STANSTED Airport has again been named the world’s best airport for low-cost airlines at the World Airport Awards.

For the third successive year, Stansted, now part of Manchester Airports Group (MAG), has topped a poll of passengers in the annual SKYTRAX airport customer survey, ahead of rivals Berlin Schonefeld and Luton.

The survey focused on all aspects of passenger journeys and captured the opinions of travellers of 108 different nationalities at 395 airports around the world.

Stansted Airport’s communications director, Will Parkes, who collected the award during a ceremony in Geneva, said: “It’s a fantastic achievement and a very proud moment for everyone at Stansted to be voted the world’s best airport for low-cost airlines for the third year in a row.

“It’s made all the more special as the award is decided by the people that matter the most in the aviation world and the users of airports across the globe – our passengers.”

He added: “Stansted is now beginning a new era as part of MAG and there are very ambitious plans to develop and improve the airport. This includes significant investment plans to re-vamp the award winning terminal and build on our past success and excellent operational track record.

“Stansted already serves around 150 destinations across Europe but the focus now is to grow passenger numbers and broaden the route network with our existing customers and by attracting new airlines to the airport.

“It’s fantastic to be once again recognised as a world-leading airport, but our determination is to make Stansted even better in the months and years ahead.”

Edward Plaisted of SKYTRAX, said: “We have seen an upturn in the number of nominations in the low-cost airport category in the 2013 survey, and London Stansted should be delighted with its consistent performance over the last three years.

“Demand for low-cost air travel continues to grow, as does the number of airports specifically targeting terminal facilities that cater for these passengers.

“From our survey results we can see that Stansted continues to lead other ‘low-cost’ airports by someway in the global results and is ranked amongst some of the larger airports in Europe and Asia.”