Stansted tops 27m passengers
London Stansted has passed the rolling 27 million passengers a year milestone for the first time in the airports history, following its busiest ever month and a record breaking summer.
Above:
Aerial photo of Stansted’s airfield prior to first wave morning departures.
Stansted welcomed over 2.9 million passengers in August, up 8.5 per cent on last year, as the airport recorded its busiest ever summer season with a total of 8.4 million passengers passing through the terminal during the peak months of June-August. The total was an increase of nearly 700,000 passengers over last summer.
During the month Stansted also recorded its first ever 100,000 plus passenger days with the busiest being 24 August when a total of 101,500 passengers passed through the terminal.
The rolling 12-month total to August 2018 now stands at 27.2 million passengers, an increase of 7.2 per cent over the previous year.
The top five countries reporting the highest growth in passengers across the three-month summer period were Spain, Germany, UK, Turkey and Greece.
Destinations showing the biggest growth in passengers compared to the same period last year included Alicante, Prague, Nice, Naples and Belfast.
In August more than 22,000 tonnes of cargo passed through Stansted, an increase of 3.8 per cent on August 2017 with the annual now standing at just under 263,000.
Chief Executive of London Stansted, Ken O’Toole, said: “Strong collaboration with our airline partners has been needed to contend with air traffic control restrictions, industrial action and extreme weather, and allow us to welcome a record number of passengers to the airport – 700,000 more than last year – and pass the 27 million passengers a year milestone for the first time in the airport’s history.
“As London’s fastest growing airport we expect this upward trend to continue so that’s why we are investing £600m in transforming the airport experience for passengers and have applied for permission to raise the number of passengers we serve to 43 million a year, with a firm commitment to do so without any additional flights or noise impacts beyond our current permissions.”
London Stansted Airport is the third largest in London (4th in UK) – now serving over 27 million passengers a year – firmly positioned as a market leader for short-haul travel across Europe, with over 190 destinations across 38 countries, Stansted serves more scheduled connections to Europe than any other airport in the world apart from Munich.