Esken and Carlyle Group spar over loan at London Southend Airport: what is the airport’s attraction?

The Stobart organisation, latterly known as 'Esken', and one that arose out of what is now a legendary British road-trucking company, became a conglomerate as it dabbled in multiple other sectors while always centring its affairs on logistics.

Those other sectors involved rail and air transport, and it wasn't the only UK operator from outside aviation to invest in airports; almost every single one of them has now exited the sector or has been taken over.

It invested in a (now defunct) airline and two airports, in southeast and northwest England - acquiring the ailing, general aviation-focused London Southend Airport for a bargain price, and built it up admirably to an annual tally of two million passengers.

But that progress was reversed by the COVID-19 pandemic, from which it has not recovered; a 'long COVID', which resulted in it accepting a partially ring-fenced loan from the US investment firm Carlyle and then putting the airport on the market.

Now Carlyle, pointing to alleged financial impropriety in the repayment of the loan, which Esken denies, wants its money back and by mid-Feb-2024.

The loan might still be converted to equity, but the elephant in the room isn't the investment giant itself so much as what the prospects are for an airport that is peripheral to the wider London market, and why such organisations covet them.