London Stansted Airport passenger revival sparks fresh calls to scrap tourist tax
London Stansted airport has beaten pre-pandemic passenger levels for the third month running, sparking fresh City calls to scrap the so-called ‘tourist tax’ and lure in even more overseas visitors.
The hub welcomed more than 2.6m passengers in September, up 10 per cent year-on-year and taking its 12 month total to 27.3m – an increase of nearly a third on the previous year’s total.
Soaring demand at Stansted, which became the first major UK airport to report a return to pre-pandemic levels in September, prompted renewed calls from business today to restore VAT-free shopping for overseas visitors and make the most of the bumper traffic.
Responding to Stansted’s growth, Muniya Barua, deputy chief executive at BusinessLDN, said that restoring VAT-free shopping for international visitors would “encourage even more overseas tourists to visit the UK and boost the economy.”
“London is a gateway for tourism across the UK so it is very positive that London Stansted, alongside the capital’s other airports, are seeing such strong growth in passenger numbers.”
Rishi Sunak axed the discount in 2021, which had let international shoppers claim 20 per cent back with their purchases.
A cluster of prominent business groups and senior figures in aviation have campaigned for the government to reverse the decision, as wealthy tourists increasingly opt to spend their cash in central European hotspots instead.
Gareth Powell, London Stansted’s managing director, said “demand for flights remained very high, not only from passengers across our catchment area but also from overseas visitors looking for affordable and convenient access to the UK, and London in particular.”
“Stansted is the second busiest airport for visitors to London thanks to our extensive European route network that provides passengers from many regions across countries such as Spain, Italy and France with unique access to the UK, and avoiding the need to travel to main city airports to then fly to London.”
Stansted Airport is renowned for its direct flights to Europe and the top three most popular countries across this month were Istanbul, Dublin and Palma De Mallorca.
The hub said operational performance “remained strong,” with 99 per cent of passengers passing through security in 15 minutes less and an average queu time of less than four minutes.