The only way out of Essex next year is likely to be via Southend International Airport as there will be direct flights to all the favourite parts of Spain beloved by the characters of the hit television show, The Only Way Is Essex.
EasyJet, with 70 flights a week has just announced its routes and fares from “our new airport”. The low cost airline made sure five of the first eight routes will be to Spanish favourite Costas plus Ibiza and Mallorca. And with inclusive low fares from £25.99 next summer it could become a daily shuttle service.
From April, EasyJet aims to fly 800,000 Essex folks for weeks of sun, sea, sex and sangria and away from London 2012 visitor millions, who will crowd them out of from their traditional London playgrounds.
When ITV launched the provocative The Only Way Is Essex, the network described it as a voyage into “the glamorous world of Essex… the place where nail bars, nightclubs and tanning salons are a big part of everybody’s life.”
It will be same in Costa resorts served by EasyJet, except the tanning will be real, and Essex man and Woman can be enjoying the change of scenery in a couple of hours.
On TV, Essex is depicted as a land of nightclubs and nail-bars – in contrast to the Seventies image of white van man, shell-suits, super-charged Ford Capris and white stiletto’d girls driving pink cars with a set of furry dice on the dashboard?
The Daily Telegraph said the programme “follows the lives of a group of Essex belles and beaux, united only by a sweaty desperation to be richer, better-looking and more sexually successful than any of their friends.”
And that can be achieved equally well on quickie trips to Spain to top-up tans and snap-up a Spanish bank repossesion apartment in Marbella before they run out…Fans of the show are predicting the next series will include a Marbella Special when the cast jet-out to party along the Golden Mile of mansions and nightclubs.
Producers think a show would work “amazingly well in Marbella”. Said a spokesman: “The pilot has featured parts of Marbella and nearby Puerto Banus. With nightclubs, yachts and millionaires, a fly-on-the wall series could go down a treat.”
EasyJet customer and revenue director Catherine Lynn said: “We are excited to be opening Southend. The airport is in a fantastic location offering easy and affordable travel. We expect the new routes to appeal to customers in Essex.”
© Property in Spain 2003-2007
By Kevin Barnett, 26 Jul 2011
