Major UK airport’s plans for millions more passengers ahead of £1.1bn expansion – with new flights to Europe this year
ONE of the UK’s busiest airports has revealed plans for millions more passengers a year.
London Stansted Airport is currently undergoing a major £1.1billion expansion.
And the airport is now seeking approval for an expansion that would allow up to 51million passengers a year by 2040.
The airport capacity currently allows around 47million passengers.
If given the go-ahead, it would make the airport the third busiest in the UK, behind London Heathrow and London Gatwick.
The expansion plans so not include an additional runway, unlike Heathrow and Gatwick, due to the lack of surrounding space.
And the current limit of 274,000 flights a year won’t be increased either.
However, improvements made to the train services as well as road access would be improved.
The airport’s Managing Director Gareth Powell said: “We have an exciting and ambitious vision for London Stansted and how we best serve our region.
“We have already kicked off our five-year £1.2 billion investment programme to transform the airport, and if this application is approved, we will be able to unlock even more local opportunities and improvements over the next 20 years.”
Last year, Stansted handled nearly 30million passengers – a record for the airport.
The airport offers flights to more than 200 destinations including long-haul flights to Dubai and Barbados.
New routes this year including Ryanair’s flights to Reggio Calabria as well as TUI‘s Enfidha this summer.
And Royal Air Maroc’s new flights to Casablanca start this month.
London Stansted’s £1.1billion expansion includes an extended main terminal, as well as a bigger security hall and gate rooms.
Works have already started and hope to be complete within three years.
All of London’s airports have revealed huge expansion plans in the next decade.
London Heathrow is campaigning for a third runway, which would increase the current 80million passenger capacity to 140million a year.
London Gatwick wants to convert its second runway to welcome larger passenger aircraft, increasing capacity from 55million to 75million.
Top 15 busiest airports in the UK
Here are the 15 busiest airports in the UK by passenger numbers in 2023
- London Heathrow – 79.2 million
- London Gatwick – 40.9 million
- Manchester – 28.1 million
- London Stansted – 28.0 million
- London Luton – 16.4 million
- Edinburgh – 14.4 million
- Birmingham – 11.5 million
- Bristol – 9.9 million
- Glasgow – 7.4 million
- Belfast International – 6.0 million
- Newcastle – 4.8 million
- Liverpool – 4.2 million
- Leeds Bradford – 4.0 million
- East Midlands – 3.9 million
- London City – 3.4 million
And London Luton has plans to increase capacity from 19million passengers to 32milllion passengers.
Here’s everything you need to know about Manchester Airport’s massive expansion as well.