Stansted Airport is poised to add another new route, as January got off to a flying start with a record breaking 1.9m passengers.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) will launch a route between Copenhagen and Stansted on April 8, with a five days per week operation increasing to daily flights in the summer season.

An additional 131,000 passengers used Stansted last month compared to January 2018, with the uplift primarily driven by increased demand on routes to Italy, the UAE, Spain, Portugal and within the UK.

Stansted Airport CEO, Ken O’Toole, said: “Following London Stansted’s busiest ever year in 2018, a year in which the airport entered the top 25 busiest airports in Europe, the new year has kicked-off in similar vein with a record number of passengers passing through the terminal in January.

“This is a really encouraging start to what will be a transformational year for Stansted. In the last few weeks we announced the appointment of Mace as the lead contractor for the new £150 million arrivals building, the centrepiece of our £600 million investment project, and work is well underway to deliver the next phase of additional check-in desks in the main terminal.”

Mr O’Toole added that Stansted is also in “positive and on-going discussions” with a number of airlines to secure more long-haul services, including flights to key markets across China, India and the USA.