Ryanair to fly from London Southend Airport in 2019

Southend will be the low-cost airline's fourteenth base in the UK

Ryanair will begin operating flights from London Southend Airport next year, it has announced.

The budget airline said it will base three planes at the airport from April and fly 13 routes to eight countries, including Spain and Greece.

More than 55 flights a week will see Ryanair carry an estimated one million passengers per year.

Southend will be the fourteenth base for the low-cost airline and "create 750 jobs", according to research.

Planned new routes include five flights per week to Alicante and Malaga in Spain, twice daily flights to Dublin and other flights to Portugal, Italy and Venice.

Ryanair's new base at London Southend Airport will "help sustain 750 new jobs"

Basing three aircraft at the Essex airport will create "about 100 direct Ryanair jobs for cabin crew and pilots", a spokesman for the budget airline said.

In addition, the estimated "one million customers Ryanair will deliver through the airport will sustain 750 ancillary jobs, according to Airports Council International research", he added.

Warwick Brady, the chief executive of Stobart Group, which owns and operates London Southend Airport, said Ryanair's move would help the airport's strategy to welcome more than five million passengers a year by 2022.

Ryanair customers recently faced numerous flight cancellations during a row about pilot rotas.