London Stansted records busiest ever winter season

London Stansted’s extensive route network across Europe and beyond helped the airport record its busiest ever winter season as more than 10.57m passengers passed through the terminal between November and March.

The most popular countries for travellers across the winter were Spain, Italy and Germany with the top individual destinations being Dublin, Istanbul and Edinburgh.

The final month of the winter schedule saw more than 2.27m passengers pass through the terminal in March, the second busiest March on record at the airport. 

The conflict in the Middle East did impact some services, including the popular double daily Emirates route to Dubai, meaning fewer flights operated during the period than normal. This resulted in a small reduction in total passenger numbers for the month. 

March also saw a number of significant new airline route launches, including Turkish Airlines commencing a double daily service to Istanbul that also allows passengers to connect onto over 350 worldwide destinations, plus easyJet’s twice‑weekly route from London Stansted to Paris Charles de Gaulle.

 Stansted’s rolling total for the 12-months ending March 2026 reached 30.02m, an increase of 0.4% on the previous year.  

Nick Millar, London Stansted’s Operations Director, said:

“The winter season was the busiest on record at London Stansted and this growth continues to be driven by the great value, choice and fantastic range of destinations we are able to offer, plus the reliable and efficient airport operation we know passengers really value.

“The summer schedule is now underway, and we have already welcomed Turkish Airlines to the airport and seen the launch of new services to Paris and Malmo with easyJet and Ryanair respectively with more new routes to come later in the season.

“In addition, we have just successfully delivered a very busy Easter getaway for hundreds of thousands of passengers, and we see this strong demand continuing in the months ahead as we ramp up our preparations for the peak summer getaway."