London Southend Airport is flying well above the rest – and now it’s official. The latest stats from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have confirmed what many in the industry suspected: London Southend is the UK’s fastest growing airport, bar none.
Passenger numbers have more than doubled in just four months – boasting a whopping106% increase between January and April 2025. To put that into perspective, its nearest rival was general aviation airport Biggin Hill with a 67% rise, while Londonderry in Northern Ireland managed 56% in the same period.
The UK-wide average is 3.2% growth. And among London’s big six airports? 1.7%compared to 2024 numbers.
This turbo-charged performance comes after aviation data experts RDC crowned London Southend as the top contributor to London’s extra summer flight capacity, with more than half of the capital’s new summer seats departing from London Southend Airport.
Airport CEO Jude Winstanley is understandably thrilled with the latest data. He said: “The UK CAA figures confirm what I said at the start of June – we expect 2025 to be a year of industry-leading growth at London Southend. Even more impressive? We’re delivering these incredible results while keeping our reputation as London’s easy, speedy, friendly airport completely intact.”
Powering this growth has been the opening of the three-aircraft easyJet base in April, as well as other new routes such as Eastern Airways to Newquay.
And the fast growth looks like it is here to stay, as just last week London Southend announced more new routes for its winter schedule, which begins at the end of October, with Berlin and Grenoble being announced by easyJet. These new destinations join three other new easyJet routes for the winter – Barcelona, Lanzarote and Salzburg – and takes the number of destinations it flies from London Southend up to 22.