Record passenger numbers at London Stansted Airport
Host of new airline announcements top off strong month
Busiest October ever at London Stansted
1.7 million passengers added in last 12 months
New flights to Toronto, New York JFK, Athens, Corsica and Belfast announced
The half-term holidays and the final weeks of the airlines’ summer timetable boosted passenger traffic at London Stansted as a record number of people took to the skies during October.
The airport rounded-off the summer flying schedule by achieving its busiest ever October as over 2.3 million passengers passed through the terminal during the month, up by nearly 160,000 and 7.3% on last year. The total number of passengers passing through the airport in the 12 months to October 2017 rose to over 25.8 million passengers, up 7.1% and an increase of 1.7 million passengers over the previous year.
In the last month, the airport has announced a host of new destinations and airlines to add to its 190-strong route network including Primera Air flying three times a week to Toronto from April 2018, Air Corsica and Mediterranean Air launching brand new services to the UK and WOW air adding a connection to New York JFK (via Reykjavik). Ryanair and jet2.com also announced new services for summer and winter seasons next year.
Cargo volumes during October were up 3.0% on last year with more than 23,000 tonnes of goods passing through the airport’s cargo facility. The annual total increased by 3.8% to over 260,000 tonnes.
October this year was the busiest on record for the month with demand boosted by a strong performance during the final weeks of the summer schedule and an increase in the number of people heading overseas for half-term.
Since MAG acquired the airport in 2013, we have now welcomed over 100 million passengers, a fantastic achievement and a clear reflection of the demand that exists across our region for convenient and affordable flight options and the growing choice of destinations on offer at Stansted.
In the past few weeks we have seen a host of new route announcements and launches, including a third transatlantic route from Primera Air to Toronto and WOW air adding a connection via Reykjavik to New York JFK. This is in addition to new services from Air Corsica, Mediterranean Air (Athens) and Ryanair (Belfast) plus Jet2.com and Jet2holidays confirming it will operate an expanded winter programme from Stansted in 2018/19.
Looking to the future, we expect to see continued strong growth at Stansted as we increase the number of airlines and destinations we serve.
