The airport is owned by the Stobart Group, which also owns the airline involved: Stobart Air. From May, it will fly in the colours of Flybe to a range of cities and beach destinations.

Fares for the flights in Embraer 195 commuter jets are competitive: a weekend in Budapest in May is being sold for £80 return, while a week in Dubrovnik departing on the first Saturday in August is priced at £158 return.

Other destinations include Cologne, Lyon, Venice and Vienna.

In the past, links from Southend to destinations such as Maastricht and Nantes have failed to become profitable. But the airport’s chief executive, Glyn Jones, told The Independent he was confident about the new tranche of routes:

“You can never absolutely know, and it is inevitably the case that some routes are very successful and others are less successful. But we’re confident we can persuade travellers from east London to use us instead of the alternatives.”

Southend’s location, outside the congested London air-traffic area and close to the Continent, means flight times are shorter than from other airports serving the capital.

But the rail journey from London takes 54 minutes, one reason why Southend took last place in The Independent’s survey of airport transport links earlier this month.

Mr Jones said: “What really makes a difference is how quickly you get through the airport. You can be off the train and into the terminal in a minute, and through the terminal in 15 minutes.”