Kevin the Carrot, the Aldi supermarket mascot and star of its festive advertising campaign, was pretty much the only passenger due to fly out from Southend airport this Christmas. And even he missed his plane.

The airport’s security lanes and departure lounge are the backdrop for the budget supermarket’s pre-Christmas advert, a pastiche of a classic 1990s Nike ad featuring the original Ronaldo, in which the adventuring carrot is so busy kicking a ball around the terminal he fails to join his family on their flight.

Aldi has been one of the few morsels of festive cheer for Southend – and a precious source of revenue in a year in which budget airlines and cargo flights have deserted London’s sixth airport. For now, all scheduled flights have ceased, and management face an uphill battle to keep the business afloat.

Redeveloped with soaring ambition a decade ago, Southend looked set to grow exponentially as airlines including easyJet and Ryanair established bases.

In a post-Olympic period where the talk was of the capital’s centre of gravity moving east, it looked ever more convenient. Southend was, after all, the nearest functioning spot to where Boris Johnson dreamed a four-runway super-hub airport should be located, in the Thames estuary.

But then came Covid. And while UK airports have recovered on average to about 80% of their pre-pandemic numbers,…