Public Figures

Britain’s official statistics

Airport passengers

Southend · May 2026

Southend handled 86,674 terminal passengers in May 2026 — up 4% on May 2025, when it handled 83,204.

Read from the Civil Aviation Authority’s monthly airport data, table 09 — terminal and transit passengers, in the vintage we archived on 11 August 2026.

86,674

terminal passengers

Passengers beginning or ending a journey at Southend, May 2026

That made it the 21st-busiest of the 47 UK airports reporting to the CAA in May 2026.

Its busiest month on our record was August 2019, at 244,582. The record starts in January 2019.

The busiest UK airports in May 2026

  1. 1stHeathrow7,120,998
  2. 2ndGatwick3,738,837
  3. 3rdManchester2,930,308
  4. 4thStansted2,829,477
  5. 5thLuton1,753,706
  6. 6thEdinburgh1,654,718
  7. 7thBirmingham1,306,203
  8. 8thBristol1,077,177
  9. 9thGlasgow817,491
  10. 10 airports between
    21stSouthend86,674
  11. out of 47 UK airports reporting that month

Terminal passengers, as published. Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man report to the CAA but are not in the United Kingdom; they have pages here and are left out of this ranking.

Every month on record

Jan 20190244,582 across 83 readings on recordMay 2026

One cell per month from Jan 2019 to May 2026, shaded from this airport’s own quietest month to its busiest. The record starts in January 2019, which is far enough back to hold a pre-2020 comparison.

The last thirteen months

MonthTerminal passengersIn transitOn the same month a year earlier
May 202686,6740up 4% on May 2025
Apr 202676,8750up 2% on April 2025
Mar 202658,6230up 229% on March 2025
Feb 202649,3520up 236% on February 2025
Jan 202642,9030up 291% on January 2025
Dec 202557,9790up 264% on December 2024
Nov 202553,1030up 292% on November 2024
Oct 202578,7890up 151% on October 2024
Sep 202581,0970up 129% on September 2024
Aug 202589,5860up 155% on August 2024
Jul 202573,1810up 119% on July 2024
Jun 202583,6480up 123% on June 2024
May 202583,2040up 202% on May 2024

Each month is compared with the same month a year earlier, which is the comparison the CAA makes. The percentage here is ours, calculated from the two months in our own series rather than taken from the publisher’s comparison column.