids allowance others don't no lounge facilities for frequent travellers terminal facilities limited no tax free international terminal? Always problems with rental car (Europcar) ridiculous prices for one beer waiting area not very inviting sorry but when my destination was not so close I would fly somewhere else (I fly every week).

Although the airport is very clean and modern it is let down by the rude and inefficient security staff who were an irritant both on departure and arrival. Passport control especially on arrival was slow and there was insufficient space in the arrival hall to accommodate everyone comfortably. To add insult to injury the long term car park tried to charge me £50 to leave despite the fact I had pre booked and prepaid my stay in full. My advice would be to avoid this airport and look to use Stansted or Luton instead.

Not really fair to review the facilities as the new extension is due to be opened any day and this should alleviate the current shortage of seating in the departure area. I would however hope that once the new extension is open gate 1A will no longer be used. This gate entails a walk from the departure gate to the aircraft under a semi-enclosed walkway open to the elements on one side. I can't imagine this will be much fun on a cold wet windy day in February especially as there may be a need to wait in this walkway for some time [10 minutes in our case] before boarding proceeds.

First time through SEN ended up one way as a big storm caused me to re-route back to LGW. Very good from start to finish - ground staff working well-security perhaps a few more smiles but that section was very busy. Once through enough space for the departing flights clear flight calls and only a short walk to the aircraft. Will use again especially as the building work is nearly done (Dec 2013) and it will be 3x bigger. I arrived by train 100 m platform to door. All in all will be using whenever I can now. One footnote never seen so many careful cleaners doing a good job-the place was spotless.

I have flown from this airport several times over the last year and every time I am impressed. This is undoubtedly the most pleasant airport I have ever travelled through miles better than the alternatives such as Stansted and Luton. By virtue of its small size passing through is incredibly swift I have been on the train to London within 12 minutes of arriving! I have never had to queue for any length of time at security and although the terminal is compact it copes admirably even when busy and results in very fast transit times through the terminal. There's lots of building work going on at the moment yet this has not impacted adversely on the airport experience. When the terminal extension is completed by the end of this year the airport will be even better! Could not recommend more highly the airport deserves every success.

Recently flew Southend - Barcelona and return I found the whole "Southend" experience very poor. Cramped departure lounge rude arrogant security staff found myself waiting around for 20 minutes in a walkway to a building site on return had to walk over 5 minutes to passport control which had big queue's even for EU passport holders? Overall not a pleasant experience and I will be looking towards other airports now this airport is neither big enough nor capable enough to operate as a low cost regional.

Charging people to drop off friends and relatives in the car park opposite the terminal is unacceptable. There is no set-down area. I always get the taxi to drop me off at the roundabout!

If this airport does not sort out its problems with Passport Control it won't survive. My flight into Southend took 1 hour and 35 minutes which left me with 40 minutes to get my connecting train. However it took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get through passport control. For people to have to stand queuing for 75 minutes at an off-peak time while border control sit there without a care in the world is totally unacceptable. To do this to passengers at midnight is criminal. I will go back to using Stansted - its not ideal but it beats Southend.

An ok airport. Easy check-in and through security but the departure lounge was a let down. One overpriced cafe with very limited choices and mediocre to poor food and no cleaners so was a bit messy. Calls to gates were an hour before departure even though they are literally 2 metres away meaning snaking queues all through the departure lounge. A convenient airport but don't expect any frills!