Stobart Group unexpected buyer of London Southend Airport from Regional Airports Ltd for GBP21 mill

At one stage London City Airport, owned by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a consortium of GE and Credit Suisse, had seemed favourite to acquire Southend Airport, some 50 miles to the east of the capital in Essex. Once the base of British Island Airways, it handled up to 700,000 passengers annually in its heyday,but had been unable to raise passenger throughput much above 200,000. The vendor, Regional Airports, has this year made it clear it preferred to focus its efforts on the general aviation Biggin Hill Airport in southeast London, expanding it to attract more business jet flights and possibly commercial airlines in the future.