Record-breaking October ends successful summer season for London Stansted Airport
The main terminal building at Stansted. Picture: STANSTED AIRPORT - Credit: stansted
London Stansted has completed a record-breaking summer season by reporting its busiest-ever October.
Primera Air is to launch scheduled transatlantic services from Stansted Airport. Picture: PRIMERA - Credit: Archant
Nearly 2.329m passengers passed through the airport last month, up by nearly 160,000 or 7.3% compared with October 2016.
It takes the rolling annual passenger total at Stansted to nearly 25.834m, an increase of 7.1% on the previous 12 months and representing an additional 1.7m passengers.
The figures, covering the final weeks of airlines’ summer schedules and the school half-term holidays, mean that more than 100m passengers have now passed through Stansted since it was acquired by Manchester Airports Group (MAG) in 2013.
And the airport is well set for further growth next year with a number of additional routes also having been announced by airlines in recent weeks, including direct flights to Toronto, Athens, Corsica and Belfast and a service to New York JFK via Iceland.
Martin Jones, commercial director at Stansted Airport. Picture: Stansted Airport - Credit: Archant
London Stansted’s commercial director, Martin Jones, said: “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 100m 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.
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“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 and Ryanair 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.”
Cargo volumes at Stansted also grew last month, with the tonnage of 23,153 representing an increase of 3.4% compared with October 2016 and the rolling annual total of 260,752 tonnes being 3.8% up on the previous 12 months.
