London Southend Airport is really taking off. After years living in the shadows of London’s other airports, the once-popular airport is now on the way back up.

Although for many years it’s been a place to find mouth-wateringly rare aircraft in storage and between owners (which to some extent continues to this day), the airport finally has some scheduled routes to shout about, and a bunch of new infrastructure being built ready for this year’s London Olympic Games. Southend is one of the closest airports to the games, so I expect it will be pretty busy around that period.

Here’s an update on the airport’s growth and plans:

- Runway extension has now been built, with the taxiways all improved and new lighting added. Full runway will be in operation from March.

- Scheduled services to Ireland have started with Aer Arann.

- easyJet begin routes to 9 European destinations from April, with 3 based Airbus A319 aircraft.

- The new control tower and railway station (with fast links to London) have been opened.

- New terminal under construction, to be opened in February. Extended apron and stands almost complete.

- New Holiday Inn under construction at the airport.

I’ll be visiting this year to check out the new facilities and to see what the viewing situation is like with the new roads, runway, hotel and terminal. You may want to schedule a visit to Southend during the Olympics as I think it will get quite busy.

Why not send us a trip report if you use one of the new easyJet routes?

Storage airports are a big draw for enthusiasts, giving them the chance to catch up with airliners before they meet the scrapman, or as they rest in between jobs. Quite often they’re stored a long way from their home, giving the spotter something unusual to see without travelling so far.

When you think of storage airports, chances are you’ll think of those in Arizona, California and New Mexico, where the desert keeps airliners in good condition. But in the UK we have a number of airports where you can go see stored airliners. Here are the top 6:

1. Kemble, Gloucestershire (Map)
Kemble has recently rebranded itself as Cotswold Airport, in honour of the area of natural beauty in which it resides. It’s located in south-west England, around 2 hours drive from London. Here you’ll find a steady stream of airliners coming to be scrapped, from B737 and A320 to B747. It is also a base for Lufthansa Technik, who deal with a lot of BAe 146/Avro RJ aircraft.

2. Lasham, Hampshire (Map)
Mainly a rework centre, where airliners come to get new identities, Lasham is nevertheless a place where you can often find B727, B737, B757 and A320 airliners in open storage. It is around 30 mins drive from London, and not far from Farnborough.

3. Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire (Map)
Home to the famous Cold War Jets Collection, including a DH Comet and Victor. Bruntinthorpe is also a place where airliners are scrapped. Recent examples include RAF VC-10′s and KLM B737s.

4. Cardiff, Wales (Map)
Cardiff Airport in southern Wales is a storage and maintenance base for British Airways. Recently, members of their B747-400 fleet have been stored here, and even scrapped.

5. Exeter, Devon (Map)
Near the south-west coast of England, Exeter is a small regional airport and home to Flybe. It is a place where aircraft are stored and maintained between operators – particularly those leaving the Flybe fleet, such as BAe 146, EMB-145 and DHC-8  aircraft. There are also some used as fire trainers.

6. London Southend (Map)
One of the fastest growing airports thanks to its new terminal and routes, London Southend is also a busy place for aircraft maintenance and storage. You’ll see a lot of B737 and A320 aircraft getting new identities, and BAe146/Avro RJ aircraft in storage.

For those in need of any Aloha Boeing 737-700′s, three of them are currently parked up at Southend Airport to the east of London. They are in open storage following the airline ceasing operations.

The three aircraft, N740AL, N741AL and N742AL (possibly to be joined by more) are parked in the south east corner of the airfield, and can be seen from the perimeter road.