Aptly for Valentine's Day, Ryanair passengers will soon be able to fly to one of the most romantic cities in the world from Southend.

The much-maligned - but ever-popular - airline has announced a new route to Venice Treviso airport, which located about 40km from Venice.

There will be four flights per week, taking the firm's total routes from Southend Airport to 11.

Ryanair is set to launch a £225million centre at Southend Airport in April.

Other additions have also been made to routes from Luton, Stansted and Gatwick.

Kenny Jacobs, a spokesman for Ryanair, said: "We are pleased to launch our London winter 2019 schedule with over 150 routes in total, which will deliver 26m customers through our four London airports this year. The first 5 of our new Boeing MAX “Gamechanger” will be based at London Stansted this Summer, offering more legroom and bright new interiors.

London customers and visitors can now book seats as far as March 2020 and enjoy our latest customer care improvements, so there’s never been a better time to book a low fare flight with Ryanair.

To celebrate the launch of our London winter 2019 schedule, we are releasing seats for sale from London from just £19.99 for travel in September and October, which are available for booking until midnight Saturday (16 Feb). Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.”