Works get underway on 7 January 2019 on a £10 million essential maintenance project to upgrade the durability and performance of the runway at London Southend Airport.
The airport is now a significant employer, playing a key role in regenerating the local area as well as offering accessible leisure and business travel to people across Essex and the South East. The work is expected to last approximately three months.
Over the past few years the number of passengers using the airport has grown to 1.5 million and this number is expected to rise further in 2019.
This upgrade is part of the strategic plan for ongoing investment to cater for increased aircraft operations, which will lead to even more local job creation – including the 750 “on-site” jobs created per year with the opening of a new Ryanair base at London Southend in summer 2019.
The majority of the works will be undertaken during night time in order to keep the airport operating smoothly during the day. The runway will be closed to all aircraft between the hours 23:30h – 06:30h to enable the contractors to carry out the planned works in a safe environment.
Stobart Aviation owns London Southend Airport and chief executive officer, Glyn Jones said: “It is essential to maintain a safe runway. The last set of major runway works were in 2011 and were part of the runway extension development.
“Previous to that, maintenance was carried out in 1994. As part of the strategic plan for continued investment to cater for the growth of the airport, within our existing S106 Planning Agreement, we are enhancing the durability and performance of the runway.”
He added: “We value our relationship with the local community and, although the nature of these works means that some disturbance is unavoidable, we will be putting a series of measures in place and making every effort possible to ensure that any disturbance is kept to an absolute minimum.”
