Southend Airport – Heli & Fly

Fly abroad via Southend

Helipaddy pilots are constantly looking different ways to use the helicopter. So how about flying to Mallorca? This trip normally takes around 8 hours including a couple of fuel stops and you have to arrive before Son Bonet closes. Another way is to divert to Southend (£30 landing fee for the Robinson), jump on an Easyjet (£21 already bought in advance), and leave the heli for £18/day.

This is now possible, you just need to know about it. Southend is pretty heli-friendly, surprisingly so for a “London” airport. Their FBO (London Stansted Jet Centre) came in the top 3 in AIN’s “Best FBO’s in the EMEA Region” last year.

You certainly cannot do this at Heathrow, City, Stansted, Luton or Gatwick all of which don’t wish to see you.

Even the Business Jet airports around London are nothing like as heli-friendly. Take Farnborough at £280 to land an R66 or Biggin who charge £160 and make you take a minibus from one vast area of tarmac to another.

At Southend, drop down on the North Apron and walk over to the “VP” or Visitors Parking exit. Now enter the commercial area as normal.

Southend Airport still offers a bearable experience, small and largely crowd-free. At the time of writing a single to Palma was £23, even less than their landing fee. If you departed from your home in Hampshire, for example, you would be at departures within the hour, quicker than any other airport when measured by “home to departures”.

Whilst your heli sits on the apron, the refuellers will happily top up your Avgas or Jet-A1. The Jet-A1 is billable on your BP Sterling Card. For more information on Southend, see the AIP but also look at the reviews and tips in Helipaddy.

Southend schedules

Southend commercial schedules are very variable with the airport making a renewed push to attract operators in 2025. EZ in the table below is EasyJet and BH is BH Air.