London Stansted handles record 19,477 tonnes of air cargo in February

March 13, 2018: London Stansted Airport handled 19,477 tonnes of air cargo throughput during February, witnessing a jump by 2.1 percent.

It was a busiest ever February for the airport, which received over 1.7 million passengers, an increase of 79,000 or 4.8 percent over the same month in 2017.

Popular countries where passengers hit the slopes includes France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria, while those headed for winter sun jetted off to the Canary Islands, Turkey and the Spanish mainland. Countries which reported the largest year-on-year growth were Denmark and the Czech Republic.

During the last 12-months, London Stansted received 26 million passengers, up by about 1.7 million over the previous year or 6.8 per cent. It was the highest annual passenger traffic recorded by the airport.

“We passed another significant milestone in passenger traffic, which is a clear indication of our continuing success in growing our route network, and offering more choice to passengers from London and the East of England,” said Ken O'Toole, CEO, London Stansted Airport.

“We expect Stansted to be the fastest growing airport in the UK this year, with plans to launch new long-haul services to Dubai, USA and Canada in the coming months in addition to our continued growth from our existing airlines. It’s vital for us to plan ahead to meet this growing demand for airline services in the most responsible and sustainable way,” said Toole.

“We recently submitted a plan to seek permission to grow the number of passengers we serve by an additional eight million every year, by adhering to noise approvals. This is crucial in supporting international connectivity over the next decade as Stansted is the only London airport with significant available runway capacity,” he said.

“We are focused on ensuring our facilities and service levels keep pace with the growing passenger numbers to provide the best airport experience. As part of our £600 million investment programme we are now in the process of identifying the contractors to build our new £130 million arrivals terminal, in addition to the £200 million revamp of our existing terminal building,” said Toole.