Southend Airport runway upgrade to take three months

The £10m runway upgrade is being carried out before Ryanair opens a new base at London Southend Airport this summer

An airport will shut overnight for the next three months while its runway gets a £10m upgrade.

From Monday, London Southend Airport will close to aircraft between 23:30 and 06:30 GMT.

The "essential maintenance" is being carried out before Ryanair opens its new base at the airport this summer.

Glyn Jones, chief executive of airport owners Stobart Aviation, said disruption would be kept "to an absolute minimum".

The work will "enhance the durability and performance" of the runway and is part of an ongoing programme of investment to cater for an increased number of aircraft.

London Southend Airport currently flies to about 40 destinations and serves 1.5 million passengers a year - but this number is expected to grow.

Mr Jones said: "The last set of major runway works were in 2011 and were part of the runway extension development. Previous to that, maintenance was carried out in 1994.

"Although the nature of these works means that some disturbance is unavoidable, we will be making every effort possible to ensure that any disturbance is kept to an absolute minimum."