LONDON – The owner of Southend Airport has confirmed that the site has been put up for sale raising concerns over the stability of its finances.
The airport is located approximately 42 miles east of central London and is owned by UK infrastructure company, Esken which is passing through tough times in terms of its financial viability.
The group warned, “there is a material uncertainty in respect of [its] going concern assumption and the directors have exercised a significant degree of judgement in concluding that the group remains a going concern.”
The future of the firm seems bleak as its shares nosedived by 25% to 2.79p while the stock is down 67% over the past year.
The firm has been struggling with its business and last year arranged a £50 million borrowing facility to keep its finances afloat, but it said it “concluded that the interests of all stakeholders would be best served by seeking a new owner for each of the core businesses through a managed sale process.”
The selling spree comes despite the fact that the company recently secured a multi-year agreement with easyJet, which will see the airline operate a new route to Amsterdam, besides the three existing destinations of Malaga, Majorca and Faro.
As far as the airport is concerned, it had been closed to commercial passengers during coronavirus travel restrictions until it reopened last summer.
The airport was bought by Esken, previously known as Stobart Group in 2008 for £21 million but unfortunately, many leading carriers quit the facility from Southend, including EasyJet, Ryanair and Wizzair. So far, only EasyJet has returned.
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